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Why your self-driving car won’t have a steering wheel

washingtonpost.com

11–20 of 64 posts

Re: Why your self-driving car won’t have a steering wheel

#11
post #5

That's correct for highway speeds.... What happens when I'm stuck in a ditch or sand or in a rut and need delicate manoeuvering? Maybe I'm out in a field in the middle of nowhere. No roads, just open field with seasonal hazards. I still want a way to guide the vehicle manually without having to call someone with a winch.

I'd suspect we are further away from self-driving, offroad cars. At least for roads the cars have a set path to follow, with choices at intersections.

Re: Why your self-driving car won’t have a steering wheel

#12

What if I want a car I can choose to drive occasionally because I like driving? Will I have to buy a manual and a self-drive? (Although to be fair, these self-driving cars would probably suck to drive since they are not designed for driver pleasure)

What if I want an oven I can choose to grill with because I like grilling? Will I have to buy an outdoor grill and grill by hand? (Although to be fair, these electric ovens would probably suck to grill with since they are not designed for charcoal grilling enthusiasts.)

Re: Why your self-driving car won’t have a steering wheel

#13

What if I want a car I can choose to drive occasionally because I like driving? Will I have to buy a manual and a self-drive? (Although to be fair, these self-driving cars would probably suck to drive since they are not designed for driver pleasure)

Then you can get a specialty car designed to have manual controls. The same way you could get a horse-pulled carriage or a dogsled. It just won't be the standard product that everybody uses.

Re: Why your self-driving car won’t have a steering wheel

#14
post #5

That's correct for highway speeds.... What happens when I'm stuck in a ditch or sand or in a rut and need delicate manoeuvering? Maybe I'm out in a field in the middle of nowhere. No roads, just open field with seasonal hazards. I still want a way to guide the vehicle manually without having to call someone with a winch.

I'd suspect we are further away from self-driving, offroad cars. At least for roads the cars have a set path to follow, with choices at intersections.

Ok how about navigating into my garage? Maybe I want extra space on the left this time?

Re: Why your self-driving car won’t have a steering wheel

#15
post #10

Maybe future cars have steering wheel stored away in the same way Spare tire is out of way. If things go totally bonkers in the middle of nowhere, you stop, install small steering wheel and drive manually.

>> Maybe future cars have steering wheel stored away in the same way Spare tire is out of way.

A little off-topic, but an increasingly smaller number of cars are coming with spares (as someone who has experienced sidewall tire damage on the highway, it's an alarming trend).

More and more cars are just coming with tire patch kits, an aerosol tire fixer, or run-flat tires.

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2012/11/compact-emer...

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2015/07/deflating-re...

Re: Why your self-driving car won’t have a steering wheel

#16
post #10

Maybe future cars have steering wheel stored away in the same way Spare tire is out of way. If things go totally bonkers in the middle of nowhere, you stop, install small steering wheel and drive manually.

Like holding a childs hand. "Look Google, this is how you take a short cut through a field of cows. Foot to the floor and keep your hand on the horn."

Re: Why your self-driving car won’t have a steering wheel

#17

What if I want a car I can choose to drive occasionally because I like driving? Will I have to buy a manual and a self-drive? (Although to be fair, these self-driving cars would probably suck to drive since they are not designed for driver pleasure)

There may well be "hybrids" for a while (think stop the car and convert to manual mode, not switch on the fly). If self driving cars really take off, I suspect it will become a niche market pretty quickly due to pressure from a) higher costs of vehicle, b) substantially higher insurance rates and possibly c) restricted roads (e.g. major interstates switch to auto only).

Perhaps you'll have status symbol sedans with a manual mode nearly nobody uses, and a number of other options that become more of an expensive hobby than a primary means of transportation.

We are a ways off from this technologically, but if the tech problems can be solved, it's pretty hard to imagine it not happening.

Re: Why your self-driving car won’t have a steering wheel

#19
post #10

Maybe future cars have steering wheel stored away in the same way Spare tire is out of way. If things go totally bonkers in the middle of nowhere, you stop, install small steering wheel and drive manually.

If self-driving cars become the norm, people will have no idea what a steering wheel is or how to use it, any more than people today would know what to do with a horse stored in the trunk for emergencies.

Worst case scenario it'd be a controller of some kind and the car would be limited to 5mph, enough to limp back.

Re: Why your self-driving car won’t have a steering wheel

#20
post #5

That's correct for highway speeds.... What happens when I'm stuck in a ditch or sand or in a rut and need delicate manoeuvering? Maybe I'm out in a field in the middle of nowhere. No roads, just open field with seasonal hazards. I still want a way to guide the vehicle manually without having to call someone with a winch.

There are a lot of roads where I live that are one lane, with passing places. Or most of the time both drivers have to aim for a wide-ish part of the road and both bump up the hedge a bit. God knows how Google car will do that, half the tourists have problems figuring it out.

It's common to meet a car, both pause while the drivers try to figure out who has a better chance of reversing 500 wiggly metres to a passing place. If you meet an old lady, man, just stick it in reverse and drive as far as you need, waiting for her to even find reverse is pointless.

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