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The Driverless Car Revolution Should Not Begin with Cars

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Re: The Driverless Car Revolution Should Not Begin with Cars

#31

Post by protomyth »

> Compared to driverless cars, driverless trucking is technically way simpler

This person has never driven a truck or a bus[1]. The amount of stuff that can go wrong in a truck or bus, plus the amount of damage an error would cause is well above a car.

I think the whole driverless car should have started with smaller-than-car vehicles. I wish they had started with simple package delivery vehicles[2] and learned from them.

1) I did have a bus license in my poorly spent youth

2) something like http://badgerlandminitrucks.com/specs.htm but smaller. Vehicle drives to A, texts, accepts cargo and payment, leaves for B, texts person at B, B verifies ID, door opens, vehicles goes to next site - probably work OK in a city

Re: The Driverless Car Revolution Should Not Begin with Cars

#32

Post by throwaway0094 »

tlb wrote: post #25

The major benefit of self-driving isn't saving the costs of a driver's salary, it's reducing accidents. Commercial truck drivers are skilled and alert, so it's hard to be safer than them. Average commuters are distracted and accident-prone, so you can reduce accidents with near-future technology.

I don't know which commercial truck drivers you've observed, but anecdotally, I've seen some pretty distracted / inattentive behavior from truck drivers myself.

Are you suggesting that truck drivers are somehow ubermensch who can stare at highway for 16 hours without getting drowsy or losing focus? Automated trucks can drive with perfect attention 24/7.

That being said, I disagree with the article -- trucks take longer to stop, are harder to navigate in constrained spaces, and have higher stakes than personal cars. I wonder how difficult it would be to rob automated trucks by simply slowing down to a stop in front of them, for example.

Re: The Driverless Car Revolution Should Not Begin with Cars

#33

Post by tempestn »

graylights wrote: post #16

Driverless trucks is a real opportunity that could save a lot of money in shipping. But it could be exploited. If a person walks out in front of a truck, the automated truck better stop. Which an unguarded truck would become easy to rob with little risk. A flat tire would mean the truck calls in for help and is stranded defenseless on the side of the road. That said a fair amount of loss could probably be absorbed wi…

Honestly, I would rather this situation occur to a "defenseless" driverless truck than to one with a driver who might be injured or killed in the process. I highly doubt the rate of people stepping out in front of semis to rob them would increase drastically in any case.

Re: The Driverless Car Revolution Should Not Begin with Cars

#34

Post by mindslight »

Alternatively, instead of trying for heavier vehicles with longer hauls, what about something like citywide pizza/package delivery? You've no need for passenger safety, so the size and weight of the vehicle can be brought way down. Speed could also remain relatively low, mitigated by the fact that deliveries could be dispatched immediately rather than aggregating trips. Not that a person getting hit by a 400lb vehicle at 20mph is a laughing experience, but accident damages would be mitigated and an emergency stop-everything would actually be feasible.

Re: The Driverless Car Revolution Should Not Begin with Cars

#35

Post by jfno67 »

kposehn wrote: post #9

> Compared to driverless cars, driverless trucking is technically way simpler. When going from one warehouse in a sparsely populated area to a another warehouse in a similarly sparsly populated area, there’s a lot less that can go wrong. Not quite. Long haul trucking has far more things to go wrong than a short jaunt from two packed urban spots to another. A lot goes wrong on these trips. Flat tires, accidents, bad w…

You can also have a convoy of 1 manned truck with n driverless truck that play follow the leader. You end up with a train model on the road infrastructure.

Re: The Driverless Car Revolution Should Not Begin with Cars

#36

Post by svantana »

graylights wrote: post #16

Driverless trucks is a real opportunity that could save a lot of money in shipping. But it could be exploited. If a person walks out in front of a truck, the automated truck better stop. Which an unguarded truck would become easy to rob with little risk. A flat tire would mean the truck calls in for help and is stranded defenseless on the side of the road. That said a fair amount of loss could probably be absorbed wi…

whereas a manned truck in the same situation would just run over the guy? And what about locks, cameras, burglar alarms etc?

Surely a manned truck of today is easier to rob. You don't even need to move the goods, just steal the whole truck and be done with it.

Re: The Driverless Car Revolution Should Not Begin with Cars

#38

Post by msandford »

sigstoat wrote: post #28
graylights wrote: post #16

Driverless trucks is a real opportunity that could save a lot of money in shipping. But it could be exploited. If a person walks out in front of a truck, the automated truck better stop. Which an unguarded truck would become easy to rob with little risk. A flat tire would mean the truck calls in for help and is stranded defenseless on the side of the road. That said a fair amount of loss could probably be absorbed wi…

by the time you're crazy enough to step out in front of any sort of semi in hopes it will stop, so you can rob it, i don't think you're doing risk calculations in a rational way.

Okay so put a mannequin with enough of a heater inside of it to pass for human on IR and strap it atop a roomba and then have THAT "step out" in front of a truck. It's a $1000 dummy and as long as you rob every 5th truck successfully (20%, but really you'll probably get 90% of them) you can make back all the money on busted dummies and more.

Re: The Driverless Car Revolution Should Not Begin with Cars

#39

Post by greenyoda »

tlb wrote: post #25

The major benefit of self-driving isn't saving the costs of a driver's salary, it's reducing accidents. Commercial truck drivers are skilled and alert, so it's hard to be safer than them. Average commuters are distracted and accident-prone, so you can reduce accidents with near-future technology.

This was just in the news today:

"Looking at photos of women on Facebook is what distracted the driver of an empty fuel tanker when he crashed into two fire department trucks and three police cars on Interstate 8 killing a public safety officer in May..."

http://lasvegas.cbslocal.com/2013/11/03/on-facebook-looking-...

And imagine how many could have died if it was a fully loaded fuel tanker.

Re: The Driverless Car Revolution Should Not Begin with Cars

#40

Post by nawitus »

jfno67 wrote: post #35
kposehn wrote: post #9

> Compared to driverless cars, driverless trucking is technically way simpler. When going from one warehouse in a sparsely populated area to a another warehouse in a similarly sparsly populated area, there’s a lot less that can go wrong. Not quite. Long haul trucking has far more things to go wrong than a short jaunt from two packed urban spots to another. A lot goes wrong on these trips. Flat tires, accidents, bad w…

You can also have a convoy of 1 manned truck with n driverless truck that play follow the leader. You end up with a train model on the road infrastructure.

You can already do that with a road train.
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