Now this is some seriously cool shit.

[unixronin]

Volkswagen has built a self-driving VW Golf that can plan its own routes in real time around obstructions and traffic cones, then race through the route at up to 150mph -- no creeping around the test course at 10mph here.  VW claims it can drive a laid-out test course faster and more precisely than their own engineers can drive the car manually.  VW says features of the car will be appearing in production VWs "in a few years".

Now THIS could cut down on traffic fatalities -- and maybe traffic congestion too.

(Thanks to midiamin for the out-of-band pointer.)

Comments

[yndy.livejournal.com]

so I am *so* luddite in this regard... I wouldn't trust an automated car...
maybe I've read one too many Heinlein short stories about how the automated/robotic piloted vehicles just don't have that human element... but I don't think I'll ever fully trust that sort of thing.

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

Hell, I just enjoy driving too much.

Shortly after this becomes possible, it will be come mandatory.

Bleah.

-Ogre

[yndy.livejournal.com]

I love driving... so that thought disturbs me.

Maybe we can convince the fundies that auto-driving cars are possessed by the devil, and they'll keep it from being mandated! :P

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Heh. Let the fundies get into it, and you won't be able to buy one even if you want to. After all, the 93-year-old church secretary who can't see the end of her own cane without her glasses and can't remember for five minutes at a time where she put her glasses has a God-given right to drive, just like anybody else! And that motorcyclist she killed last week because she didn't see him? Oh, well, that's OK because, you know, God called him.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I enjoy driving, up to a point. But there's been many times on long freeway drones I've wished I could just set the autopilot and take a nap -- or even just sit back and relax for a while. Few things are more boring than, for example, driving across Nebraska. I poersonally would love to have an autopilot in my car, even if it was only legal to use it on interstates.

Then again, I'd prefer to get most traffic off the ground altogether.

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

something like this come to mind? http://www.moller.com/skycar/

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

It'd be a start. But I'd prefer something with orbital capability, with non-air-breathing thrusters of some form, and stressed for at least 10G. :) That ought to be enough ....











(.... to get me up to my starship.)

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

lol, and blackcoat calls me strange?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

The way I look at it is, at least the automatic system isn't going to be yakking on the cell phone while it's driving. Or putting on its makeup. Or eating a burger. Or reading a newspaper or a book. Or blinking owlishly through the windshield at the passing blurs because it has 20/100 vision and can't remember where it put its glasses. And I have at least reasonable confidence that it's not going to fall asleep at the wheel and cross the center divider, or signal right and then merge left into me and claim it didn't see me. I know for damn sure it's not going to be driving drunk. The robotic vehicle may not have "the human element" ... but neither does it ever have a lapse of attention, or a bad day at the office, or three martinis too many over a power lunch, or a couple of lines in the studio washroom before leaving for the producer's party.

Frankly, there are a hell of a lot of people out on the roads whom I feel shouldn't have licenses. The US accepts a shockingly poor level of driving competence as adequate.

[yndy.livejournal.com]

While I agree that at least 50% of the people out there driving shouldn't be allowed to have licenses (okay, that's lowballing it seriously...) my problem is this -- my computer crashes, locks up, is vulnerable on levels I'm not.
I'm an aggressively defensive driver... I trust my own instincts to avoid those horrid drivers you mentioned above fairly well. I avoid accidents on a regular basis because I don't just drive 'defensively' but rather 'paranoidly' - I'm convinced that the moron isn't going to stop for that light/stop sign/other moron and so I manage to avoid him when he doesn't.

But what happens when the computer-driven car gets locked up? emergency reboot? that could be fricking dangerous.

I'm reminded of that joke email that went around years back about microsoft v. ford... http://www.usd.edu/~bwjames/humor/ms/microsoftcars.html

If you built in a manual override (which would be the only way I'd feel safe) the morons you mentioned would be the first to utilize it.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

my problem is this -- my computer crashes, locks up, is vulnerable on levels I'm not.

Yeah, but your computer -- like 95% of the other personal computers out there -- is built from bottom-dollar commodity components engineered for low price, not for reliability, because the manufacturers figure it doesn't really matter if it fails -- you'll just buy another. To make matters worse, almost all of those personal computers are running a festering pile of insecure-by-design compiler turds scarcely worthy of being dignified with the title of "operating system", produced by a software company that thinks it's perfectly acceptable for an operating system to crash multiple times a day and has only just now -- after over twenty years -- grasped that malware is a serious problem. (At least, it's currently making mouth noises that suggest it may have finally grasped that. Only time will tell.)

A self-driving car has to be reliable, and it has to work every time. Just like the engine control computer that's probably in the car you have now does. Can you imagine the lawsuits if Volkswagen put a car on the market with an autodrive system that was as unreliable as Windows?

No auto manufacturer will put a car on the road with an autodriving system that isn't as close to 100% reliable as they can possibly make it. Because they know that the very first time it fails and causes an accident, they're going to get sued, and it's going to hurt.

[blackcoat.livejournal.com]

Also, it's significantly less likely that you're going to be running 3rd party software, installing that video card that had a driver conflict, or surfing the net for virus laden porn.

After all, unless you're driving a car that is totally manual, you're already depending on computers to keep your engine running, shift for you, intermediate between your steering wheel and your tires, and in some newer cars work the brakes. So I don't wanna hear about how "I don't trust computers in cars."

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

We trust computers to run our heart and lung bypass machines during surgery and our respirators afterwards....

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

i drive a 1949 Plymouth Special Deluxe, 3 speed column shifter, points and a carberator! ain't no 'puter in my ride!

[blackcoat.livejournal.com]

...well, ok. You're strange. And, as I said, "unless you're driving a car that is totally manual," which yours fits the bill.

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

~grinz~ i'm not strange, i just happen to be a mechanic that hates new cars!

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

At times, I miss my considerably-worked 1970 Camaro SS350. But at the time I sold it, it was about to start consuming large quantities of money, because it needed the engine reworked to run happily on unleaded gas, and could have used new front fenders to REALLY fix the body cancer.

At that, though, I'd installed a Purolator breakerless electronic ignition with a Hall-effect sensor and a trigger ring in the distributor, so it was no longer EMP-hard anyway.

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

i don't have hardened valve seats, i just dome lead additive in the tank when i fill up!

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

Of course, you need the road guides and GPS accurate to one inch, but it is cool.

The most important part of this comes from a study of traffic patterns. Traffic models well as a gas. For most gaper blocks and traffic slowdown, the entire incident could be cleared in as little as ten minutes if one car in six (maybe five) had the radar sensing braking and acceleration. That would be enough to restore laminar flow to chaos. (I think I read this in "Science", but it has been a while, and I can't be sure.)

That means that even though I will never be able to afford a car with these features, I will be able to reap the benefits when 16% - 20% of drivers have it. (I hate to drive!)

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

That sounds pretty familiar.

[dafydd.livejournal.com]

I wonder if the technology will appear in the Grand Challenge (http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/index.asp) this year?...

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I won't be surprised if Volkswagen fields an entry.