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U.S. urges states not to allow general use of self-driving cars

detroitnews.com

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Re: U.S. urges states not to allow general use of self-driving cars

#11

Post by GuiA »

rayiner wrote: post #6
w1ntermute wrote: post #2

I can imagine that there will be a very bloody political fight over self-driving vehicles as they become more mainstream, particularly when it comes to taxis and trucks, because of the vested interests of professional drivers.

Why do people on HN always jump to "vested interests?" The NHTSA is conducting a study to determine whether a new kind of vehicle should be allowed on public roads. This is the prudent course of action, whether or not anyone stands to benefit from it. I worked at a company that does what you'd call today whitespace wireless technologies. I remember when I was young and naive, my reaction was: "why doesn't the FCC jus…

> Why do people on HN always jump to "vested interests?"

Because, while I fully agree with the rest of your post, it'd be equally as naive to think that those processes are NOT influenced by people with "vested interests".

Re: U.S. urges states not to allow general use of self-driving cars

#12

Post by w1ntermute »

rayiner wrote: post #6
w1ntermute wrote: post #2

I can imagine that there will be a very bloody political fight over self-driving vehicles as they become more mainstream, particularly when it comes to taxis and trucks, because of the vested interests of professional drivers.

Why do people on HN always jump to "vested interests?" The NHTSA is conducting a study to determine whether a new kind of vehicle should be allowed on public roads. This is the prudent course of action, whether or not anyone stands to benefit from it. I worked at a company that does what you'd call today whitespace wireless technologies. I remember when I was young and naive, my reaction was: "why doesn't the FCC jus…

> Why do people on HN always jump to "vested interests?" The NHTSA is conducting a study to determine whether a new kind of vehicle should be allowed on public roads. This is the prudent course of action, whether or not anyone stands to benefit from it.

Why do people on HN always make assumptions about other people's comments? I wasn't criticizing this particular NHTSA study, I was just saying that there will likely be a bloody political fight over allowing a technology that will take away a lot of blue collar jobs that can't be outsourced.

Re: U.S. urges states not to allow general use of self-driving cars

#13

Post by [deleted] »

steven777400 wrote: post #5

Reading the article, this doesn't strike me as inappropriate. "Self-driving vehicle technology is not yet at the stage of sophistication or demonstrated safety capability that it should be authorized for use by members of the public for general driving purposes" is probably true. The cars are good at what they do, but that doesn't mean they can handle all sorts of bizarre detour, road construction, rural roads, faded…

[deleted]

Re: U.S. urges states not to allow general use of self-driving cars

#14

Post by bloaf »

It sounds like the regulators think that manufacturers are eager to sell unsafe self-driving cars to consumers. I highly doubt that is the case. Bad press and reactionary legislation early on in the life of self-driving cars could significantly slow their adoption and therefore manufacturers profits.

Re: U.S. urges states not to allow general use of self-driving cars

#15

Post by youngerdryas »

Industry standard is to drive 10mph over the speed limit so unless self-driving cars are allowed to break the law they may make traffic even worse. Maybe they would be good for drunk drivers and emergencies but I can barely stand letting my wife drive so self-driving cars may be too agitating for me.

Re: U.S. urges states not to allow general use of self-driving cars

#16

Post by [deleted] »

GuiA wrote: post #11
rayiner wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do people on HN always jump to "vested interests?" The NHTSA is conducting a study to determine whether a new kind of vehicle should be allowed on public roads. This is the prudent course of action, whether or not anyone stands to benefit from it. I worked at a company that does what you'd call today whitespace wireless technologies. I remember when I was young and naive, my reaction was: "why doesn't the FCC jus…

> Why do people on HN always jump to "vested interests?" Because, while I fully agree with the rest of your post, it'd be equally as naive to think that those processes are NOT influenced by people with "vested interests".

[deleted]

Re: U.S. urges states not to allow general use of self-driving cars

#17

Post by Goronmon »

maeon3 wrote: post #9

Also, driving in the snow and ice safety is about 3 orders of magnitude more difficult to do than driving on dry pavement. There also needs to be an indicator: "It's snowing, please wait until the road is warm and dry, or have the carbon unit take over". But that's no good, we have to get to where we are going, so tens of thousands of people, who havn't been practicing driving AT ALL for about 8 months now dust off t…

Automated vehicles also potentially means automated plowing/sanding vehicles. Roombas for the roads basically.

Re: U.S. urges states not to allow general use of self-driving cars

#18

Post by thesash »

I'd like to see the data that the NHTSA used to conclude that the risk of a malfunction is higher than the risk of human error. Millions of crashes each year result in tens of thousands of deaths [1]. Humans drive while tired, drunk, or simply distracted, and of course, tend to have slower reflexes than computers.

Even if the technology isn't ready for mainstream adoption today, I bet we'll look back in horror at the period in our history during which humans careened unaided down highways at breakneck speeds, certified in their driving ability by nothing more than a test easily passed by your average teenager.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_in...

Re: U.S. urges states not to allow general use of self-driving cars

#19

Post by 6d0debc071 »

BorgHunter wrote: post #4
w1ntermute wrote: post #2

I can imagine that there will be a very bloody political fight over self-driving vehicles as they become more mainstream, particularly when it comes to taxis and trucks, because of the vested interests of professional drivers.

There will be two big, competing points regarding automated vehicles in the public eye: * Automated vehicles can save a lot of people a lot of money, save lives, and completely transform the way transportation operates (and perhaps even how cities and suburbs look. See, for example, the vast swaths of parking lots in much of the United States, and think how utterly unnecessary they'll be in a world of fully autonomou…

> See, for example, the vast swaths of parking lots in much of the United States, and think how utterly unnecessary they'll be in a world of fully autonomous vehicles.

I don't know that it would make that much difference. Most people want to drive at the same time to get to work and few people seem likely to want to have their car do an extra commute so that it can park up at home. Couple that with the fact that a car tends to be a personal space - and you'd be giving that up if you started having to share (even if you were the only person re-using a hired vehicle)....

I just picture people using self-driving cars in more or less the way they use their normal car.

Re: U.S. urges states not to allow general use of self-driving cars

#20

Post by rayiner »

w1ntermute wrote: post #12
rayiner wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do people on HN always jump to "vested interests?" The NHTSA is conducting a study to determine whether a new kind of vehicle should be allowed on public roads. This is the prudent course of action, whether or not anyone stands to benefit from it. I worked at a company that does what you'd call today whitespace wireless technologies. I remember when I was young and naive, my reaction was: "why doesn't the FCC jus…

> Why do people on HN always jump to "vested interests?" The NHTSA is conducting a study to determine whether a new kind of vehicle should be allowed on public roads. This is the prudent course of action, whether or not anyone stands to benefit from it. Why do people on HN always make assumptions about other people's comments? I wasn't criticizing this particular NHTSA study, I was just saying that there will likely…

Sorry, I didn't mean to put words in your mouth. I was more using your post as a jumping-off point for my rant.
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