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

Google Self-Driving Car Project's first vehicle prototype

plus.google.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 201 posts

Re: Google Self-Driving Car Project's first vehicle prototype

#101

Post by betenoire »

derefr wrote: post #62
amckenna wrote: post #25

A lot of people are bashing the car's appearance, but I think people forget that putting the first driverless cars on the road is as much a PR challenge as it is a technological challenge. Truly autonomous driverless cars is a huge shift in the way we have operated for almost 100 years. There will be a lot of caution and resistance from political groups, concerned citizens, entrenched interests, etc. The car that the…

> The car that they put forward first needs to be non-threatening, safe, and easy to adopt. Moreover, I think Google wants their car to be recognizable as a driverless car . They don't want it to blend in, because people would (at least for now) think that was "spooky"—that any car anywhere around them could be being secretly driven by a robot. Instead, the visual distinctness means that it's instantly clear that the…

oh I sure hope it takes more than a pigeon, but I see your point

Re: Google Self-Driving Car Project's first vehicle prototype

#102

Post by [deleted] »

wahsd wrote: post #57
nichodges wrote: post #11

My initial reaction was dismay that Google seemingly didn't consult any decent auto designers on this. But then I wonder if that's actually fine. My kids will likely be baffled by the idea that we attached so much of our own identity to our cars. The financial investment in cars to make a statement about ourselves (over and above getting us from A to B) is immensely irrational. With self driving cars ownership will l…

Forget your kids... I'm baffled. I'm baffled that people are willing to squander so much money on cars, especially people who have relatively little of it. If you think about it I'm sure you pay tens of thousands of dollars on a thing that moves you around but ultimately, sits around way more than not. I am somewhat anxious to see how this plays out financially and economically otherwise. Will these cars cost the sam…

[deleted]

Re: Google Self-Driving Car Project's first vehicle prototype

#104

Post by TranquilMarmot »

bane wrote: post #75

Lots of people are point at this being Uber's future "auto-car". Here's an alternative idea: - You can buy this car. It costs $100,000. But that's okay. - When you aren't actively using it, you tell it to go "Uber mode" and pick up and drive people around as part of the "Uber Network of Cars" - You split the fee with Uber/Lyft/whoever. They get 30%, you get 70%. If the average ride pays you $7, over 5 years that's li…

Google Now summons your car to pick you up in front of your office... ...and, upon entering, you're met with a horrific scene of blood, urine, and feces left behind by the previous person the car picked up.

You sigh as you clean up the mess, "At least it feels like I'm living in the future now..."

But, most likely, the cars will keep track of who is riding in them and you could hunt down whoever made the mess and make them clean it up. Or maybe it has cameras installed? Talk about an invasion of privacy! Plus it's not like they ever signed a waiver saying they WOULDN'T shit in the car.

Re: Google Self-Driving Car Project's first vehicle prototype

#105

Post by krschultz »

anigbrowl wrote: post #95
krschultz wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It doesn't need a cool factor" That was the death knell of Google Glass (at least in its current incarnation). Seems that Google hasn't learned much.

/pedant mode Death knell, not death nail. A 'knell' is the slow solemn tolling of a bell at a church funeral. This has been a public service announcement.

+1

Re: Google Self-Driving Car Project's first vehicle prototype

#106

Post by brc »

thanksgiving wrote: post #36
Toenex wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber have the right idea here; own the platform, not the infrastructure. Lets face it, a cars spends most of its life stationary, waiting for you to drive it. Not so the autonomous vehicle. Autonomous vehicles are freed from the shackles of parking so why not lease your car to Uber and have it earn money as a cab? The future will be a bad time to get into car parking.

> The future will be a bad time to get into car parking. Perhaps, this will be the case in the long term. However, until then perhaps we could implement some sort of price surging where rental costs of parking space skyrockets when demands get high. Uber is doing the hard work of making price surging palatable. Everyone else just needs to ride on their coat tails.

That is already common in most places. Most parking structures I know have different rates for different arrival and stay lengths. A lot of street parking has free and paid times. Demand based parking has been around a long time.

Re: Google Self-Driving Car Project's first vehicle prototype

#107

Post by brc »

wahsd wrote: post #57
nichodges wrote: post #11

My initial reaction was dismay that Google seemingly didn't consult any decent auto designers on this. But then I wonder if that's actually fine. My kids will likely be baffled by the idea that we attached so much of our own identity to our cars. The financial investment in cars to make a statement about ourselves (over and above getting us from A to B) is immensely irrational. With self driving cars ownership will l…

Forget your kids... I'm baffled. I'm baffled that people are willing to squander so much money on cars, especially people who have relatively little of it. If you think about it I'm sure you pay tens of thousands of dollars on a thing that moves you around but ultimately, sits around way more than not. I am somewhat anxious to see how this plays out financially and economically otherwise. Will these cars cost the sam…

All possessions are fundamentally irrational. I'm baffled why people would collect vinyl, buy overpriced designer clothing, pay for expensive tickets to sport, buy expensive kitchen implements - and on and on and on.

I like cars. I like driving. There are some cars I'd be happy to own, even if they didn't go. I spend money on buying, maintaining and driving cars because it's something I like doing.

This is no more or less irrational than any number of other discretionary spends. So you shouldn't be baffled anymore.

Re: Google Self-Driving Car Project's first vehicle prototype

#108

Post by icelancer »

jedunnigan wrote: post #103

I don't have a firm enough understanding of how the LIDAR and laser's work in these vehicles, but it occurs to me that it might be possible for a malicious actor to confuse the cars and cause accidents. That's concerning.

This is true now with our current optical recognition devices. Try shining a laser in your eyes while you drive.

Re: Google Self-Driving Car Project's first vehicle prototype

#109

Post by brc »

jasonwilk wrote: post #16

The way Google seems to be approaching self-driving cars is the right one in my opinion. Self-driving cars will be on-demand, booked through something like Uber and will not be owned by the end-user. I feel that the other car companies working on self-driving car technology for consumers are wasting their time. The main reason I enjoy owning a nice car is that I like driving it. If I wasn't in control of driving my c…

But the truth is that assisted driving is already a much larger market that self-driving cars. Many manufacturers already have lane assist, braking assist, self parking and other features. This type of creeping automation is much more likely to take over than coming at it from the other end. I would say both markets will get going and converge over a decade or more.
Post reply on HN