Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google's Autonomous cars complete 300,000 miles without an accident

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 269 posts

Re: Google's Autonomous cars complete 300,000 miles without an accident

#81

Post by eblume »

jacobquick wrote: post #50
iskander wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know much about this google project. Can autonomous cars (i) drive on the highway (ii) drive at night (iii) drive in snow or rain?

I thought they were limited to driving on the highway in the empty parts of nevada?

I drove behind one yesterday as it returned to Google HQ in Mountain View. It was pretty exciting. It was also rush hour, and people didn't like that it tried so hard to give a safe amount of space in front and behind itself - it ended up being a little bubble of lane-changing space that moved slower than the rest of traffic.

Not that I hold any of this against the car - it was clearly doing the intelligent thing. But people... we are animals.

Re: Google's Autonomous cars complete 300,000 miles without an accident

#82

Post by ericd »

tedunangst wrote: post #77
ceejayoz wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife sees a neurosurgeon who's an eight hour round trip away. I've driven her there and back at least six times this year. With a Google car, I'd a) be able to send her by herself and b) even if I had to come, I could work on the way, meaning I'd have more than a week's worth of vacation/sick time restored. Yes, I'd happily accept ads.

You could also hire a limo. I suppose in the future you'll be able to rent a google car for a day, but you don't have to wait for self-driving cars. They're here today, the self just happens to be a human.

That's not really reasonably cost effective for most people.

Re: Google's Autonomous cars complete 300,000 miles without an accident

#83

Post by zitterbewegung »

nostromo wrote: post #32

Too bad it doesn't mention if this is better than a human or not. So, I decided to figure it out... 2.9 trillion miles driven in 2009 http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/tvtw/09dectvt/09dectvt.pdf 10.8 million traffic accidents in 2009 http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s1103.p... If my math is correct the average american can expect to get in an accident every ~250,000 miles driven, (NYC to LA 90 times) s…

Only problem is sample size really. We need 2.9 trillion miles on Google cars with x accidents then.

Re: Google's Autonomous cars complete 300,000 miles without an accident

#84

Post by ShabbyDoo »

arrrg wrote: post #53
nostromo wrote: post #32

Too bad it doesn't mention if this is better than a human or not. So, I decided to figure it out... 2.9 trillion miles driven in 2009 http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/tvtw/09dectvt/09dectvt.pdf 10.8 million traffic accidents in 2009 http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s1103.p... If my math is correct the average american can expect to get in an accident every ~250,000 miles driven, (NYC to LA 90 times) s…

What I’m interested in is whether they counted hypothetical accidents. As far as I know, there always has to be someone in the driver’s seat, ready to step in at any time. How often did that person have to step in? Now that would be an interesting metric, especially when plotted over time. As is, it should be pretty unlikely for the autonomous cars to cause accidents, even if they were much less reliable than human d…

Agree. Did humans step-in when they noted conditions which they believed the car unable to handle and perhaps prevent the majority of likely accidents?

Re: Google's Autonomous cars complete 300,000 miles without an accident

#85

Post by jlgreco »

snewman wrote: post #46
fghh45sdfhr3 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how much of car sickness is thanks to the driver. And if a good enough software could drive without causing car sickness?

Car sickness tends to happen when you're focusing on the interior of the car. That's what leads to the disconnect between your visual field and your mechanical sense of motion. I expect this is the main reason that drivers are rarely affected -- they're always looking out the window (more or less), so their visual sense of motion remains aligned with their other senses.

In my personal experience, car sickness is caused by high jerk (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerk_%28physics%29), primarily during deceleration. (This is also commonly known as "bad driving".) I imagine this is something that self-driving cars won't have a problem with.

Re: Google's Autonomous cars complete 300,000 miles without an accident

#86

Post by Jimbotron »

paganel wrote: post #59
andrewljohnson wrote: post #25

Autonomous cars are the next big tech that changes the world - I put them up there with computer, Internet, and smart phone. When economists think about technology, they look at it as a productivity booster. From that angle, robot cars will have a huge impact - so many commute hours will be transformed to work, or even leisure, which also boosts productivity. So many smart people are about to be given a 10% or better…

> Autonomous cars are the next big tech that changes the world - I put them up there with computer, Internet, and smart phone. I wouldn't be so sure. Yeah, it might prove to be a very good thing for the United States, but for the rest of world there's first Europe's public transport networks (I'm 31, don't have a driver's license, I live in Europe, I'm doing perfectly fine, thank you), and short of us reaching the Si…

I'll tell google to stop work because it doesn't help with your daily commute :-)

Re: Google's Autonomous cars complete 300,000 miles without an accident

#87

Post by rondon1 »

You will not know how safe they are until accidents happen. I would love to see someone with money run an experiment with real drivers vs google cars. Create a worst case scenario course with simulated drunk drivers, blown tires, missing stop signs, etc.. and run this with real and fake drivers. I suspect the average driver would crash 10% of the time, autonomous car would crash 1% of the time, and a professional driver would crash never.

The real safety improvements will come when all cars are autonomous and they talk to each other.

Re: Google's Autonomous cars complete 300,000 miles without an accident

#88

Post by ShabbyDoo »

zitterbewegung wrote: post #83
nostromo wrote: post #32

Too bad it doesn't mention if this is better than a human or not. So, I decided to figure it out... 2.9 trillion miles driven in 2009 http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/tvtw/09dectvt/09dectvt.pdf 10.8 million traffic accidents in 2009 http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s1103.p... If my math is correct the average american can expect to get in an accident every ~250,000 miles driven, (NYC to LA 90 times) s…

Only problem is sample size really. We need 2.9 trillion miles on Google cars with x accidents then.

If the Google Car had gotten into 100 accidents over 300 miles, we easily could claim it much worse than most drivers. However, as with most rare events...

Re: Google's Autonomous cars complete 300,000 miles without an accident

#89

Post by joshlegs »

Now just imagine putting in an address into the GPS and not missing any turns on the way there cuz your computer-car does everything for you.

Now also imagine if that address isn't up-to-date (I found it on the web!), or there is some other problem with the address.

Re: Google's Autonomous cars complete 300,000 miles without an accident

#90

Post by roblev »

paganel wrote: post #59
andrewljohnson wrote: post #25

Autonomous cars are the next big tech that changes the world - I put them up there with computer, Internet, and smart phone. When economists think about technology, they look at it as a productivity booster. From that angle, robot cars will have a huge impact - so many commute hours will be transformed to work, or even leisure, which also boosts productivity. So many smart people are about to be given a 10% or better…

> Autonomous cars are the next big tech that changes the world - I put them up there with computer, Internet, and smart phone. I wouldn't be so sure. Yeah, it might prove to be a very good thing for the United States, but for the rest of world there's first Europe's public transport networks (I'm 31, don't have a driver's license, I live in Europe, I'm doing perfectly fine, thank you), and short of us reaching the Si…

Not having to own a car opens up more options

Want a big car for a family trip? Just order one and it turns up where you are, ready to take you where you want to go.

A sleeper car for two? A flash sports car for the afternoon? A van for the day?

Pay-as-you-go personal transport from anywhere to anywhere where you can still be productive during the journey... Sounds pretty revolutionary to me.

Post reply on HN