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Self driving cars and beyond

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Re: Self driving cars and beyond

#61

Post by icebraining »

EarthIsHome wrote: post #35
adrianN wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Autocars have the potential to reduce the price of this kind of transportation by an order of magnitude.

> Autocars have the potential to reduce the price of this kind of transportation by an order of magnitude. Could you cite this? I find this hard to believe. I currently pay around $70/month for an "unlimited trips" Marta transit card in Atlanta. It gets me anywhere I want to go within the city. Getting out of the city is another story.

What's the recovery ratio of Marta?

EDIT: It's 34%. And the cost per bus passenger trip is $3.63. Yeah, I could see automatic cars (and buses) being cheaper that that, unless the average trip is very long.

http://stip.gatech.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/MARTA-AVs-...

Re: Self driving cars and beyond

#62

Post by CM30 »

letscavort22 wrote: post #2

It’s great to explore this topic. You can have a lot of fun in picking a random industry and imagining the effect that self driving will have. Health - beyond the obvious effects on the emergency room, what else? Ambulances willl quite clearly be affected. Why would someone wait minutes for one to arrive when they can just hop in an autocar to go the hospital? Or would the entire emergency room itself be on wheels? (…

> Health - beyond the obvious effects on the emergency room, what else? Ambulances willl quite clearly be affected. Why would someone wait minutes for one to arrive when they can just hop in an autocar to go the hospital? Or would the entire emergency room itself be on wheels? (Less likely.)

Well, the car can't go through red lights or overtake in certain locations to get to the hospital more quickly. That could be an easily ignored issue in some cases (if traffic is light or if it's easy to get to the hospital from your current location), but good luck if there's a traffic jam or the car needs to ignore certain laws to save your life.

Re: Self driving cars and beyond

#63

Post by selimthegrim »

chubot wrote: post #25
KKKKkkkk1 wrote: post #4

A couple of years ago there was a new article on the front page pretty much every day about the great new thing that will change our lives--3D printing. I'm worried that whatever happened to 3D printing is about to happen to self driving. What did happen to 3D printing?

Yes, I agree that you shouldn't take the premise for granted (that self-driving cars will be here soon). A high-profile Uber investor has said that level 4 self-driving won't be in the U.S. for 25 years: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/06/bill-gurley-uber-investor-se... That means they can service people without driver's licenses and people who can't drive -- the old and the young. Also, Chris Urmson said the transition…

What are people doing abut this?

https://www.wired.com/story/self-driving-cars-power-consumpt...

Re: Self driving cars and beyond

#64

Post by CM30 »

amenod wrote: post #14
ilovecars2 wrote: post #6

This is kind of a meta comment, but I’ve been lurking on HN for a while on car posts in particular. I have the impression that HN in general doesn’t like cars all that much, and in fact we would be much better of without them. I can’t argue with the facts: congestion and pollution in large cities, such as London, have never been higher where almost all on-road public transport is still run on diesel. However, I think…

I am quite sure that people who will want to drive cars will still be able to - but not necessarily on the same streets as self driving cars. Isn't it the same now with horses and carriages?

Not sure where you live, but over here, horse and carts can indeed travel on the same roads as cars/lorries/buses/bikes/pedestrians/whatever. They're obviously a lot less common than they used to be, but every now and then you'll see a horse and cart go trotting by like it's still the 1800s or what not.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/code-of-practice-...

Re: Self driving cars and beyond

#65

Post by jdminhbg »

CM30 wrote: post #62
letscavort22 wrote: post #2

It’s great to explore this topic. You can have a lot of fun in picking a random industry and imagining the effect that self driving will have. Health - beyond the obvious effects on the emergency room, what else? Ambulances willl quite clearly be affected. Why would someone wait minutes for one to arrive when they can just hop in an autocar to go the hospital? Or would the entire emergency room itself be on wheels? (…

> Health - beyond the obvious effects on the emergency room, what else? Ambulances willl quite clearly be affected. Why would someone wait minutes for one to arrive when they can just hop in an autocar to go the hospital? Or would the entire emergency room itself be on wheels? (Less likely.) Well, the car can't go through red lights or overtake in certain locations to get to the hospital more quickly. That could be a…

That depends on how far out you're projecting. In a hypothetical all-self-driving future, a car with a sick occupant could broadcast its emergency mode to the rest of traffic to let it through.

