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Just press go: designing a self-driving vehicle

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Re: Just press go: designing a self-driving vehicle

#81

Post by mentat »

rquantz wrote: post #15

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…

How about something simple like telling the car, "back up 10 feet" or "move to the spot across the street". This is dead simple short range routes...

Re: Just press go: designing a self-driving vehicle

#82

Post by anigbrowl »

arjunnarayan wrote: post #68
eurleif wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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...

Rear facing seats are safest, since acceleration is not the biggest problem, rapid deceleration is. http://www.airspacemag.com/need-to-know/are-aft-facing-airpl...

Not when your top speed is 25mph. You're far more likely to get rear-ended than suffer a head-on collision.

Re: Just press go: designing a self-driving vehicle

#83

Post by SoftwareMaven »

c23gooey wrote: post #49

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…

People want to know where they are going. Very few, if any, people would be happy looking at where they've been. The dash is most likely two-fold: they have to cover up what's behind the dash and they need a place to put things like air bags. Finally, if I was designing this, I'd want it to feel enough like a car that people fully recognize all the ways it's not a normal car to increase their excitement about it. Just like they put a cartoon face on the front, complete with a nose: make people feel good about it.

Re: Just press go: designing a self-driving vehicle

#84

Post by gdas »

I'm thinking about this basic idea: We have, in this case, a machine that is doing the job that a human driver would do - A machine replacing a man.

My question is: Should we be happy about this? Or should we be sad?

This time, we have a machine replacing a driver. In the future we may have machines replacing teachers, doctors, carpenters, artists... even lovers and machine makers.

So, my question remains: Should we be happy? Or should we be sad?

Normally, in science fiction movies, when the machines become intelectually smarter than humans, they try to destroy humanity.

But if, in the real world, they just become smarter than us, and just replace us in every activity. Then, what would we do?

Re: Just press go: designing a self-driving vehicle

#85

Post by prawn »

User9812 wrote: post #65
Mister_Snuggles wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I can't see that working. You'll require a ton of cars taking individuals or small groups to and from work in a big city. That's not very efficient, and the reason we have a metro system in the first place. 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-pe…

1. Less pollution than what we have now given that many people spend time hunting for a park when they arrive, or drive five-seat vehicles even though they're alone or with 1-2 others. I read something saying that in a city centre, often 30% of traffic is simply people hunting for a park. I know when I arrive near my office, I can spend 5-10 minutes driving around trying to get an all-day park. Three times a week I'm driving an SUV that can seat five and has a large boot (passengers are my wife and toddler), the other days I'm in a five seat sedan (and solo).

2. I'd say that depots will be interspersed around the city and suburbs, for one thing. Cars might move from suburban depots over night to densely-arranged city parking/depots during the day, waiting for the evening rush. A car that dropped you at work after your run in from the South is then immediately free to take someone from the city centre down South again, or be available for a courier job, or a tourist leaving a city hotel for a day trip. The mesh of cars communicating will determine the most economical use of the vehicles and anticipate demand. Further, cars communicating with each other will mean that typical causes of congestion (like traffic lights) will be better handled and less of an issue.

3. Taxis are expensive partly because there are salaried humans driving them. If these are electric vehicles and solar charged, fuel and driver are largely out of the equation.

Re: Just press go: designing a self-driving vehicle

#86

Post by tantalor »

jonah wrote: post #66
emgeee wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Sure, Steer by wire is new. DBW generally refers to the connection between the accelerator pedal and the throttle. There, DBW has been the norm for many years.

Surely not the brake, though. Right? Right?

Edit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brake-by-wire

Re: Just press go: designing a self-driving vehicle

#87

Post by prawn »

twerquie wrote: post #54
doomlaser wrote: post #29

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 have a toddler, so I drive a car with a child seat.)

I think we'll get over that attachment to specific car seats and instead more versatile seats will come into play.

In the future, I imagine your car booking app will recognise your usual bookings (e.g., solo/couple, family with one toddler, moving cargo) and you will tap a preset to book whichever car you need.

If your partner and kid are heading to a family engagement, up rolls a car with a baby seat pre-fitted and cleaned. If you're needing to move something large, a van shows up.

Those that want a premium service, will book the platinum tier, either all the time or maybe just for date night.

Re: Just press go: designing a self-driving vehicle

#88

Post by threeseed »

mentat wrote: post #81
rquantz wrote: post #15

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…

How about something simple like telling the car, "back up 10 feet" or "move to the spot across the street". This is dead simple short range routes...

How does one "tell" the car what to do without controls ?

I hope you're not suggesting voice recognition because anything less than 100% accuracy will guarantee accidents and possibly deaths.

Re: Just press go: designing a self-driving vehicle

#89

Post by gramasaurous »

Mister_Snuggles wrote: post #16

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…

Exactly, and the way I see it is that driverless cars will remove the parts of driving that people don't enjoy, things like commuting, dealing with traffic, and parking (and running over pedestrians). But people who enjoy driving, are still free to a leisurely drive up the coast, or to race on the local track.

Re: Just press go: designing a self-driving vehicle

#90

Post by reitzensteinm »

secabeen wrote: post #71
jabelk wrote: post #32

I wonder whether they will first become available as a product that individual people can buy, or if Google will open some sort of service where you can sign up for a monthly "car plan" for X miles. Or maybe partner with a taxi company/Uber, where you pay per ride but the cars are driverless. I imagine all 3 models will be tried at some point, and it'll be interesting to watch their development and which one eventual…

While I sort of like the idea, there's still going to be lots of traffic in and around those bus/van depots. We're also going still need storage near urban downtowns for all those 1-person cars that spend 95% of their day idle waiting for the 5pm rush.

You could probably get a lot more density with a custom built car storage facility. No need to accommodate pedestrians, cars of different sizes, or random access.
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