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There are a number of issues that need to be overcome before fully autonomous cars replace human drivers, not least of which is how far society is willing to trust them. Inclement weather is another matter; I don’t know how you can make a system that safely deals with ice and snow. The public is incredibly intolerant of self-driving accidents, and they’re held to a far higher standard. California just shut down Cruise over a single accident that they weren’t even at fault for. There’s no balancing of risk. Nobody asks how many accidents that many human drivers would have caused, and I think that’s a shame.
I’m sure that fully autonomous driving will eventually replace human drivers, but probably not for the foreseeable future. I’m 38, and I’d be surprised it it happened within my lifetime. I think the tech will get there long before society does.
Ford's CO-PILOT 360 system isn't affected by the weather. My Explorer sees and senses everything no matter the weather conditions. What need is a sensor system that is above the road and not embedded in the road and we need to build the cars to read or sense off something that is higher than the vehicle itself.
Ford's CO-PILOT 360 system isn't affected by the weather. My Explorer sees and senses everything no matter the weather conditions. What need is a sensor system that is above the road and not embedded in the road and we need to build the cars to read or sense off something that is higher than the vehicle itself.
I have that system in my new F150, and I’m really impressed with it. I’m sure it does great in poor weather, but it’s certainly affected by it. I was playing with the lane keeping system yesterday, and it tried to run us off the roads when the lane split off into a turn lane at a curve. It thought the lane got wider, causing the truck to veer to the right because it wasn’t looking far enough ahead to see the turn lane lines. Tesla’s autopilot used to do the same thing until recent updates.
Street lines aren’t weather, but how would the system handle snow covering the lines? What if there was ice on that corner when this happened? I think snow and ice are big obstacles to fully autonomous driving in the northern states.
Who takes the blame for a serious accident resulting in critical injury or death, is the driver(vehicle owner) going to be blamed or is the manufacturer going to be blamed.
From what I understand autonomous driving cars depend partly upon the ability to communicate with a satellite for directions, what happens when cloud cover, bridges, tunnels or just poor satellite communications blocks this communication, , what happens when the computer freezes up and they will just like your laptop, desktop or phone freezes.
When is it going to happen? Where? Are you speculating, guessing, wishing or do you know? How do you know? Show me the facts. And as you say, I don't believe random dudes on the net. No one here knows your credentials.
Here, in San Antonio, the test streets where they were running them, the cars were constantly confused. They were unable to read the stripes on the road due to them becoming to dirty to read over a period of time. The solution was to constantly clean the streets or paint the stripes anew every few weeks. The cars were also having problems reading the reflective devices placed for them to scan due to sun deterioration, or direct sunlight washing them out. There were also other minor issues with traffic signal and stop sign reading. It's not uncommon at this latitude for road signs to fade due to deterioration. The city determined that the cost to maintain infrastructure to a satisfactory level for autonomous vehicles was not cost effective.
I worked for the city as a police officer during the test time, so they kept us informed of the situation and the issues they were having, and to be on the lookout for the test vehicles and the traffic problems they could cause.
It's all speculation at this point in time based on current technology. When is anyones guess. All I'm saying is it will happen.
It's all speculation at this point in time based on current technology. When is anyone's guess. All I'm saying is it will happen.
Maybe, maybe not. We were all supposed to have our power provided by nuclear plant by now, a colony on the moon, super sonic passenger jets. Remember reading Popular Mechanics as a kid and being thrilled at what the future held? Yeah, many of those things came true, yet many did not, even though they were developed. Even the seemingly greatest products have failed due to the lack of public interest.
Despite how enthusiastic some people are about EVs or autonomous driving, The public at large isn't as enthused. All one needs to do is look at sales to see where demand still lies. Again, I'm not against EVs, they absolutely have their place. And I get that there are certain demographics who are excited about autonomous vehicles. Particularly the elderly and handicapped, sadly that demographic is the least likely to afford such vehicles. Uber and Lift have dominated the market of quick and reliable local transportation largely negating the need for autonomous vehicles.
