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Google Self-Driving Car Project's first vehicle prototype

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

#141

Post by eru »

ghaff wrote: post #89
zanny wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Autos will never be sold to consumers. At least the general public. Or at least average people will never buy one. It is a tremendous, insane, unacceptable waste to have autos parked all day. The only way these things make sense is through subscription services where you can summon a car from a fleet whenever you want, so that you can maximize utilization.

However, the reason for that is that the majority of people keep roughly the same hours. And the current system at least has the advantage that cars are generally near their owners rather than driving additional miles to get to centralized locations. Given various assumptions, utilization could certainly be increased--though we already have the ZipCar and taxi options--but I'm unconvinced that the pay-per-use economi…

If prices sink low enough during off-peak hours (and surge high enough during peak), people will alter their behaviour.

Eg I'd be happy to send a car on an autonomous grocery run during the day.

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

#143

Post by ericd »

threeseed wrote: post #93
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…

> Self-driving cars will be on-demand Nonsense. That's just like saying taxis/cabs will negate the need for your own car. Sometimes you need a car now to goto the shops, drop your kids at doctor etc. without having to wait 10-30 minutes for a car to arrive from the other side of town.

That's just an availability problem. One of the likely effects of self driving cars is that taxi density will increase by quite a lot, which should decrease pickup latency.

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

#144

Post by bane »

eru wrote: post #133
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…

> You could probably pay your car off much earlier than 5 years with more rides/higher average ride fare, after which your car is making you money. Clever people will use this extra to finance more cars to run small fleets and effectively live without working. If it's such a great money spinner, why won't companies do that? Why do you _want_ people to own cars?

Companies could if they wanted. But up-front capitol costs are high like that, it's easier to "crowd source" the investment and take your 30% off of other people's effort. All you have to do is provide a coordinated system they can sign into/outof.

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

#145

Post by ericd »

dogeye wrote: post #142

Nobody who has used Adwords believes Google will ever make a self driving car.

It's a lot easier to work on a greenfield project than to change an existing, extremely heavily used project.

And, different group.

I see their modified self-driving Lexus SUVs driving around Mountain View all the time.

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

#146

Post by iandanforth »

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…

Plastic bags actually. A plastic bag looks pretty solid to most sensors and cars have been known stop suddenly when one flies in front of the car.

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

#147

Post by closetnerd »

billsossoon wrote: post #96
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…

This is also a prime opportunity to question the idea of traveling at 85 mph in 4,000 lb. metal boxes that get 13 mpg. In my town, many parents put their newly-licensed teenage children behind the wheels of enormous SUVs in the name of safety, simultaneously reducing the safety of everyone around them. If tanks were street legal, we'd probably have 16 year old kids barreling down the road in them.

Actually theres been a lot of research that increasing speed limits have more benefits than not. Most accidents that happen on high ways resulting in fatalities are due to driving under the influence. A higher speed limit has been shown to decrease accidents, decrease ticket fines, and decrease fuel consumption.

Making it illegal to buy SUVs is moronic even if buying them is moronic in itself. Lots of things in life are dangerous, and we're going too damn far with needing to make anything with a potential of danger illegal. I'd much rather own a Range Rover which is far more comfortable, enjoyable to drive, accommodating, while reserving the capacity to take me to Yosemite a few times a year.

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

#149

Post by ericd »

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.

Those LIDARs are a spinning array of lasers measuring time of flight for each laser as it spins. Each of ~64 lasers forms one scan line all around itself, and by taking all the scan lines together, they form a rough picture of the 3D structure of the surroundings. You can filter out aberrant inputs in software.

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

#150

Post by closetnerd »

berberous wrote: post #13
sparkzilla wrote: post #3

This thing looks like a clown car. Perfect for those who think Glass is the height of fashion.

I suspect that may be deliberate, so that safety worries are minimized. You look at this car and think, I'd probably be the one to survive in a head-to-head collision with my SUV. The first driverless cars need to appear as least threatening as possible.

There is a real problem of monotony with such an over concerned need for safety and practicality. I mean, I really don't want to live in a society where everyone has chosen to drive cars like this to the markets. Yes it looks cute in a picture, but boring as hell to live in.
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