Self-Driving Cars ... Maybe

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jpmcwjr

Moderator
Staff member
May 12, 2015
24,744
27,344
Carmel Valley, CA
As long as we're not throwing our sabots into the engine compartment....
Very mixed feelings over driverless... I can see it for crappy commutes, which I no longer have to do. Maybe Interstate driving.
I have self parking in my car, and one day it decided it would park me. Don't know what button combo I hit, but that was the first and only time.

 
My wife's car has automatic cruise control, where it just takes over every now and then, and makes for a dangerous situation, when I think that taking my foot off the peddle with decelerate us. I refuse to drive the death box. If my truck isn't fancy enough for us, then I don't want to go.
I love interstate driving. It's one of the few places I get to open it up to over 90MPH, sometimes 100MPH, where I know that there won't be any cops. Got to love Alabama.

 

bluto

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 24, 2018
737
8
My wife's car has automatic cruise control, where it just takes over every now and then, and makes for a dangerous situation, when I think that taking my foot off the peddle with decelerate us.
The newer ones are active , I think they use ultrasound , it’s possible to set the following distance and it will even fully brake and stop the car if traffic ahead stops.

 

bluto

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 24, 2018
737
8
..mixed feelings over driverless...
Its already here , in drones and autonomous underwater vehicles . I think kids are building model sailboats capable of ocean crossings . Its only a matter of time and cultural acceptance when AI takes over commuter planes , transocean shipping , subways , trains etc.

 
You don't like fast? You will notice that the average speed on the interstate is around 85 to 90, but going that slow, you'd better keep it in the middle lane. And, never honk your horn. Honking the horn in Alabama will illicit weapons to be pointed at you. Honking is just considered very rude.

 

olkofri

Lifer
Sep 9, 2017
8,049
14,667
The Arm of Orion
You know you can switch it off right ?

Two questions: How easy is it to do so? And, will I be able to in the future?
Take Traction Control to illustrate both: by regulations, it's now mandatory. Yes, it can be turned off, but how easy is it? Some makers like Toyota make it easy, just press a button on the dash; others, like Ford make you go through menus and submenus. And EVERY TIME you turn the car on you have to disable the darn thing: talk about frustrating people into acceptance.

 
Jan 28, 2018
13,076
137,040
67
Sarasota, FL
In my experience, if you want a ticket in Alabama, drive over 79. 79 and below, you're fine. I just finished my online BMV 4 hour "class" because of a ticket I got the last time I was in Alabama. I was only doing 85.

 

woodsroad

Lifer
Oct 10, 2013
11,798
16,173
SE PA USA
Even today you can operate an unregistered vehicle, without a license, only as long as you do so in a "reasonable" manner and do not endanger/injure/kill others, on your own property or "go-cart" track or other "open to the public" amusement. Even they usually have age and sobriety thresholds. And, oh the horror, horsepower restricted vehicles.
Ah...no. Many municipalities have ordinances governing such questionable practices as using your own land as you see fit. I know that my township, despite being commendably laissez-faire, places restrictions on the use of off-road non-farm vehicles on private land. The reason is, of course, buttheadded morons who annoy their neighbors with noisy ATV's and dirt bikes.

 

bluto

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 24, 2018
737
8
Take Traction Control to illustrate both
Another example would be antilock brakes , something I wish was optional. I drive a lot in ice , slush , snow and know how to modulate my braking , far better than any engineered abs .
But it’s designed to improve drivability for idiots who simply slam on their brakes and wait , yes wait , for their car to stop in all conditions.
So , yes , active collision avoidance is selectable for now but I think I would use it by default .

 
Jan 28, 2018
13,076
137,040
67
Sarasota, FL
I have never heard of someone seeing a cop on the interstate here. I thought it was state law that policemen were not allowed on there.
You must have your ears full of tobacco then. LOL Or they are looking for Yankees driving through the State (very, very possible). I have gotten a ticket between Cullman and Birmingham driving South on I65 and this last one was driving East on 20 about 15 miles East of Birmingham. I was actually talking to Harris at the time and forgot to set the cruise control at 79, so my bad.

 
Meanwhile, here in Alabama, we allow any vehicle on state roads only, and you can even park in the middle of the state highway. This is so that farmers can just toss together any old thing to fill with his crops to take to the Co-op. I have seen trains made up of defunct school buses, with the tops cut off, filled with watermelons, and up to eight or these pulled by a tractor. I also know people who just park in the middle of the highway when it rains. And, if you hit their car, you are at fault. Also, the state also reduced the state police force to only two troopers on duty for the whole state. I was serious when I said that the interstate doesn't allow policemen. We do have a law that says that county sheriffs and city policemen cannot patrol the interstate at all. So, if you get a ticket on there, you should have bought a lottery ticket, because its your lucky day to run across one of the only two cops on ALL of those miles of interstate.

 
Jun 4, 2014
1,134
1
Several years ago I attended an conference about up coming trends in the insurance industry. Along with drones, and other things one of the biggest was about self driving cars. Claims are already starting to appear and the insurance industry is scrambling. Several Tesla cars have crashed into other vehicles while using their auto pilot system and the question of who is going to pay for the damages is up unknown.

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,459
Public relationships with public transportation are deeply ingrained and not the same from place to place. When my wife was a child, people in northern rural Missouri used the passenger trains like a trolley and rode six miles to the next town. Prepared food could be sent interstate in cold weather and arrive in good shape ready to re-heat and eat. Then the automobile industry, oil companies, and tire companies used their clout to remove street cars and trolleys in cities so people would rely on cars, and trucking made deep inroads in railroad freight profits. Now light rail especially is seen as a socialist concept, instead of rail being a Robber Baron province. The Washington D.C. Metro, which I knew in its early days when it was clean, on time, and quite snappy looking and well managed, is now the opposite. The whole Chicagoland suburb concept was based on prompt dependable commuter trains; it was an easy drive to the station for many, and others could walk. Pretty idyllic. mike', I know batteries would take us anywhere, with good recharging stations. A car without a gasoline engine is just outside my comfort zone, for no logical reason.

 

aldecaker

Lifer
Feb 13, 2015
4,407
42
Boy, am I late to this party!
"And, "control freaks" will never be comfortable sitting idly by as a passenger."
Warren, every day I go to work I see self-proclaimed "control freaks" get on commercial aircraft. As I have probably mentioned before, that's where you get on a big aluminum beer can filled with jet fuel so two complete strangers can fling you through the atmosphere at three-quarters of the speed of sound. If a control freak can cope with that discomfort, a self-driving car on terra firma should be no problem at all.
"That is California. Other states don't tend to run as sloppy as them."
California has mastered the art of making every imaginable nightmarish trope and cliche about government come true. That's on them, and every other state shouldn't necessarily be beaten with that same yardstick, IMO.
"I personally believe we're decades away from what is technically classified as SAE Level 5, aka "Full Automation"."
Meh. An illiterate meth-head with the flu could use a 60s-era "65 in one" Radio Shack electronics kit to fabricate a self-driving car that is safer than most of the numb nuts I see on the road. A big problem is that as Americans, we see a driver's license as a birthright, not as an accomplishment of learning or competence. That's why every pinhead who has managed to elude Darwin's clutches for 16 years gets one.

 
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