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Hidden obstacles for self driving cars
11–20 of 85 posts
Re: Hidden obstacles for self driving cars
#12It seems to me we have a better chance of seeing low flying autonomous vehicles for personal transportation before we see self driving cars (think quad coptor drone style vehicle with 500 lb payload capability). Autopilot systems are already widely used in commercial air vehicles.
Fewer obstacles need to be accounted for in the air and there is less in grained regulation. It feels like we are going to leapfrog the car all together. I would love to see a detailed analysis that compares these two approaches.
Re: Hidden obstacles for self driving cars
#13I remember a few of these difficulties being mentioned in Sebastian Thrun's Self-Driving Cars course on Udacity. It's been awhile, but I seem to remember the snow discussion in particular. The problem wasn't just slippery conditions, but the question of how the vehicle can localize itself when the various visual cues that it uses are covered in snow (e.g. road lines). Pretty interesting stuff.
I think there are better potential solutions for a self driving car to orient itself in those kinds of conditions than for a person. I've driven in miserable weather, and it is very disconcerting - you just guess and go. A self driving car could take measurements of the road + gps coords + look its map database to know how many lanes there should be, then estimated where the lanes and limit lines are. Once my eyes fail me, I don't have a fallback.
Re: Hidden obstacles for self driving cars
#14It seems to me we have a better chance of seeing low flying autonomous vehicles for personal transportation before we see self driving cars (think quad coptor drone style vehicle with 500 lb payload capability). Autopilot systems are already widely used in commercial air vehicles. Fewer obstacles need to be accounted for in the air and there is less in grained regulation. It feels like we are going to leapfrog the ca…
Why do you think this? Self-driving cars seem reasonably close whereas there doesn't seem to be anything resembling what you're proposing. Also, aren't autopilot systems successful in commercial air vehicles because they operate high up away from most everything other than a few birds and other commercial air vehicles and they maintain massive separation between vehicles (compared to roads)? This wouldn't seem to scale well to lots of small personal vehicles relatively close to the ground. Or are airborne autopilot systems also good in these situations and I'm just unaware?
Re: Hidden obstacles for self driving cars
#15I am making a bold prediction that it will be decades before a self driving car can drive itself safely on Indian streets.
Road Signs ? None.
Rules ? They're more like suggestions.
Roads ? What Road ?
Re: Hidden obstacles for self driving cars
#16It seems to me we have a better chance of seeing low flying autonomous vehicles for personal transportation before we see self driving cars (think quad coptor drone style vehicle with 500 lb payload capability). Autopilot systems are already widely used in commercial air vehicles. Fewer obstacles need to be accounted for in the air and there is less in grained regulation. It feels like we are going to leapfrog the ca…
There were actually a bunch of vehicles designed for the army in the 1950s that were just to complicated for human pilots...
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piasecki_VZ-8_Airgeep
Re: Hidden obstacles for self driving cars
#17I am making a bold prediction that it will be decades before a self driving car can drive itself safely on Indian streets. Road Signs ? None. Rules ? They're more like suggestions. Roads ? What Road ?
They just have to be significantly safer than humans, and that's not hard.
Re: Hidden obstacles for self driving cars
#18I am making a bold prediction that it will be decades before a self driving car can drive itself safely on Indian streets. Road Signs ? None. Rules ? They're more like suggestions. Roads ? What Road ?
They just have to be significantly safer than humans, and that's not hard.
If only that were true. A single crash right now would make big headlines.
Re: Hidden obstacles for self driving cars
#19So what if the car can't drive itself in anything other than familiar roads during clear weather? I would guess that the majority of my current driving is done under those conditions. If the car could take care of itself most of the time but fell back to my control during rain, snow, obscure roads, or construction zones, I think it would still be a net benefit to me.
The problem there is driving is a skill, and one which you can lose if you do not exercise it. A self driving car which only works 99% of the time seems like a non-starter, since by that point the humans inside of them are no longer qualified to take over. Particularly if that 1% is in conditions that are particularly difficult.
I don't have a driver license so for me that would be perfect. I don't care about driving, I don't want to drive, but I want my (or a) car to come for me to the bar / after work. If the weather is not good then I will use public transport.
I think people overestimate their abilities. Sure, this is a new technology but in X years these cars will be better drivers than 99% of the people.
Re: Hidden obstacles for self driving cars
#20It seems to me we have a better chance of seeing low flying autonomous vehicles for personal transportation before we see self driving cars (think quad coptor drone style vehicle with 500 lb payload capability). Autopilot systems are already widely used in commercial air vehicles. Fewer obstacles need to be accounted for in the air and there is less in grained regulation. It feels like we are going to leapfrog the ca…
Why do you think this? Self-driving cars seem reasonably close whereas there doesn't seem to be anything resembling what you're proposing. Also, aren't autopilot systems successful in commercial air vehicles because they operate high up away from most everything other than a few birds and other commercial air vehicles and they maintain massive separation between vehicles (compared to roads)? This wouldn't seem to sca…
In the air you have an entire 3rd dimension to play with. You can get far more density of vehicles per route. You can fly in a band lower then commercial air vehicles 300-1000 ft has hardly any vehicles flying. The self driving car always strikes me as a faster horse solution.