Jeena,
"Automotive manufacturer Daimler unveiled a self-driving truck – the first to be cleared to drive on US roads" http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27485-autonomous-truck-cleared-to-drive-on-us-roads-for-the-first-time.html#.VU-vqfSNFuE
Finally! I wondered for years when we will get this technology. Obviously we need to do something with all the human drivers but I for one welcome our new autonomous overlords! I anticipate the next one will be busses in cities, then garbage trucks and taxis.
17 Replies
Well, I guess we’ll see. The cars got more expensive after they got airbags but still, nowadays every car has one. I assume that the price is still worth it.
sure , it will save lifes, but the people that's gonna buy them are limmited to the ones who have alot of money, car manufacturers won't lower the price, sure there might be cheap alternatives, but most people won't afford them either,
http://thenextweb.com/google/2015/05/11/googles-self-driving-cars-have-been-in-11-accidents-because-humans-are-dumb/?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=buffer&utm_content=buffered193 - good read concerning this.
i do know how an airbag works , and the electrical components are the same, that's why we have "SRS" lamps etc, that's for showing if it works or not, and on older cars they start to _not_ work, i'm just saying from experience working on cars, i don't think there's a problem of how the programs etc are programmed etc, , the problem is that new cars _are not_ built to last a long time, They just arent, it might be hard to accept but, it's the truth, that's why if it is gonna work you will have to buy an new car every 3-5 years to outrule the problems of things not working,
I don’t agree. “Real” drivers kill just too many people, your scenario is such a small price to pay for the safety we get. Right now every 25 seconds a person is killed in a traffic accident, I’m quite sure we can get it down a lot by automation.
Like Jeremy Clarkson said, " there will come an moment where the selfdriving cars will find themselves in an situation where they will be about to crash and will have 3 options , A: drive into an certain death, B: verve to the left and kill an mother with her 2 children, C: verve to the right and kill 1 Pensioner, He also pointed out that if they sell second hand selfe driving cars there will be an home mechanic called gary that thinks "I can fix this myself" etc, nah keep drivers in the driving seat that can make real decisions
But even if we assume that this stuff only be working for the first 3 years of the cars lifetime (even if I don’t agree), during this time it still will be so much safer than the alternative that it will be worth it because we will still save so many more lives compared to not using this technology.
When autonomous cars become mainstream, there will no need for an individual or a family to buy a car. Cars stay uselessly off the road most of their time. If cars drive themselves you can just call a car whenever you need it and it will come there to you. So I think there will be less cars on the street in the future.
This concept will work when everyone in the world are millionairs and u can afford a new car every 2-3 year, since u will have an expire date on cars,
airbags and technology in cars is not to mixed up, you start noticing that quite early, u can manhandle an airbag so much without nothing happening, corrotion wont affect it, mostly nothing will, but car manufacturers want to make cars as cheap as possible, therefor electrical joints that will corrode due to to little gold etc, sure i have nothing against a computer driving, but when it's made to be as cheap as possible there will be problems, most electrical components in new cars are quite fragile, and break quite easily after a while,
But airbags _are_ technology in cars: “The airbag is linked by an electrical cable to the sensor and a tiny computer. … The movements are converted to signals send to the computer. …” https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=106&v=UTvPndZOP9g So the airbag uses exactly the electrical components you say are not working right now. Still the airbag managed to save millions of lives since its been introduced into cars.
No, not really, we got airbags in basically every car right now without everyone being a millionaire, the same will happen with autonomous driving. Not only that but it will make driving cars cheaper because if you let a computer drive it will use less fuel because it will drive softer than every 20 years old testosterone pumped wannabe race car driver, etc. ;-) I think there will come the day, rather sooner than later, that this will be mandatory because the other alternative is just too dangerous.
Paolo, you mean less cars parked somewhere?
Yes, but considering most cars travel with just 1 person in, most of future cars could be smaller and traffic could improve
We could also have cars automatically hook up into trains on the highways etc when practical, reducing energy consumption considerably. Like a train receptacle system or so, letting the cars drive really close to each other.
They do that (manually) in Italy... Not sure about the reduced emissions though.
On the show MythBusters, drafting behind an 18-wheeler truck was tested and results showed that traveling 100 feet (30 m) behind the truck increased overall mpg efficiency by 11%.[10] Traveling 10 feet (3.0 m) behind the truck produced a 39% gain in efficiency. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drafting_%28aerodynamics%29
2 Likes
1 Repost