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Huge waste of money that could have been poured into public transport to actually solve our problems and improve our lives. What a tragedy.
We have our priorities all twisted.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I always imagined the future of self driving cars wouldn't lie in cities (except maybe some main ringroads or arterial roalds) but in highways. Just tell the computer to go to highway X exit Y, and from there the driver can drive the last few miles. Basically geofencing known 'sane' locations, which cuts down on the boring bits of driving significantly.
And then in those safe geofenced locations we could put down metal guide rails so that navigation is easier. And then use metal wheels with flanges to reduce rolling resistance. And then hook many cars together into one long vehicle. And ...
I've said it before, if you truly want to experience what a real life raod looks like in most of the World, just go to Eastern Europe and create the test models there.
And then there is India. Please come here if you want zero infra AND zero adherence to basic rules of driving AND the language and script changes every few hundred kilometers AND all roads have human and non-human users at all hours of the day.
Rather than assume this is a death knell for self-driving cars, a more pragmatic view would be other nations will be able to benefit from them while you are left behind. Self-driving cars don't need global saturation to be worthwhile.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Object detection is an issue, but it doesn't only apply to "moving" objects. The current state of the art is having trouble differentiating between a "solid" stationary object like a tire or chunk of metal that must be navigated around, and something like an empty plastic bag that can be safely ignored. Regarding infrastructure, AVs also seem to have a lot of trouble with faded lane lines on roads.
If you're relying only on cameras, then yes, that's an issue. Level 4 vehicles can locate themselves without the need for lines on the road. Everything has been carefully mapped out ahead of time.
That sounds sustainable and scalable to earth-size, for sure.
WHY is a fully autonomous vehicle even interesting to pursue, given that wheeled vehicles and their infrastructural requirements are such a large expense and social and environmental problem relative to the benefits provided? I mean, out of all the moonshots, why die on this particular hill? I consider an actual hyperloop to be a much more compelling vision for the future: those pneumatic tubes the banks use in subur…
Not to mention that the upside of self-driving cars is capped at the cost of an uber driver, and even in a world with ubiquitous fully autonomous cars you still want public transportation. Driver assistance on highways is probably the right 80/20 solution, at least for the foreseeable future.
An uber driver that can drive 24/7. Also there are a lot of cars that sit in parking lots 95% of the day that can be used.
So? Okay, we're not there yet with autonomous vehicles, and have spend tons of money on it. But the tech we have now didn't exist a decade ago. Give it another decade.
And perhaps we can design city centers to be car free.
Huge waste of money that could have been poured into public transport to actually solve our problems and improve our lives. What a tragedy.
Huge waste of money that could have been poured into public transport to actually solve our problems and improve our lives. What a tragedy.
Most of this research is funded in the US and the hyper individualistic Americans as a group don't believe in public transport.
I've said it before, if you truly want to experience what a real life raod looks like in most of the World, just go to Eastern Europe and create the test models there.
Huge waste of money that could have been poured into public transport to actually solve our problems and improve our lives. What a tragedy.