Maybe, maybe not. We were all supposed to have our power provided by nuclear plant by now, a colony on the moon, super sonic passenger jets. Remember reading Popular Mechanics as a kid and being thrilled at what the future held? Yeah, many of those things came true, yet many did not, even though they were developed. Even the seemingly greatest products have failed due to the lack of public interest.
Despite how enthusiastic some people are about EVs or autonomous driving, The public at large isn't as enthused. All one needs to do is look at sales to see where demand still lies. Again, I'm not against EVs, they absolutely have their place. And I get that there are certain demographics who are excited about autonomous vehicles. Particularly the elderly and handicapped, sadly that demographic is the least likely to afford such vehicles. Uber and Lift have dominated the market of quick and reliable local transportation largely negating the need for autonomous vehicles.
Some years ago, my last job had an office in a small california city called San Carlos, and one building over was a small EV start up that was coming out with a Roadster that was done via putting batteries and electric motor in a lotus Elise chassis. I used to run into a bunch of engineering people from that company at the local coffee shop. They told me that the lithium batteries were just a temporary measure and that that new chemistry replacement was just around the corner “a few years away”.
in case my references are too subtle, the company was Tesla and the year was circa 2008.
so whenever I hear people from outside the industry telling me “the tech is there”, it makes me laugh.
Maybe, maybe not. We were all supposed to have our power provided by nuclear plant by now, a colony on the moon, super sonic passenger jets. Remember reading Popular Mechanics as a kid and being thrilled at what the future held? Yeah, many of those things came true, yet many did not, even though they were developed. Even the seemingly greatest products have failed due to the lack of public interest.
Despite how enthusiastic some people are about EVs or autonomous driving, The public at large isn't as enthused. All one needs to do is look at sales to see where demand still lies. Again, I'm not against EVs, they absolutely have their place. And I get that there are certain demographics who are excited about autonomous vehicles. Particularly the elderly and handicapped, sadly that demographic is the least likely to afford such vehicles. Uber and Lift have dominated the market of quick and reliable local transportation largely negating the need for autonomous vehicles.
Remember Star Trek of the 60's. Kirk and his communicator we all laughed at the notion of having such a device.
Then along came the flip cell phone, then the bar cell phone, now we have bar cell phones with folding glass.
Just saying. If you ever want to know what the future has in store, watch science fiction as before long it becomes science fact. We had super sonic passenger planes in the 70's, remember the Concorde?
Now we haven't actually put a colony on the moon yet, <-- key word, we're putting machines on another planet a lot farther away.
So yeah I'm relatively certain autonomous transportation will be a real thing. Maybe not in our lifetime but yeah.
Remember Star Trek of the 60's. Kirk and his communicator we all laughed at the notion of having such a device.
Then along came the flip cell phone, then the bar cell phone, now we have bar cell phones with folding glass.
Just saying. If you ever want to know what the future has in store, watch science fiction as before long it becomes science fact. We had super sonic passenger planes in the 70's, remember the Concorde?
Now we haven't actually put a colony on the moon yet, <-- key word, we're putting machines on another planet a lot farther away.
So yeah I'm relatively certain autonomous transportation will be a real thing. Maybe not in our lifetime but yeah.
never mind colony on mars, how’s that next generation of battery to reduce our dependence on Chinese owned lithium mines and battery processing plants going?
it’s hilarious you use Concorde as an example, a plane that was wildly fuel inefficient, with the carrying capacity of a third rate regional jet, being a massive money losing proposition even with its high ticket cost, only 20 made, ever, and that it hasn’t flown in 2 decades with no similar product being made since, a mere status symbol for the rich. That Concorde?
never mind colony on mars, how’s that next generation of battery to reduce our dependence on Chinese owned lithium mines and battery processing plants going?
"Now, scientists at MIT have developed a new alternative to lithium-ion batteries: aluminum-sulfur batteries, which, if adopted, could revolutionize the EV industry."
