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

washingtonpost.com

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

#21

Post by vonmoltke »

stephengillie wrote: post #12
rurounijones wrote: post #7

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.)

I think you are engaging in a false analogy here. Comparing a grill to an oven is like comparing a passenger car to a panel truck: they are in the same broad class of thing but serve different purposes.

A better analogy would be that of a grill that can use gas or charcoal as the fuel; different means to the same purpose.

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

#22

Post by fixermark »

mc32 wrote: 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.

The scenario described is so rare, that "calling someone with a winch" is likely to become the de-facto scenario. Why the unnecessary redundancy of having every car able to be controlled manually when in the very, very common case it's not needed?

People already keep AAA memberships in their wallets instead of a spare tire, tire wrench, jack, jumper cables, and starter one-shot battery in their trunk.

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

#23

Post by oDot »

nabla9 wrote: 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.

Or maybe something like this:

https://youtu.be/PPTWUzAxyzg?t=50s

:)

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

#24

Post by kylec »

Well yes, it makes sense that you shouldn't be required to take over whenever the car decides, but I'd still like to be able to start up the car and drive it in manual mode if I so desire. I get a lot of pleasure out of driving, and I don't want to give that up even if I want to let my car pilot itself sometimes.

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

#26

Post by agumonkey »

nabla9 wrote: 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.

Yeah but I want to steer before crashing into a wall because the computer broke. A spare steering device for a SDV is just a new motherboard.

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

#27

Post by KingMob »

rurounijones wrote: post #7

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)

Eventually, people who like driving will be relegated to closed-track courses where any accidents are minimized and occur only with people who have signed waivers. In short, take up NASCAR.

People who drive manually and risk others' safety for their own pleasure can expect to be stopped, first with lawsuits, then with laws.

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

#28

Post by agumonkey »

astrodust wrote: post #19
nabla9 wrote: 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.

Cars used to have https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiller for direction control.

About forgetting how to steer, take a look at that video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFzDaBzBlL0

discussion here http://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/riding-an-inverted-bike/

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

#29

Post by arethuza »

monk_e_boy wrote: post #20
mc32 wrote: 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 p…

Quite a lot of those here in Scotland - and there is a fair amount of etiquette around how to drive properly on them without other people (locals) getting very annoyed with you.

I can't see any reason why self driving cars couldn't manage single track with passing places better than people - especially if they knew where the passing places are and could communicate with other cars.

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

#30

Post by Qantourisc »

kylec wrote: post #24

Well yes, it makes sense that you shouldn't be required to take over whenever the car decides, but I'd still like to be able to start up the car and drive it in manual mode if I so desire. I get a lot of pleasure out of driving, and I don't want to give that up even if I want to let my car pilot itself sometimes.

Not to mention getting the dam thing off the road if the car fails (not the computer, but for example the engine).
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