Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Just press go: designing a self-driving vehicle

googleblog.blogspot.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 322 posts

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

#151

Post by Sami_Lehtinen »

jackvalentine wrote: post #62
Sami_Lehtinen wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

You're going to need to translate some of this for me. How long in advance do I have to signal my intent to get the bus? How frequent are the busses/how long will I wait on average? How close will busses come to me, will they come to my house in a court where it needs to three point turn to get out? Will the bus wait 10 minutes while I load my things in it? I don't think the google car will replace mass transit like…

I assume they're using accept-language. Because it's in Finnish on my work laptop, but on my home desktop and mobile it's in English. Anyway, here's link that goes always to English version. https://kutsuplus.fi/home?lang=en_GB

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

#152

Post by Theodores »

prawn wrote: post #93
sown wrote: post #43

It seems like they would eventually have a four-seater version but the bench seats could face each other. What a simple thing but so different. Maybe like suicide-doors used to be common in the US but they're such a novelty now.

Yes, one of my first thoughts was about how much I enjoy road trips. But realistically, the bits I don't enjoy are having my attention pegged to the road and my foot to the pedals. A driverless car still leaves that progression through the landscape, the scenery, the togetherness. Taking your family on a road trip where the travel was in a capsule with two bench seats facing each other, and a table between, would be…

Sounds like you are waiting for the VW Camper Van version to come out. However, if you could sleep and drive there could be a whole new class of commuters cluttering up the roads on 4-8 hour commutes, or a whole new breed of tourists that set the car to drive through the night to the next destination so they wake up somewhere different, outside some cafe for brekkie.

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

#153

Post by Sammi »

enscr wrote: post #143

The video shows a rotating camera at the top of the car that's scanning for objects (I guess). What's the advantage of a mechanical rotary movement over an array of cameras that give a continuous 360 degree view (e.g. the street view cars)? Update : Found a link : http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2402516,00.asp In an interview last week, Stuart Woods, the executive vice president of Velodyne, which manufactures t…

Don't think of it as a camera. Think of it as a radar (that uses laser light instead of radio waves, hence the LI instead of RA in LIDAR).

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

#154

Post by rollthehard6 »

Personally, I find it disappointing that this is perpetuating the inherent inefficiencies of the car concept, carrying a small number of people, usually a single person. The ultimate end game where cities are full of autonomous taxi vehicles that aren't owned, but paid for by usage makes sense though. You fire up an app / web link or SMS and a car appears within 5 minutes, drops off someone else and takes you on your way. Provided folk don't leave too many empty beer cans in the back seat...

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

#155

Post by jwdunne »

jpatokal wrote: post #4

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 when cars themselves came about, speeds of 10mph were considered breakneck and dangerous. I remember reading an old crash report where the author claimed that the driver must have been going at least 10mph and thought it was lucky nobody was hurt.

I guess to gain the trust of the public and politicians, self-driving cars must go through a similar process. I have met people who have said self-driving cars will never take off, never match the skill of a well trained manual driver and that they dont trust them. I guess it's slightly biased in that they have been driving for many years, one was my driving instructor and all are not considered technologists.

I'm looking forward to the experience, personally. I do, however, enjoy driving :)

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

#156

Post by k-mcgrady »

Oculus wrote: post #30

Tesla (or insert company willing to go big on electric cars) and Google really need to team up on this. Self driving cars have the potential to completely do away with owning personal cars. Imagine a new public/private service that allows people to travel where & when they want without having to deal with the hassles or cost of owning a car. With the added centralization, the headaches that electric cars cause can be…

I think Google wants to do a similar thing to Tesla. Maybe have a few of their own vehicles but bet big on the technology. They can then sell it to the big car manufacturers. With Tesla it's their battery technology, with Google it's their sensor technology.

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

#157

Post by k-mcgrady »

sown wrote: post #43

It seems like they would eventually have a four-seater version but the bench seats could face each other. What a simple thing but so different. Maybe like suicide-doors used to be common in the US but they're such a novelty now.

>> "It seems like they would eventually have a four-seater version but the bench seats could face each other."

I can think of two reasons against that.

1. People who get motion sickness get it 100x worse if they are facing the wrong way. There are also people I know who normally don't get motion sickness but get a bit queasy facing the wrong way.

2. If you are in an accident isn't it more dangerous for your neck if you're facing the wrong way. I know several cars currently (mostly people carriers) that have rotating seats but they can't be rotated when driving. I'm guessing that law is in place because rick of injury is higher facing the worn way.

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

#159

Post by jacquesm »

papaf wrote: post #129
jacquesm wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the driver on the bus has more functions than just being a driver. He's also an authority figure and can provide assistance.

There have been self-driving trains for some time now (Nuremberg, London Docklands). There are more people to be responsible for on a train and I do not see why a bus would be a special case.

Trainstations are somewhat controlled, bus-stops are not, they can be just about anywhere.

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

#160

Post by k-mcgrady »

gdas wrote: post #84

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…

I've been thinking about this a lot. I'll answer it two ways.

Negative:

- As we've automated jobs we've also created new ones, but lots of these new jobs are BS. Inspectors of inspectors etc. to fulfil health and safety regulations. We're also creating a lot of things that improve our lives or entertain us but are really just created so we have something to spend our money on. We don't need them.

Positive:

- I think the idea of a basic income would fix this. If we can automate everything and reduce the number of people that need to work AND provide them with a basic income, they can live their lives and not have to work. If you aren't anti-government you could even have the government owning factories, producing goods through automation and selling them to other countries in order to finance a good basic income for its citizens.

It's going to be interesting and if you are young enough likely something you will see played out in your lifetime. Although the changes in the 20th century were massive and world changing I think the changes this century are going to be ones which change how we actually live on lives on a very basic level. What we do everyday and how we get money. Even if it all goes to hell it'll be interesting!

Post reply on HN