"Now, scientists at MIT have developed a new alternative to lithium-ion batteries: aluminum-sulfur batteries, which, if adopted, could revolutionize the EV industry."
ive been involved in electronics manufacturing in some way since the 90s. In the late 90s words were spreading that newer chemistry was “a few years away, 5 max” and new tech that “could “ replace lithium was always just around the corner ever since
let me know when the tech you referenced makes its way into mas produced EVs
Yeah, the Concord never made it. It was a consistent money loser and no other manufacturers wanted to compete. If sub sonic jet aircraft are insanely expensive to maintain and operate, super sonic aircraft are on a completely different level.
And I didn't say all innovations fail, some do well, others have come and gone while others fail altogether. Flying cars, personal helicopters, shoes with coil springs, projector TVs, quadraphonic sound, just to scratch the surface.
We were told decades ago that cold fusion was around the corner, that there would be tourist flights in space as common as airliner flight, that the US had killer laser satellites, etc. Much of this stuff is in theory still able to be developed, but the cost is incalculable. So it never makes production or becomes toys for the wealthy, like personal submarines, personal hovercrafts or cars that turn into boats.
Yep, you can have a watch today like Dick Tracy had, that only took about 70 years to become a reality, or Star Treks communicators, that took about 40 years. I'm still waiting for my phazer by the way.
No people will ever colonize Mars in our lifetime, if ever. I'm not even sure I believe that the Mars Rover is still active after all these years. There won't be a La Quinta and Denny's on the Moon. Somethings just don't work out, will never work out or can never work out.
And in the future there will be things that no one has ever thought of that are yet to be developed or discovered. Some will be revolutionary, others just wont make it for one reason or another.
ive been involved in electronics manufacturing in some way since the 90s. In the late 90s words were spreading that newer chemistry was “a few years away, 5 max” and new tech that “could “ replace lithium was always just around the corner ever since
let me know when the tech you referenced makes its way into mas produced EVs
I'm an electrical engineer and have designed seismic data acquisition systems since the 90's and for land systems, battery technology was always the limiting factor you had to deal with. Solar panels was a big help when in the right environment and micro electronics and processors have improved significantly by consuming less power, but batteries are still the gating item.
I have that system in my new F150, and I’m really impressed with it. I’m sure it does great in poor weather, but it’s certainly affected by it. I was playing with the lane keeping system yesterday, and it tried to run us off the roads when the lane split off into a turn lane at a curve. It thought the lane got wider, causing the truck to veer to the right because it wasn’t looking far enough ahead to see the turn lane lines. Tesla’s autopilot used to do the same thing until recent updates.
Street lines aren’t weather, but how would the system handle snow covering the lines? What if there was ice on that corner when this happened? I think snow and ice are big obstacles to fully autonomous driving in the northern states.
Yeah, I didn't consider the lane keeping feature as I don't like it and I don't use it but you're right, it's part of the system. I feel like I have to fight the car to make it do what I want.
If your truck has the Ford nav system, you may find more reasons for disappointment. The nav system impresses me only a little so I prefer the android auto as Google does a superior job of mapping the country.
After owning the Explorer with most all the bells and whistles, I've discovered that I'm happy with less factory equipment. Don't get me wrong, it's nice and all but my plain Jane 2011 truck has served me remarkably.
After owning the Explorer with most all the bells and whistles, I've discovered that I'm happy with less factory equipment. Don't get me wrong, it's nice and all but my plain Jane 2011 truck has served me remarkably.
Simpler is better when you have a million other things to manage.
Over the weekend I drove to visit some family, 3 hours each way, about 450 miles total. I took my nearly 20 year old compact sedan with manual transmission, manual windows and manual door locks, not to mention manual seats. But the seats are comfortable, the car was quiet, no rattles, the suspension managed the road just fine, and took less than 11 gallons of gas. Played books on tape via a bluetooth FM dongle that plugs into the 12v outlet, navigation on my phone on a phone holder attached to the dash. Somehow I managed to not be bored. Similar story with my 06 Crown Victoria which I use when I ferry the rugrats to places like the grandparents'. The dashboard of that car would look at home in an early 90s car, but it does what it does very well.
