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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

#171

Post by Andrenid »

jwdunne wrote: post #155
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…

Early cars also had wooden wheels, no tyres (well, strips of rubber, but no air), and no suspension to speak of. Going 10mph in one of them probably would've felt like 50mph in a modern car!

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

#173

Post by furyg3 »

In Amsterdam, I'm a big user of car2go.

These are little electric smart cars which you can rent by the minute. For times when I don't have my bike nearby, or the public transport is not handy.

These are basically little smart cars which drive themselves, which would be perfect.

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

#174

Post by aembleton »

kyrra wrote: post #119
kamaal wrote: post #116

It will be good if we can see these cars tested on the streets here in India. India is an amazing test bed for this kind of an application. Narrow roads, haphazard traffic, undisciplined crowd and driver behavior, kids playing on the roads, obstructions, potholes, animals on the roads etc etc. This will make an amazing place to test this set up. Plus India is an amazing business opportunity, given the overall scale o…

How many drivers in India properly obey driving laws? My understanding is that it can be pretty hectic driving India streets and breaking the law is required to make forward progress. I'm guessing a self driving car as designed for the US roads may be useless in India.

Yes, I think the car would just stop until there are no hazards or so that it can navigate around them. In India that might just mean that it won't move anywhere.

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

#175

Post by facepalm »

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…

It will presumably be cheaper than taxis, that is kind of the point.

I think most people don't even realize how expensive their car really is (is there such a thing as a "cheap car", if you take into account taxes, insurance, gas prices, maintenance, time wasted looking for parking and waiting in traffic jams). Convenience of autonomous cars might quickly win them over.

Charging: maybe you have a point for people who commute from suburbs. But you could have charging stations in the suburbs. I think there will be algorithms for determining optimal distribution of cars and charging stations. Apparently the Tesla can be charged at a normal power socket. If that goes for other cars as well, there would be no reason not to have lots and lots of charging stations (contrary to gas which is explosive and toxic, so you don't want to have a gas station near your house).

Anybody with a house front could perhaps offer a charging station to earn some money on the side.

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

#176

Post by facepalm »

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 wish I could use car sharing and the baby seat issue is a problem with that. It seems easy to solve, though - I don't see why those couldn't be integrated into the cars by default. A lot of taxis already have that, they are just sometimes too lazy to take them out.

I don't know what you mean by personalized car seats - I think there are merely some variations dependent on size of the child? But car seats can grow along with the child, usually you can leave more and more stuff out the older the child gets?

Not sure why car sharing services overlook that atm - maybe because most families tend to own a car, so it is not a big market for them?

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

#177

Post by artumi-richard »

Will there come a time when you can just cross the road whenever you choose knowing that all traffic will stop, without fail, automatically?

I think the driverless car will actually make more of a difference to the typical pedestrian than the typical car occupier.

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

#178

Post by masklinn »

AJ007 wrote: post #57
timdorr wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AAAS - Automobiles as a Service. That could actually be pretty cool. Basically, a ZipCar + Uber that doesn't suck. That would be the dream.

I miss the days when you could read science fiction and think, "none of this exists, I wonder what the future will end up looking like?" We are way past the conceptual stage for the future of transport, and I think it will look exactly like the mashup you are describing.

It could even be improved with printable self-driving cars, areas would have a base load of self-driving cars, but in case of need/rush the area center would just print new cars.

My biggest fear re. cars as a service is degradations, it's been an issue in at least some of the bicycle sharing systems.

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

#179

Post by masklinn »

artumi-richard wrote: post #177

Will there come a time when you can just cross the road whenever you choose knowing that all traffic will stop, without fail, automatically? I think the driverless car will actually make more of a difference to the typical pedestrian than the typical car occupier.

> I think the driverless car will actually make more of a difference to the typical pedestrian than the typical car occupier.

Depends on the country really: in germany, if a pedestrian gets close to the curb all drivers will pile on the brakes.

Gets awkward when you just wanted to take a slightly better look at something on the other side of the road (I've more than once crossed only to cross back a minute later, because a driver had thought I wanted to get to the other side)

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