A more realistic route to autonomous driving
economist.com
A more realistic route to autonomous driving
1–10 of 91 posts
Re: A more realistic route to autonomous driving
#2I like the simplifying-the-problem approach a lot! Roads in the US/California are so good that I can see it happen, and with clear labelling this could totally "ship" in a few years (i.e. remove the safety driver).
The next step would be 1h-out-of-town commuters + close-suburbia to specific dropoff points in downtown or wherever jobs tend to be. Again, stay on big roads that have good signalling, and keep the bright colors so other drivers will know to stay out of your way in the carpool lane.
It's basically what the big tech companies in the Valley are doing with their commuting busses, but smaller and for everyone. The min-busses with flexible routes are a common mode of transportation in certain Eastern European countries, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshrutka
Re: A more realistic route to autonomous driving
#3[deleted]
Re: A more realistic route to autonomous driving
#4IMHO this is how self driving applications should start. Driving on the US freeways (say between LA and SF) isn't about your driving skills. It's mostly just about trying not to fall asleep. And machines are way better than humans at this!
Even outside the US, there are many areas (like UAE), which have amazing highways, sparse traffic and there isn't rail/air connectivity to some places. Self driving "shuttles" seem perfect for those applications.
Re: A more realistic route to autonomous driving
#5This is certainly more cautious, but it's not clear that this is any more realistic than Waymo's plan which involves limiting vehicles to a predefine area, mapping in great detail, etc.
Re: A more realistic route to autonomous driving
#6Re: A more realistic route to autonomous driving
#7Going a bit controversial here but will self-driving cars be disrupted before they even take off. The big factor that I feel will impact how autonomous travel will evolve in the future is drone taxies/cars. Providing there is a change in the regulation to support self-driving flying cars/drones, the big advantage is that there would be no existing rules created for human driving (road signs, traffic lights...) to adhere to. A centralized system could calculate the best route to fly someone from A to B without the complexities that self-driving cars have to solve. And flying would clearly be much faster as well. Dubai, for example, is already testing, what comes after will be interesting.
Re: A more realistic route to autonomous driving
#8Building a vehicle that can handle a busy street, with cyclists, pedestrians, roadworks and emergency vehicles, is a tall order.
You can try to simplify the problem by limiting your routes to major highways and making the vehicle ultra-visible so other drivers give you a wide berth.
But at some point there will be construction, or a car wreck, or debris in the roadway. Eventually you'll need to exit the highway and drive on city streets.
Even if you manage to reduce the hard stuff to 1 mile out of 200, you still need to deal with it.
If you can't handle everything, you're not safe to be on the road.
Re: A more realistic route to autonomous driving
#9Going a bit controversial here but will self-driving cars be disrupted before they even take off. The big factor that I feel will impact how autonomous travel will evolve in the future is drone taxies/cars. Providing there is a change in the regulation to support self-driving flying cars/drones, the big advantage is that there would be no existing rules created for human driving (road signs, traffic lights...) to adh…
i doubt having hundreds or thousands of heavy vehicles flying above peoples heads is a good idea and will probably not go well with authorities.
Re: A more realistic route to autonomous driving
#10Going a bit controversial here but will self-driving cars be disrupted before they even take off. The big factor that I feel will impact how autonomous travel will evolve in the future is drone taxies/cars. Providing there is a change in the regulation to support self-driving flying cars/drones, the big advantage is that there would be no existing rules created for human driving (road signs, traffic lights...) to adh…
Given that we are probably heading into an economy where energy will get more and more expensive (at least temporarily, due to a potential oil crunch coming), not sure how flying will be an economical way of transport.