How will the taxi unions feel when someone combines uber/lyft with self driving cars?
UK to allow driverless cars on public roads in January
21–30 of 116 posts
Re: UK to allow driverless cars on public roads in January
#22How will the taxi unions feel when someone combines uber/lyft with self driving cars?
Uber/Lyft will be the ones who make this combination. Why would they let someone else do it?
Re: UK to allow driverless cars on public roads in January
#23How will the taxi unions feel when someone combines uber/lyft with self driving cars?
That occupation will disappear, save for a few high-end human driver services, IMO.
After the taxis come the trucks. I am quite certain shipping companies will be the quick ditch humans. After all, this means no more travel expenses & salaries, no more breaks, probably automatic unloading too! Goods will get cheaper, although hundreds of thousands of people will be out of work.
I am scared.
Re: UK to allow driverless cars on public roads in January
#24For the last decade or so, human learner drivers in the UK have had to pass a video "hazard perception test" based on their ability to recognise potential developing hazards (kids playing near the roads, a cyclist confronted by a line of parked cars, a vehicle approaching a junction onto your lane) at a very early point before their movements make their entry into the roadway inevitable.
This strikes me as something which is particularly difficult for an algorithm to process effectively (without generating lots of false positives, which also fails that segment of the test) especially based on the fairly low resolution video human users are presented with in normal test conditions.
Hope they're not going to waive that for the bots, even if they do have 360 degree vision and superior concentration and reaction times.
Re: UK to allow driverless cars on public roads in January
#25But that's the worst month they could have chosen! June would make a lot more sense.
Re: UK to allow driverless cars on public roads in January
#26When ever I see a new place or country allowing a test of these cars this wired article always comes to mind [1]. I think the two main questions will be liability & drivability - 1) when (not if) these cars get into a serious crash, who is to assume liability? Is it Google who created the algorithm? Is it the Audi integrator who fused Google technology into the Audi? Is it the fault of the mapping software that did n…
wrt 1), I think it's preferable to study each scarce accident very closely to avoid it to happen again (like it happens in the aviation industry) rather than just being scared of the technology and remaining on the status-quo of allowing so many casualties each year because we still allow humans to drive.
Exactly, once they get these vehicles right accidents will be a pretty rare thing.
Until then it has to be a case of "tough" if you want to sue. The Victorians had the right attitude to future technology and it's something we need to get back to.
Re: UK to allow driverless cars on public roads in January
#27When ever I see a new place or country allowing a test of these cars this wired article always comes to mind [1]. I think the two main questions will be liability & drivability - 1) when (not if) these cars get into a serious crash, who is to assume liability? Is it Google who created the algorithm? Is it the Audi integrator who fused Google technology into the Audi? Is it the fault of the mapping software that did n…
My impression from at least the google cars is that they aren't relying on map data to find signs and signals, though they might update that data from the cars so they can reduce processing time later.
I'd also expect any accident to end up worldwide news simply because it's the first ever of it's kind. Same thing happened with the first car accident in the world, it happened in 1891 in Ohio [1].
I'd imagine that #2 will take longer to take care of properly, but with the traffic and accidentent and road closure monitoring that goes on now I'm going to bet that it'll at least be kind of decent, I'm actually more worried that it won't be able to follow detours properly and cause gridlock around construction areas during the transition from human driven cars to driver-less.
[1] http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/World's_First_Automobile...
Re: UK to allow driverless cars on public roads in January
#28How will the taxi unions feel when someone combines uber/lyft with self driving cars?
Uber/Lyft will be the ones who make this combination. Why would they let someone else do it?
I really hope one of them licenses the Johnny Cab name from total recall, and the likeness of Don Knotts. It'd be really cool to see something from the movies come to life like that and it'd probably end up a great way for other companies to sponsor taxis and get more exposure to people.
Re: UK to allow driverless cars on public roads in January
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's not what the title says.
I don't understand the distinction. If the UK is allowing tests of driverless cars, it must be allowing them on the roads, and of course "in January" means "starts in January", what else would it mean
"in January" could mean "only in January" rather than "for some unspecified length of time but starting in January".
Re: UK to allow driverless cars on public roads in January
#30When ever I see a new place or country allowing a test of these cars this wired article always comes to mind [1]. I think the two main questions will be liability & drivability - 1) when (not if) these cars get into a serious crash, who is to assume liability? Is it Google who created the algorithm? Is it the Audi integrator who fused Google technology into the Audi? Is it the fault of the mapping software that did n…
You always voice the same concerns, I always hear the same concerns. It's crazy to me that people get hung up on the liability issue.
1) Liability is assessed exactly as it is now. We use the same system to determine which car was at fault. If it's your car, you are at fault. Someone will insure a self-driving car, especially once the safety record is established. Your current provider might not, but someone will. If you were using the self-driving system improperly (e.g. in weather it can't handle well in yet), you may also be subject to different rules or even criminal prosecution.
Vendors may also be willing to pay for that insurance as part of a monthly fee just to shut people up over this very easy-to-solve "concern."
If no one is willing to insure your self-driving car, I'll start that business. I could charge a premium for a service that costs me less to provide!
2) People seem to think self-driving cars should be perfect before they're introduced. They won't be. Neither are we. It just has to be better (under given weather/traffic conditions) than we are to save lives. We'll have steering wheels in the cars for a long time which you'll have to use when the car can't safely drive itself.
The Wired article is just clickbait using the fear angle. We face the same decisions every day, and "unavoidable" accidents will be even more rare than it is now as this technology evolves.