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UK to allow driverless cars on public roads in January
71–80 of 116 posts
Re: UK to allow driverless cars on public roads in January
#72Who will be a vendor of those cars? It seems to me that it's clear that driverless cars are the future, which is going to become real very soon. Any progressive government would (and should) allow such testing, even given the inflexibility of the state's bureaucratic machine. Allowing is an easy part. The hard part is actually building those cars and to my knowledge no UK firm does this at the moment.
Lots of the fundamental research is being done in the UK. Both academic (eg at Oxford) and also industry led.
The fact that no major consumer automotive marques are British doesn't mean there isn't a very strong auto industry in the country.
Re: UK to allow driverless cars on public roads in January
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
Driverless cars are a risky unproven technology, and done wrong could easily kill people. It'd be like taking "FDA approves new drug for human testing" and making the headline "FDA to allow human use of new untested drug." Both are technically true, but the latter makes it sound like a widespread thing being done regardless of poorly understood risks. And that's misleading, since it's being done in very limited scope…
It is true that driverless cars are a risky unproven technology, while human-driven cars are a proven killer.
So tell your friends to stop driving.
Re: UK to allow driverless cars on public roads in January
#74Who will be a vendor of those cars? It seems to me that it's clear that driverless cars are the future, which is going to become real very soon. Any progressive government would (and should) allow such testing, even given the inflexibility of the state's bureaucratic machine. Allowing is an easy part. The hard part is actually building those cars and to my knowledge no UK firm does this at the moment.
My guess is that a service like ZipCar will retrofit vehicles since car manufacturers do not have an incentive to reduce car ownership.
Some car manufacturers will be perfectly happy to cannibalize the business, see e.g. Daimler's car2go
Re: UK to allow driverless cars on public roads in January
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's true. I think of turning right at a crosswalk where some pedestrian is really anxious for their turn to walk, so they're standing right on the edge of the curb. I always pay careful attention to them and rely on my human intuition of body language, eye contact, etc, until I feel comfortable that they're going to remain on the edge of the curb instead of steeping out in front of me during my turn. A robot can't…
A robot should have much faster reflexes than you do. Robots should be able to compensate for people actively running or diving in front of them. The situation you describe should be very easy to compensate for. Don't bother relying on body language or eye contact, just automatically sense the person shaped object, if it is close to the roadway, slow to a speed where you can avoid easily if they step out. Assume that…
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Re: UK to allow driverless cars on public roads in January
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
Since there are a total of zero commercially available driverless cars, was that distinction really required? Nowhere in the world has permitted non-test driverless cars because non-test driverless cars aren't a thing yet. The whole "rest of the world" remark seems like smug condescension. Which is a little odd as only a small handful of places even allow test-cars to be run on public roads. Plus isn't this a welcome…
Are you saying that the UK has a grid pattern and wider streets? I had always heard that the UK had narrow streets in many places, but that's just from watching Top Gear. Here is a Google autonomous vehicle navigating Lombard Street in San Francisco: http://youtu.be/eXeUu_Y6WOw?t=1m34s
No he's saying the opposite. The UK does have a lot of narrow bending rounds and tiny country lanes :)
Re: UK to allow driverless cars on public roads in January
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you saying that the UK has a grid pattern and wider streets? I had always heard that the UK had narrow streets in many places, but that's just from watching Top Gear. Here is a Google autonomous vehicle navigating Lombard Street in San Francisco: http://youtu.be/eXeUu_Y6WOw?t=1m34s
No he's saying the opposite. The UK does have a lot of narrow bending rounds and tiny country lanes :)
That's what I assumed but did a quick Google Maps search and it appears to be mostly a grid at first glance, unclear wording, "The UK's roads are quite a different test bed to many West coast US cities where there is no grid pattern, roads are smaller, and curvey."
Re: UK to allow driverless cars on public roads in January
#78Who will be a vendor of those cars? It seems to me that it's clear that driverless cars are the future, which is going to become real very soon. Any progressive government would (and should) allow such testing, even given the inflexibility of the state's bureaucratic machine. Allowing is an easy part. The hard part is actually building those cars and to my knowledge no UK firm does this at the moment.
Lots of the fundamental research is being done in the UK. Both academic (eg at Oxford) and also industry led. The fact that no major consumer automotive marques are British doesn't mean there isn't a very strong auto industry in the country.
I mean more of a "who will build the technology to allow those cars be driverless", not who will build the car bodies themselves.
Re: UK to allow driverless cars on public roads in January
#79For 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…
Couldn't you just as easily reverse that and say, bots have 360 degree vision, superior concentration and reaction times, I hope they're not going to waive that for the humans, even if they do have the ability to recognise potential hazards at a very early point.
Surely the point is to not kill people?
So which is more important, recognising potential hazards early, or unwavering attention and superior concentration? Because although I'm pretty sure it's the humans who're ahead at the moment, but I'm not sure it'll always stay that way. Bots may never match humans at a hazard perception test, but if bot reaction, vision and AI gets good enough, they may not need to.
Re: UK to allow driverless cars on public roads in January
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
No he's saying the opposite. The UK does have a lot of narrow bending rounds and tiny country lanes :)
That's what I assumed but did a quick Google Maps search and it appears to be mostly a grid at first glance, unclear wording, "The UK's roads are quite a different test bed to many West coast US cities where there is no grid pattern, roads are smaller, and curvey."
Where were you looking at, Milton Keynes? Peterborough? I'm struggling to think of anywhere gridlike in the UK, though I'm sure some of the '60s towns have them.