Re: Self driving cars and beyond

#66

Post by tossaway1 »

CM30 wrote: post #62
letscavort22 wrote: post #2

It’s great to explore this topic. You can have a lot of fun in picking a random industry and imagining the effect that self driving will have. Health - beyond the obvious effects on the emergency room, what else? Ambulances willl quite clearly be affected. Why would someone wait minutes for one to arrive when they can just hop in an autocar to go the hospital? Or would the entire emergency room itself be on wheels? (…

> Health - beyond the obvious effects on the emergency room, what else? Ambulances willl quite clearly be affected. Why would someone wait minutes for one to arrive when they can just hop in an autocar to go the hospital? Or would the entire emergency room itself be on wheels? (Less likely.) Well, the car can't go through red lights or overtake in certain locations to get to the hospital more quickly. That could be a…

Ambulances do a lot more than transport patients. It's already the case that you can usually get someone to the hospital faster than waiting for an ambulance. Typically if you're using an ambulance you're going to need someone to provide medical assistance on location and/or help load you onto a stretcher.

Re: Self driving cars and beyond

#67

Post by northwest65 »

KKKKkkkk1 wrote: post #4

A couple of years ago there was a new article on the front page pretty much every day about the great new thing that will change our lives--3D printing. I'm worried that whatever happened to 3D printing is about to happen to self driving. What did happen to 3D printing?

3D printing is alive and kicking, and is a fantastic tool for the hacker/maker to have in his workshop. I use my cheap basic FDM printer (DaVinci 1.0) on a regular basis to make all sorts of things for my hobbies and business.

The manufacturing capabilities it has given me has absolutely revolutionized the way I think. I think back to before I purchased one, and I was so skeptical about whether it could produce any value at all. I assumed everything it would produce would be too weak to be of any value, and that the limitations of FDM would make parts too difficult to design. Well I was completely wrong and I only wish I had started down this path sooner.

I think my fantastic experiences with 3D printers is in part because I'm an experienced maker and a competent 3d modeller. I can knock up a prototype (like the Lipo balance charger circutry cradle I just finished) in an hour and have it on my desk in another half a dozen. Once I'm happy with that I can have another half a dozen ready for when I wake up in the morning.

Best of all it's just a tool. I never wanted a 3D printing hobby, and I haven't had to take one on. I put filament, power and my STLs in, and parts come out. I've had to repair the wiring loom on one stepper motor as it's a basic unit with no cable chains, but other than that it has been operated like a hammer or a soldering iron, on when I need it, off and on a shelf when I don't.

Re: Self driving cars and beyond

#68

Post by ilovecars2 »

clfougner wrote: post #39
ilovecars2 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is your opinion on flying for pleasure (i.e vacation)? We know that flying too is very damaging for the environment and creates terrible noise pollution. Would love to hear your thoughts on this!

That isn’t the same thing at all. When you fly for a vacation, the flying is a means to an end (transportation), not the goal in itself. This discussion is about driving for fun, in which the driving is the goal in itself, not transporting yourself to a “fun” destination.

Not necessarily, you could be doing both at the same time. This is actually quite popular, as a kind of Grand Tour.

For example, a driving tour of the French Alps would, I think, count as driving for pleasure, especially when you could take a coach and do the same trip. You can even pay to go on organised tours, such as http://petrolhead.tours.

Re: Self driving cars and beyond

#69

Post by ghaff »

bjelkeman-again wrote: post #34
ilovecars2 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I believe that cars are not a transportation solution that scales like public transportation, for instance, does. One thing I would like to add is that public transport is too very difficult to scale. For example, the Northern, Central and Piccadilly lines on London Underground are massively overcrowded to the extent where it’s borderline dangerous. I don’t really know what TFL can do about it, because the lines al…

Having lived in London I am starting to wonder if really large cities aren’t going to suffer under overcrowding and increased housing prices to the point where it very painfully (maybe) self regulates?

It already does. Far more people would live in the desireable areas of London and Manhattan, among others, if the housing were available at half the current prices. The effects in the greater Metro areas are less—people trade off commute time for lower prices/more space—but people still absolutely factor in CoL when making location choices. I certainly would never consider a number of areas for that reason.

Re: Self driving cars and beyond

#70

Post by IntronExon »

KKKKkkkk1 wrote: post #4

A couple of years ago there was a new article on the front page pretty much every day about the great new thing that will change our lives--3D printing. I'm worried that whatever happened to 3D printing is about to happen to self driving. What did happen to 3D printing?

3D printing is here, just not in the form envisioned by the media. Autonomous vehicles may be here soon, or they may take decades to be ready for prime time. There seem to be indications that autonomy, real autonomy, is hard and distant.
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