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Self-driving cars projected to reduce injuries by 90%, save $450B annually

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Re: Self-driving cars projected to reduce injuries by 90%, save $450B annually

#21

Post by TIJ »

grogenaut wrote: post #13
TIJ wrote: post #5

I am closely following the development of self driving cars specially at google and i can assure everyone of its sophistication that it's the best driver you can get for your car. I know you all would be aware of the fact but i want to take this opportunity to state that is has covered thousands of miles without a single accident isn't that an extraordinary achievement for a car without a driver(but a computer instea…

so in all of those thousands of miles no one has rear ended the cars? Also call me when they get to tens of millions of miles, eg what's driven every day in the US.

It's still in the testing phase sir... and i am not sure what you expect when you question no has rear ended the cars??? you want a mile by mile report from google isn't it too much to ask for from a company which is just testing its new product focusing on making it a more safe car to use. you want them to maintain a driving book for this i don't wanna go on with this... let hope they manage to make a really nice and safe car in the end.

Re: Self-driving cars projected to reduce injuries by 90%, save $450B annually

#22

Post by drewrv »

mmanfrin wrote: post #2

I am really excited for the possible future of self-driving electric taxis. All the pieces kind of fit together: you can use an app to dispatch and gauge number of fleet vehicles to put out (Google just bought a huge stake in Uber), self-driving cabs can return themselves for a recharge when low on batter and another vehicle can replace it instantly, the amount of cars on the road can scale with demand fluidly. There…

They will be a ton cheaper too. Lower fuel costs, maintenance costs, and labor costs. The three most expensive costs associated with operating a taxi will be lowered significantly.

Re: Self-driving cars projected to reduce injuries by 90%, save $450B annually

#23

Post by dman »

nick007 wrote: post #18
sker wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They'll have to fight the insurance companies. Insurance companies will probably love to be collecting rent on every vehicle while having to cover 90% less accidents.

Actually I think this will kill insurance companies too. They will see their business fall inline with the cost of accidents.

Someone will have to sell insurance to car manufacturers for the remaining 10 percent of accidents.

Re: Self-driving cars projected to reduce injuries by 90%, save $450B annually

#24

Post by objclxt »

nick007 wrote: post #18
sker wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They'll have to fight the insurance companies. Insurance companies will probably love to be collecting rent on every vehicle while having to cover 90% less accidents.

Actually I think this will kill insurance companies too. They will see their business fall inline with the cost of accidents.

I don't think that's necessarily true - insurance companies make money out of insuring far safer modes of transport than driving (like air travel). The liability merely shifts from the driver to the software developer. Whoever is providing the self-driving cars will need to have large amounts of indemnity insurance to cover potential losses.

Re: Self-driving cars projected to reduce injuries by 90%, save $450B annually

#25

Post by jpau »

grogenaut wrote: post #13
TIJ wrote: post #5

I am closely following the development of self driving cars specially at google and i can assure everyone of its sophistication that it's the best driver you can get for your car. I know you all would be aware of the fact but i want to take this opportunity to state that is has covered thousands of miles without a single accident isn't that an extraordinary achievement for a car without a driver(but a computer instea…

so in all of those thousands of miles no one has rear ended the cars? Also call me when they get to tens of millions of miles, eg what's driven every day in the US.

Quoth Wikpeida: "In August 2011, a human-controlled Google driverless car was involved in a crash near Google headquarters in Mountain View, CA. Google has stated that the car was being driven manually at the time of the accident. A previous incident involved a Google driverless car being rear-ended while stopped at a traffic light."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_driverless_car#Incidents

Re: Self-driving cars projected to reduce injuries by 90%, save $450B annually

#27

Post by zaroth »

TIJ wrote: post #5

I am closely following the development of self driving cars specially at google and i can assure everyone of its sophistication that it's the best driver you can get for your car. I know you all would be aware of the fact but i want to take this opportunity to state that is has covered thousands of miles without a single accident isn't that an extraordinary achievement for a car without a driver(but a computer instea…

Google self-driving cars have caused accidents, although Google claims the self-driving feature was off at the time.

I'm more concerned of what these cars will do to highway capacity and therefore traffic congestion due to the excessive lag/follow distance their algorithms impose. While they should be following at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRIOE1IZrq4) is sub-human follow times and it's apparently the only car on the road that's frequently pumping on the breaks (which consequently makes following cars increase their lag time as well).

I've also read that they won't exceed the speed limit, which is significantly more dangerous than driving with the flow of traffic. I hope it knows enough to move over when being overtaken from behind. If you're driving 65mph on I-280 between San Fran and San Jose with no traffic, you are the slowest car on the road by between 20-40mph. The road has long straightaways, often 1+ miles of visibility, well paved, and I'm often overtaken while going 90mph.

I expect that the experience of having to share the road with these devices, as they start to become more common, will transition from, "Gee that's cool" to something more like "Geez, get off the road Goorama!"

Re: Self-driving cars projected to reduce injuries by 90%, save $450B annually

#28

Post by pjbrunet »

grogenaut wrote: post #13
TIJ wrote: post #5

I am closely following the development of self driving cars specially at google and i can assure everyone of its sophistication that it's the best driver you can get for your car. I know you all would be aware of the fact but i want to take this opportunity to state that is has covered thousands of miles without a single accident isn't that an extraordinary achievement for a car without a driver(but a computer instea…

so in all of those thousands of miles no one has rear ended the cars? Also call me when they get to tens of millions of miles, eg what's driven every day in the US.

How about oil slick James Bond style?

Re: Self-driving cars projected to reduce injuries by 90%, save $450B annually

#29

Post by objclxt »

freyrs3 wrote: post #7
mistercow wrote: post #3

And perversely, if accidents happened one tenth as often, they'd become news, and people would think they were more common and dangerous than they do now. The question is whether we can get to a point of no return with self-driving cars before that effect takes hold.

I think most rational people would come to realize that even if the 1/10 of deaths are caused by computer errors then at least the problem can be fixed over time. With human error, there's not much you can do.

> if the 1/10 of deaths are caused by computer errors then at least the problem can be fixed over time.

This only follows through if you don't introduce new technology and innovations to your software (and thus new bugs), which isn't going to happen.

If you look at air travel, the number of fatal accidents occurring each decade since the 1950s has stayed around the same, even though we've significantly improved automated systems and reduced the potential for pilot error.

Re: Self-driving cars projected to reduce injuries by 90%, save $450B annually

#30

Post by Osiris »

It'll probably take at least 40-50 years before autonomous vehicles become the norm. The interesting thing will be what happens in the meantime, when there's a mix of autonomous and human driven vehicles.

Will the laws change to have 'autonomous only' lanes? Will they replace HOV lanes? Will autonomous vehicles be allowed to make maneuvers that human driven cars cannot in order to improve traffic flow, such as driving through red lights if determined safe?

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