I suspect that this kind of "risky" technology will be deployed first in more adventurous countries, like China.
Regulation, not technology is holding back driverless cars
31–40 of 150 posts
Re: Regulation, not technology is holding back driverless cars
#32My dad works in the airplane industry and had an interesting story to tell me that relates to this. (I'm not sure exactly how accurate it is or what the source is, sorry). Apparently, it is illegal for pilots to read while flying. Even if they are heading in a straight line with no one around for miles. This is because one time an pilot wasn't paying attention and due to a series of software failures, the plane turne…
"Londoners apparently do not feel comfortable being driven by a non-living thing." The Dockland Light Railway in London is driver-less, although there is a staff member on each train to operate the doors and check tickets: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docklands_Light_Railway
So does a French metro line and others :) .
But it's not the same - as one Frenchman put it: "it's like an elevator, only it goes horizontally instead of vertically".
That is not the case with driverless cars - not that I'm against them.
The use cases put forth in the article are quite compelling, but we still haven't been able to eradicate "elevator operators" ("ascensoristas") here in Uruguay, it will be far more difficult to remove drivers' unions !
Re: Regulation, not technology is holding back driverless cars
#33No surprises there. The transition to driverless cars is (IMHO inevitable. At some point it will be cheap enough that the additional cost will pale in comparison to the lives that will be saved as well as the simple convenience of being able to do something else while commuting somewhere. Likewise I see this kind of thing replacing many forms of public transportation. There will simply be a fleet of cars. You'll say…
I couldn't get past the (unclosed parenthese in the second sentence. It's like my inner programmer went into OCD overload...
Re: Regulation, not technology is holding back driverless cars
#34My dad works in the airplane industry and had an interesting story to tell me that relates to this. (I'm not sure exactly how accurate it is or what the source is, sorry). Apparently, it is illegal for pilots to read while flying. Even if they are heading in a straight line with no one around for miles. This is because one time an pilot wasn't paying attention and due to a series of software failures, the plane turne…
This argument (while good) won't apply to cars for simple economic reasons. Having a human pilot or subway driver costs 1 marginal person for hundreds of people. Having an extra driver per car costs 1 person per person. I will strongly bet that the two orders of magnitude difference in cost will overcome the bureaucracy.
Additionally, once cars become sufficiently advanced, it will be much cheaper to insure a self-driving car than to insure a human.
Once the change happens, it will be breathtaking how rapidly it occurs. Social stigmas are hard to sustain towards a large portion of the population. In 2000, if you were wearing a helmet skiing, you were crazy. Now, you're crazy not to. You used to be a loser if you were on a social network. Now you're a loser if you're not. Both these changes happened over perhaps one to three years. Critical mass may only be ~5% of the population. You only need enough to avoid individuals being singled out as odd.
Re: Regulation, not technology is holding back driverless cars
#35We don't need driveless cars, we need carless people: http://www.carfree.com/
Given the looming energy crisis, the coming climate crisis, and the "peak everything" crisis, we'll get there sooner and later.
Re: Regulation, not technology is holding back driverless cars
#36My dad works in the airplane industry and had an interesting story to tell me that relates to this. (I'm not sure exactly how accurate it is or what the source is, sorry). Apparently, it is illegal for pilots to read while flying. Even if they are heading in a straight line with no one around for miles. This is because one time an pilot wasn't paying attention and due to a series of software failures, the plane turne…
I appreciate the rest of your comment, and I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "illegal" but if you mean "breaking an actual law" it is not "illegal" for a pilot in command of an aircraft "to read". Having said that, if you're doing something in the cockpit as pilot in command that doesn't pertain to piloting your aircraft, you're doing it wrong.
Autopilots are adjunct flight controls. They are not...the pilot in command.
Re: Regulation, not technology is holding back driverless cars
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
A friend at Union Switch and Signal told me that the Chinese subways (which can run full-auto) had to provide work for two people for each train. One guy presses a large "Go" button to leave the station, which is automatically stopped at, and there's also an emergency stop button. The other guy has an "open / close door" control.
In Chicago, there was a case some years ago where a woman was pulled under a train by a door. She was carrying a very expensive violin. She got off the train and the doors closed between her and the violin, with the strap around her shoulder. Because the strap was thin, it didn't activate the door's obstruction detector. Because the violin was so expensive, she didn't want to lose it, so instead of crawling out of th…
The Skytrain system in Vancouver is all automated. I don't recall if it's had any accidents, but I've never heard of any.
Re: Regulation, not technology is holding back driverless cars
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
People generally cite the lawsuit threat, but the threat cuts both ways. I've seen lawsuits for putatively malfunctioning anti-lock brakes, and I've seen lawsuits for not including anti-lock brakes. At some point, once it is reasonably well demonstrated that automated cars drive more safely than humans under some circumstances, someone is going to file a lawsuit for not having automated drivers. It's only a matter of…
Yup, I forsee the current seat belt system, where even in situations when it's advisable not to be wearing a seatbelt and/or the other mandated safety systems it's still illegal. The problem is a systemic one that stems from the belief that the gov't is the omnipresent nanny of its citizenry. Note: Before I get downvoted, I recognize that statistically seat belts save lives, however, there are conditions in which sea…
Given informed consent for seatbelts, what do you think the ratio would be between people who choose not to wear one because they have completely informed themselves from reliable sources and calculated that they're more likely to survive without one than with one, versus people who will just leave their seatbelt off because it's uncomfortable?
Re: Regulation, not technology is holding back driverless cars
#39No state has anything close to a functioning system to inspect whether the computers in driverless cars are in good working order, much as we routinely test emissions and brake lights. Having lived in Oregon, Arizona, and California, I have never had anything other than emissions routinely inspected. Demonstrate a car smart enough to monitor its own brake pad wear, alert on burnt out bulbs, and provide a clear readou…
> Demonstrate a car smart enough to monitor its own brake pad wear, alert on burnt out bulbs, and provide a clear readout of all detected issues (i.e. not a coded blinking service light, or plug interface) before you start trying to make it drive itself. I don't know about other cars, but all model Porsche's will do exactly this. Granted, it doesn't have as many sensors as I would like--leading to it only giving an '…
Same with the jaguar XJ since 1988. brake pads low is neat to see show up in the display. The XJ has more sensors so it gives more than just check engine.
Re: Regulation, not technology is holding back driverless cars
#40My dad works in the airplane industry and had an interesting story to tell me that relates to this. (I'm not sure exactly how accurate it is or what the source is, sorry). Apparently, it is illegal for pilots to read while flying. Even if they are heading in a straight line with no one around for miles. This is because one time an pilot wasn't paying attention and due to a series of software failures, the plane turne…
This argument (while good) won't apply to cars for simple economic reasons. Having a human pilot or subway driver costs 1 marginal person for hundreds of people. Having an extra driver per car costs 1 person per person. I will strongly bet that the two orders of magnitude difference in cost will overcome the bureaucracy. Additionally, once cars become sufficiently advanced, it will be much cheaper to insure a self-dr…
"Social stigmas are hard to sustain towards a large portion of the population."
Over 90% of Americans have used illegal drugs, and yet there is still a strong stigma there.
http://www.monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/monographs/vol2_2009...
(C.f. page 101, as well as the methodology.)