At this point, self driving cars are going to happen whether enthusiasts want them or not. Because the fact of the matter is most people don't care about driving all that much. And hey, if you spend your days trapped in traffic, the idea of a truck that could drive you home can seem pretty attractive. Check out the full story on the F-150 mule here.

 

That's what I want it for. Would love to sleep or watch a movie during my hour long commute. The danger is that if they are much safer than a human driver as is likely, the insurance for driving it manually may be much more expensive.

 

I seriously doubt we will see self-driving on public road for some time yet.

 

For me, half the fun of owning an F150 is driving it. While I'm not a fan of the self driving vehicle at the moment, I can definitely see value in it having dealt with older folks losing their drivers license. Something like this would be a way of feeling like they still have their freedom.

 

What is going to be interesting is, when someone has an accident because of a system malfunction, who is going to be liable?

 

Very true and that`s why I said awhile back in another posting that sooner or later, dash cams are going to be required or mandated by law to be in all vehicles.

 

Liability is an issue that will need to be resolved. Most of the big auto companies are investing heavily in this technology right now so i think they believe these cars (and large trucks) will be on the road sooner than you may think. I would be very surprised if it took more than five years or so.

 

True that. The state of California already has a lot of self-driving cars on the road, and has issued several rules that are the beginning of that. The bottom line though is that self-driving cars follow the rules, drive very conservatively. and they don't get in very many accidents. I know of only one accident that was pinned on the self-driving car, and that particular one might have just as easily been pinned on the bus driver (collision was between a self-driving car and a bus).

What I wonder about is when it will become illegal for people to drive cars because they cause 99% of the accidents.

 

That's really the big question... Right now, the tech is kind of ahead of the laws. How that's going to play out, I'm not exactly sure. But the desire for self-driving cars is out there, and it's going to have to get sorted out soon.

 

My thoughts on self-driving vehicles follow. They'll probably be rather random order and I may need more than one post.

Heavy Trucks

• A number of companies have semis that can self-drive almost anywhere. They have problems fueling and backing up to loading docks. But those problems will be sorted out, even if initially some human drones fuel them, open the doors, back them to the docks and close the doors when required.
• Everything in your house was hauled by a truck at least once. Everything. (Well…I guess the water and natural gas wasn’t.)
• Truck drivers are limited in the hours they may drive. Autonomous trucks aren’t. They’ll run 24/7.
• Truck drivers create costs for benefits, bookkeeping, paid absence… Autonomous trucks don’t.
• Every truck line knows that the initial costs for the new equipment will quickly be paid for by the savings resident in wholesale layoffs.
• A tractor-trailer vehicle is ~75’ long. About 15’ of that is the tractor forward of the saddle (fifth wheel). That tractor configuration isn’t needed if there’s no driver aboard. All of it can be tucked under the trailers overhang. So, the new trailers can increase their length from 53’ to 68’.
• They can put the same configuration at both ends of the vehicle. One engine pulling, the other pushing. Now the truck doesn’t have to back up to a loading dock. It will just go in a different direction. It will never have to back up again.
• What we think of as the Interstate highway fast lane will be the trucks-only freight lane. They’ll get nose to tail for streamlining and travel at speeds in excess of the passenger vehicles.
• Autonomous passenger vehicles will make it easy for the trucks merging onto the Interstate and will allow them to cross lanes to merge with the truck “train”. The truck traffic will open a gap for them, they’ll merge and be gone.
• This wholesale change will happen soon and fast. The world needs to be ready to deal with the thousands of truck drivers who will be unemployed. They’re not going to let their families starve.

No matter who you are or how you’re employed…there’s a robot coming for your job.

There's a lot more to consider as relates to passenger vehicles. I may write more later.

I'm interested in your thoughts.

 

it is a problem what to do about the truckers put out of work by these things over the next ten to fifteen years. I wont even use the self checkout lane at safeway because it puts checkers out of work. With the trucks though, there is so much money to be saved I can't imagine the trucking and insurance companies won't be all over this

 

2017 meets 1984. No thanks.

 

The future is rapidly approaching and robotics are going to change everything in our lives and I agree.......most if not all jobs will be taken over by non human labor.

 

No matter how automated anything becomes, it still takes humans to design, create, manufacture, program, etc. I design circuit boards and see a lot of tech before the general public does. There isn't an "automated" system, router, whatever that can do what I can do. Machines can't think. They can't reason.

 

Interesting perspective, CR. It's fodder for a continued exchange but we're flirting with getting way off topic. Perhaps another day on another board.

I probably should have limited my comments.