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Given that they're capped at 25 mph, these are legally "low-speed vehicles", not cars, which means they're way less regulated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-speed_vehicle
I think, too, that there's a logical disconnect between "we focused on learning, not luxury", and "we want to hear about what you want in a vehicle where you sit back and enjoy the ride" (probably, to most, -not- a dearth of comforts).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wouldn't compare it to buses, I'd compare it to taxis combined with zipcar. Buses don't have the destination/pickup resolution that a small 2-4 seat vehicle has.
Buses don't need to be on fixed route. In Helsinki some buses are using dynamic routing based on demand. So basically those are shared taxis with drivers. When the driver can be dropped out of the equation service can be cheaper and there can be a lot more of these vehicles. https://kutsuplus.fi/home
I don't think the google car will replace mass transit like busses, trains and trams. They're a far more blunt instrument. I do however see it as a more flexible hybrid of car sharing and taxis. A taxi fleet that doesn't have the overhead of keeping enough drivers active for small demand spikes and can be sent directly to the user.
Edit: Weird, was not showing up in English on my phone, does on my laptop.
This will eventually make non-automated driving sort of like a manual transmission (in North America) - something you get because you either specifically want one or because it's all you can afford (I'm probably way over-generalizing). Eventually, just like the automatic transmission, the self-driving car will be the default for most people. I don't imagine that we'll get away from people who drive because they find…
I can see that there will be a rapid change in social attitudes, once automated driving reaches the point where it is generally accepted to kill/maim fewer people than automated driving.
Think back 30 years, when it was socially acceptable to light up cigarettes around small children. Now it is socially unacceptable to do so, to the point that it is illegal in many jurisdictions. Where I live, it is illegal to smoke in the vicinity of a school, within 10 metres of a playground or in a car with a child under 16 years [1].
Once a tipping point is reached, where manual driving is widely accepted to be more dangerous that automated driving, manual driving will quickly be banned in the vicinity of schools. There will be resistance and arguments from manual driving aficionados. Eventually, public manual driving will be confined to either remote areas or purpose built facilities, just as public smoking is restricted to open-areas and smoking rooms.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_smoking_bans_in_Austral...
It's so cute! Look at it! It's even got a happy face! It's totally not a life-threatening robot of doom! And it promotes family talking time! Just like fast food restaurants in recent episodes of Mad Men! Sorry. It really is a slick ad for a neat product, I just can't resist noticing how they position it.
It seems like a mistake to remove manual controls entirely, not necessarily because of safety concerns, but because there are a fair number of times when you need the car to go somewhere without having a route. I'm thinking of things like: Moving your car ten feet so somebody else can get out of the driveway; handling double parking during alternate side parking hours; moving the car because you were waiting to pick…
I think the eventual goal will be that most cars will be self-driving and that will negate most of those problems. I imagine that the vision of the future is a giant car-sharing program made up of self-driving cars all coordinated by Google. Think about it - you fire up an app to request a car, one appears at your door within a couple of minutes, takes you to work, then disappears. After work, a different car picks y…
1. That's a lot of pollution. 2. You have twice as much traffic, since these cars need to come to your house every morning, and drive back to their charging station in the evening. They can take those trips off-peak hours, but you still have a lot more cars on the road. They could stay at your house overnight to save on wasting energy, but at that point you're just owning a car, or renting one full-time. 3. Do many people take a taxi to and from work daily? No, and this is quite similar. It's too expensive, people take public transportation, or buy a cheap vehicle (this could be that vehicle).
This is a replacement for the taxi, and for car rentals. If you live in a city and need to rent a car for a day, this would be a great situation. You don't even need a driver's license, so you just push a button, car appears, and you're taking it to your destination. I've lived in a dozen different cities, and this is something I'd use. I don't rent cars often because it's kind of a hassle, a little scary driving in a new city, and a little annoying searching for parking, but the convenience of pushing a button would encourage me to use it for certain trips. It should also be slightly cheaper than a taxi since you're not paying or tipping a driver.
They could probably get creative and offer monthly plans, where you get up to X trips, and Y kilometers, for a slightly better rate than renting on a per trip basis.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's always nice to have an actual mechanical linkage to the steering and motion, if the electronics had issues it could just as well affect the BT link from the phone or controller. I'm not familiar enough with all makes and models out today and perhaps there are plenty of examples where wheels are already just "controllers".
The technical term you're looking for is "drive by wire" and it actually only came onto the market in the last year on the Infinity Q50.
This will eventually make non-automated driving sort of like a manual transmission (in North America) - something you get because you either specifically want one or because it's all you can afford (I'm probably way over-generalizing). Eventually, just like the automatic transmission, the self-driving car will be the default for most people. I don't imagine that we'll get away from people who drive because they find…
> I don't imagine that we'll get away from people who drive because they find it enjoyable any time soon. I can see that there will be a rapid change in social attitudes, once automated driving reaches the point where it is generally accepted to kill/maim fewer people than automated driving. Think back 30 years, when it was socially acceptable to light up cigarettes around small children. Now it is socially unaccepta…
Edit: On reading other comments, I'd extend the analogy to smoking (and other activities that carry a public risk) by pointing out that there will be a financial penalty for choosing to drive oneself. Just as smoking is a risk factor that increases health/life insurance premiums, manual driving will also be a factor in calculating insurance premiums.
I feel as though they really havent embraced the driverless concept with their prototype. Why have seats that are fixed and facing forward? What about a couch? Why is there a dash? The people in the video are essentially watching the car drive itself, when they could be doing anything else. There are probably a multitude of reasons why the things above are the way they are. However, the prototype seems like just anot…
>Why have seats that are fixed and facing forward? Seats facing forward means that acceleration pushes you backward into your seat. Any other direction would increase motion sickness. And what would be the advantage of the seats facing a different way? >What about a couch? The seats do look like a couch to me...
http://www.airspacemag.com/need-to-know/are-aft-facing-airpl...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why buy a self driving car when you could rent one as needed?
I used public transit, taxis and car sharing services exclusively until I started a family. At which point setting up the carseat every time became prohibitively cumbersome and I bought my own car. Children's car seats are very personal in terms of size and configuration and are required by law. I think things like that will make people want their own self driving car. You want the one that fits your wife and two kid…
I can't believe I didn't realize this earlier: When you have nothing in front of you, there's no need for an airbag!