Despite High Hopes, Self-Driving Cars Are ‘Way in the Future’ • Hacker News Board

Re: Despite High Hopes, Self-Driving Cars Are ‘Way in the Future’

#441

Post by mkl » Sat, Jul 20, 2019, 7:10 AM UTC

yazanobeidi wrote: post #438

mkl wrote: post #437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most ones I regularly go through here (Christchurch, New Zealand) seem adaptive, as you can see the detector positions (often separate ones for cyclists as well). The lights clearly respond to them. The behaviour along long busy roads here may well be just timing to line up greens.

In the USA the latest statistics indicate less than 3000 of these adaptive lights are in operation (“less than 1%”). I am curious what New Zealand did to fund the six figure cost per intersection.

Hm. Maybe we're talking about different things. The detectors I mean are fairly simple: inductive loops in rectangles cut into the road, that detect the metal body of a car (or metal frame of a bike). They don't seem technologically advanced or expensive (but I don't know the cost). This article claims they're common: https://auto.howstuffworks.com/car-driving-safety/safety-reg...

Re: Despite High Hopes, Self-Driving Cars Are ‘Way in the Future’

#442

Post by yazanobeidi » Sat, Jul 20, 2019, 4:06 PM UTC

mkl wrote: post #441

yazanobeidi wrote: post #438

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the USA the latest statistics indicate less than 3000 of these adaptive lights are in operation (“less than 1%”). I am curious what New Zealand did to fund the six figure cost per intersection.

Hm. Maybe we're talking about different things. The detectors I mean are fairly simple: inductive loops in rectangles cut into the road, that detect the metal body of a car (or metal frame of a bike). They don't seem technologically advanced or expensive (but I don't know the cost). This article claims they're common: https://auto.howstuffworks.com/car-driving-safety/safety-reg...

Sorry, now I see what you mean!! Yes underground inductor loops are already pretty common. They make it possible to do things like preventing a change of lights if nobody is waiting on the red. The limitation is it can only detect the car that is physically on top of the inductor loop. They can also be less than ideal in some situations e.g. someone on a side road turning right who triggers a change of lights, needlessly stopping the main road. It’s typically a great improvement over nothing at all, but there is additional (massive) improvement.

I thought you were initially referring to Adaptive Traffic Signal Controllers [1]. They detect vehicle congestion in real time and adapt routing strategies to maximize throughflow. They also coordinate directly with other traffic lights instead of relying on manual timings. Which are often determined through lengthy and data intensive “signal studies”. These have shown to provide, for example, substantial time savings, fuel and emission savings, and there have been measurable positive effects on safety.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_traffic_control

Re: Despite High Hopes, Self-Driving Cars Are ‘Way in the Future’

#443

Post by tlarkworthy » Sat, Jul 20, 2019, 10:58 PM UTC

rimliu wrote: post #127

tlarkworthy wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have multi player poker breakthrough so it seems possible. I don't think planning is the core issue, I think that's solvable in time, it's the hardware and reliable general perception that is the blocker

In poker, the computer knows, that none of the players will suddenly start playing chess instead of poker. On the road, the number of possible situations is way way way bigger.

Just need to worry about car Dynamics and pedestrian locations. None of these things can teleport. The problem does have physics imposed limits.

Re: Despite High Hopes, Self-Driving Cars Are ‘Way in the Future’

#444

Post by twblalock » Sun, Jul 21, 2019, 10:47 PM UTC

tabtab wrote: post #439

twblalock wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Should everyone own a self-driving car and also a normal car they can drive in situations the self-driving car cannot handle? Keep in mind that public transit is nonexistent in many of the places that have weather conditions self-driving cars can't handle. For me personally, if a self-driving car cannot handle 100% of the driving and I have to own a second car, I might as well just make that second car my only car an…

No. Use Uber if you must go out in bad weather. It's rare you have to go out in bad weather. Amazon etc. can deliver dog food if you forget.

> It's rare you have to go out in bad weather.

Lots of people have to go to work in bad weather or they will get fired.

Re: Despite High Hopes, Self-Driving Cars Are ‘Way in the Future’

#445

Post by tabtab » Tue, Jul 23, 2019, 5:12 PM UTC

twblalock wrote: post #444

tabtab wrote: post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Use Uber if you must go out in bad weather. It's rare you have to go out in bad weather. Amazon etc. can deliver dog food if you forget.

> It's rare you have to go out in bad weather. Lots of people have to go to work in bad weather or they will get fired.

Bot-cars in snowy places may be better equipped for bad weather. They could be more like snow-mobiles than cars, or the bot co. could have a fleet for snow-mobile-like-cars for the winter (or have winter wheel-train add-ons).