101–110 of 322 posts
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 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. Jus…
So far Google's self-driving cars have been designed to have the driver take over in certain situations. I wonder how that works without a steering wheel and pedals. Are the cars manually drivable at all?
From a UI perspective if they rarely need manual control you can use a less ergonomic option. Such as a joystick which would be a pain for regular use but would take up less space and still provide plenty of control for situations like parking in a field for a concert and or a quick emergency override in case something goes wrong.
Or the car just takes a panorama and converts it to an aerial view and you simply drag your car where you want it to be and press Go.
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…
I really think that self-driving buses will be common long before most cars are. * They cover the same routes day after day * They are already centrally owned by large companies or governments * Driver cost is a big reason you can't have 2 small buses running twice as often as a single big bus. Or why buses can't run longer hours. * You still have limited space on roads and you need to use PT to get the person densit…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why buy a self driving car when you could rent one as needed?
For most people who own cars, they are an extension of all their other personal space. I want to be able to leave things in my car and not have to take them out or replace them each time I drive. My sunglasses, the car seat, old-fashioned maps. Maybe I'd like to be able to leave my potato chip wrappers in there without worrying about it, or maybe I'd like to own something where I'm guaranteed others haven't left thei…
- storing necessities - this is probably the strongest argument that will have to be worked around
- cleanliness - is this currently a problem with taxis and rental cars? I haven't had this issue.
- style - I think this is true in certain places (I'm thinking of places like LA where there is a strong car culture) and I think is something that will change as owning a car becomes an unneeded expense. Think of it like owning a plane. Sure, it could say something about who you are, but there are cheaper ways to do that.
- status - same argument as style
- practicality - especially at a larger scale, wait times could be greatly reduced by having more taxis/rentals on the road at any given time, including in the suburbs. There still would be a lack of convenience, but I think the idea of having an expensive piece of equipment sit idle all day in your driveway for the off chance you need to use it suddenly will seem wasteful. In fact it's wasteful now, it's just there isn't a good, cheap, and convenient enough alternative to use instead. A driverless taxi/rental could be that alternative.
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...
In a four seater, two seats forward and two seats back, for conversations. With only two seats, there is little benefit except for a head on collision.
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…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why buy a self driving car when you could rent one as needed?
For most people who own cars, they are an extension of all their other personal space. I want to be able to leave things in my car and not have to take them out or replace them each time I drive. My sunglasses, the car seat, old-fashioned maps. Maybe I'd like to be able to leave my potato chip wrappers in there without worrying about it, or maybe I'd like to own something where I'm guaranteed others haven't left thei…
Cleanliness: this is an issue in taxis already. Sometimes I get into a taxi without window handles, but that is the government's doing.
Style: expressing yourself through your car sounds like a very American thing. Much of the world is not America, to say the least.
Status: this is the biggie where I live: those with money have to show off their Audi TT's and BMWs. Perhaps they will still own their cars, just like they do today (whereas many people just rely on taxis).
Practicality: my city already does not allow outsiders to enter within the 5th ring road during working hours (7AM to 7PM), while their is a lottery for "owning" a car with 20-1 odds per cycle. I can imagine that there will just be different vehicles for the country-side vs. the cities: the latter will be automated while the former won't be. You can own your country-side car if you want, but you can't drive it inside the 5th ring road given traffic unless it has a self-driving mode (to optimize traffic).
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…
Correct. That's one reason I think that Chicago's decision to privatize parking was an inspired one. The city got a great deal of criticism for giving a decades-long revenue concession to a private operator for a relatively low up-front cost, but all the critics assume a constant or increasing demand for parking based on historical usage patterns. I think usage patterns are going to change radically and that we'll se…