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

The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car

medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 286 posts

Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car

#161

Post by alexvoda »

agumonkey wrote: post #83
freehunter wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's probably why it's not advertised. Because your car will tattle on you. I've often wondered about the black box in my car, if I were in an accident and I was going 71mph in a 70mph and they pulled by black box, would I be given a ticket even though I was not at fault? Although I'm pretty sure only the manufacturer has access to this data (as part of their copyright on the car), so it would take a warrant for la…

Agreed. The issue when collecting data is that it's a rabbithole, you need to have a lot of data to avoid shallow judgement, and careful jurors too. Going at 71 (74,75) instead of 70 might turn against you, but if you have enough evidence that the other vehicle would have it you even at 70mph then the system will work.

This can be solved. Have all collected data be encrypted AND the owner of the car be the ONLY one with the decryption key.

Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car

#162

Post by darkmighty »

afarrell wrote: post #15
comrade1 wrote: post #4

One thing I'm looking forward to with self-driving cars is to be able to step into a street anywhere and have all the traffic stop automatically. Every inch of street now becomes a crosswalk. Even highways. (This is an ironic statement)

Automatically != instantaneously. You'd have to make sure the car is far away enough that speed(car)^2/distance(you, car) You can't play blindfolded frogger. EDIT: "friction" is a better function name than "mu", even though we all feel nostalgic for high school physics.

It's more complicated, since cars can steer, but it's still approx. function of speed^2/distance, but a lot more permissive. And then there's emergency coordination among vehicles to prevent the crash among the vehicles themselves too.

Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car

#163

Post by irishloop »

branchan wrote: post #155
nazgulnarsil wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to hear the argument about people who want to ride. I enjoy riding. I like riding horses. I still ride a horse and will not buy an automobile. I participate in riding clubs and I compete in horse racing events. I enjoy horse photography and I do my own hoof maintenance on my steeds. What happens to people like me who actually enjoy riding and the act of owning a horse? Do my loves get phased out because the ma…

Funny analogy but it doesn't quite work here. Driverless cars are still cars. They both still use the same roads and infrastructure.

I believe in the beginning, so did automobiles and horse-and-buggy vehicles.

Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car

#164

Post by oldmanjay »

mildbow wrote: post #115
scott_karana wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like how in your examples, "Google" is just algorithms, not the humans behind them, but for the police, you allow for humanity. You may as well say, "the most police cameras can do: send you an automated speeding ticket", which is of course painfully naïve. Google could do plenty of evil with your data.

Can you give me some examples of what google might reasonably do with my data that can negatively affect my life to the same magnitude as what the police/government might reasonably do? Ideally, maybe no one should track my every move. But to talk about police and google in the same sentence in terms of ramifications is so far off I can't be anything but incredulous :)

farfetched and unrealistic at the moment, but totally plausible: compile a list of destinations you visit on some sort of schedule, commit some physical crime along that path during a time you can be shown to be in the area, and frame you for it, potentially by including things like relevant search data, falsified emails... lots of possibilities here.

Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car

#165

Post by [deleted] »

mildbow wrote: post #52
ams6110 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So it's OK for Google to record license plates, but it's flip-out time when the police do it?

Of course. The most google can do: send you ads for shovels. The most police can do: pull you in for murder because they correlated your car to where and when some body was buried.

[deleted]

Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car

#166

Post by danans »

swalsh wrote: post #56

My newly born son will be 16 in 2031. I wonder if he will ever get a drivers license.

When my 4 year old asks me when she will be allowed to drive, I tell her she won't have to, and that she'll just tell her watch to call a car for her, the same way she sees me talking to my smartwatch now.

Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car

#167

Post by BHSPitMonkey »

daeken wrote: post #133
bkeroack wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt it will be outlawed. You can still ride horses on public streets in most places (probably not freeways I imagine), but most people of course don't. In the same way you probably will be able to drive cars manually indefinitely, even while most will choose to use autonomous vehicles.

It won't be outlawed; it'll just be priced out of existence. When autos are good enough, insurance costs for manual driving will skyrocket . Only the very richest will be able to afford driving on roads.

That doesn't seem to follow. Insuring a manual driver wouldn't carry any more risk than it does today (on the contrary, there may even be fewer payouts due to other drivers being replaced with safer autonomous counterparts).

Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car

#168

Post by splat »

branchan wrote: post #146
Zirro wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can already imagine intense debates about whether to outlaw human-driven cars in a (perhaps not so) distant future.

Probably very unlikely unless you solve poverty.

I imagine buses would be much cheaper and more prevalent when you don't have to pay for a driver.

Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car

#169

Post by tikhonj »

ams6110 wrote: post #49
afarrell wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious many of these miles were on snow and ice.

In Mountain View? I'm not from around there but I'd guess zero?

I'm pretty sure I've seen Google's car being tested up in Tahoe, so the answer is some. (The areas around Tahoe's ski resorts get quite a lot of snow and ice too, so it's certainly a good place for this sort of testing.)

Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car

#170

Post by danans »

branchan wrote: post #159

Come to think of it. Imagine driving a car yourself on a road full of self-driving cars. You would be able to drive as fast as you like and cut off anybody without ever being afriad of retaliation. Self-driving cars will always let you in because they do not want to cause a collision.

I imagine that reckless driving laws will still be in effect in that scenario, so that will likely deter the behavior, unless it is sociopathic in motivation.
Post reply on HN