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Google demos driverless cars

engadget.com

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Re: Google demos driverless cars

#11

Post by joshu »

endtime wrote: post #6

Tight turns look cool, but they're not especially useful. When they can demonstrate robust resilience to pedestrians, consistently don't think a bird or pebble flying in front of the car is another car, etc., then we'll have something to celebrate. I'm not saying they're not a lot of the way there already - they probably are - I'm just saying that that's the demo video that would be really exciting.

So, I took a test drive in one of these today.

They can do the hard stuff but the tight turns make for a more interesting demo.

I will try to post a video later.

Re: Google demos driverless cars

#12

Post by mdonahoe »

Unless all cars are driven by machine, the driverless car won't make a huge difference in our lives. You can already experience the magic of not having to drive by paying someone else to do it for you.

The real gains of automation occur when a machine doing the job can do it faster than a human. Computers calculate and communicate faster than people, and factories/robots build stuff faster. A machine driving a car has to obey the rules of the road and react to other human drivers. This puts a hard limit on their potential.

Now once all cars are driven by machine, we will see amazing changes. No traffic lights for starters.

Re: Google demos driverless cars

#13

Post by mdonahoe »

mdonahoe wrote: post #12

Unless all cars are driven by machine, the driverless car won't make a huge difference in our lives. You can already experience the magic of not having to drive by paying someone else to do it for you. The real gains of automation occur when a machine doing the job can do it faster than a human. Computers calculate and communicate faster than people, and factories/robots build stuff faster. A machine driving a car ha…

It would be sweet to see a time where only a majority of the cars on the road are driven by machine. I imagine them driving in packs, and leaving lots of buffer space between them and the lone human driver.

Re: Google demos driverless cars

#14

Post by maeon3 »

Driverless cars are not going anywhere until they can prove themselves 20% superior than the average driver in ALL the following conditions:

Dealing with Rain (visibility and deep water on the road),

Hard to see tire eating potholes causing damage,

Ice and snow (on road and caking on instruments),

Snow accumulation ruts, causing car to move unexpectedly,

Evasive driving - cutting across a lawn, (avoiding the pool and coming to rest over the garden gnomes),

hurricane winds, hailstorms,

ambiguous and contradictory road signs,

unmarked roads,

interstate highway pileups,

white-out snow conditions.

I'm pretty sure your going to need pretty strong AI for all this to happen. By then we shouldn't be needing to go to work because everyone on earth can go on vacation and the machines will do everything that needs to be done. AND all this equipment has to be less expensive then hiring someone to drive around on your behalf.

Naysaying aside, self driving cars will cause a revolution in how cars are used, the concept of "owning a car" will disappear and then single passenger cars will fill the roads instead of 4 door seudans/SUV's.

Re: Google demos driverless cars

#15

Post by waterlesscloud »

mdonahoe wrote: post #12

Unless all cars are driven by machine, the driverless car won't make a huge difference in our lives. You can already experience the magic of not having to drive by paying someone else to do it for you. The real gains of automation occur when a machine doing the job can do it faster than a human. Computers calculate and communicate faster than people, and factories/robots build stuff faster. A machine driving a car ha…

Rush hour in major cities would be an entirely different experience with automated cars.

In my observation, the vast majority of congestion is caused by drivers either overcompensating for changes in conditions (ie slowing down even more than the car in front of you slowed down) or otherwise reacting slowly.

I believe highways could handle considerably more traffic if all the traffic were automated.

I think it's possible to see significant gains if only some of the cars were automated, actually.

Re: Google demos driverless cars

#16

Post by michaelbuckbee »

maeon3 wrote: post #14

Driverless cars are not going anywhere until they can prove themselves 20% superior than the average driver in ALL the following conditions: Dealing with Rain (visibility and deep water on the road), Hard to see tire eating potholes causing damage, Ice and snow (on road and caking on instruments), Snow accumulation ruts, causing car to move unexpectedly, Evasive driving - cutting across a lawn, (avoiding the pool and…

I think your 20% figure might be low, but that doesn't mean that we won't see specific applications for autonomous cars earlier.

Autonomy is going to creep into autos slowly, things like: anti-lock brakes, adaptive cruise control and collision avoidance are all small pieces of an "autonomous" automobile.

Re: Google demos driverless cars

#17

Post by boredguy8 »

mdonahoe wrote: post #12

Unless all cars are driven by machine, the driverless car won't make a huge difference in our lives. You can already experience the magic of not having to drive by paying someone else to do it for you. The real gains of automation occur when a machine doing the job can do it faster than a human. Computers calculate and communicate faster than people, and factories/robots build stuff faster. A machine driving a car ha…

This view seems deeply flawed. One of the upsides of public transportation is that I can read / sleep / work / talk with people with 0 distractions. The downside is that the commute is 3-5 times longer.

If I can get the shorter commute time of my car AND have the benefits of not having to pay attention, that's a huge gain even if my travel time isn't any faster.

Additionally, there are plenty of use cases that don't rely on interaction. Ideally, my car can drop me off at the door to the grocery store and go park itself and then come pick me up when I text it that I'm ready to go home.

Re: Google demos driverless cars

#18

Post by endtime »

joshu wrote: post #11
endtime wrote: post #6

Tight turns look cool, but they're not especially useful. When they can demonstrate robust resilience to pedestrians, consistently don't think a bird or pebble flying in front of the car is another car, etc., then we'll have something to celebrate. I'm not saying they're not a lot of the way there already - they probably are - I'm just saying that that's the demo video that would be really exciting.

So, I took a test drive in one of these today. They can do the hard stuff but the tight turns make for a more interesting demo. I will try to post a video later.

Awesome, thanks, please do.

Re: Google demos driverless cars

#19

Post by josh33 »

zitterbewegung wrote: post #8
staunch wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If tuned to a single track it should be completely unbeatable, right?

Not necessarily there might be latency concerns or even other unknown factors that would hinder it. Also what if its wet or other weather concerns? I don't work on the project so I wouldn't know what exactly would be involved.

I do! Oh wait, and then I woke up.

Re: Google demos driverless cars

#20

Post by alttab »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #15
mdonahoe wrote: post #12

Unless all cars are driven by machine, the driverless car won't make a huge difference in our lives. You can already experience the magic of not having to drive by paying someone else to do it for you. The real gains of automation occur when a machine doing the job can do it faster than a human. Computers calculate and communicate faster than people, and factories/robots build stuff faster. A machine driving a car ha…

Rush hour in major cities would be an entirely different experience with automated cars. In my observation, the vast majority of congestion is caused by drivers either overcompensating for changes in conditions (ie slowing down even more than the car in front of you slowed down) or otherwise reacting slowly. I believe highways could handle considerably more traffic if all the traffic were automated. I think it's poss…

I think it's possible to see significant gains if only some of the cars were automated, actually.

I've thought about this as well many times.

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