Hammond: Driverless cars will be on UK roads by 2021

Discussion in 'Western Europe' started by cerberus, Nov 20, 2017.

  1. cerberus

    cerberus Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Someone please point out to this fool, before his useless government wastes even more £zillions of 'hardworking people's taxes', :roll: that nobody will buy a 'driverless car' because we all like driving too much. DUH!! I ask again - who are these idiots who presume to govern us?'

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42040856

    "In the Budget, Mr Hammond is also expected to announce:

    • £75m for artificial intelligence
    • £400m for electric car charge points
    • £100m to boost clean car purchases
    • £160m for next-generation 5G mobile networks across the UK
    • £100m for an additional 8,000 fully-qualified computer science teachers supported by a new National Centre for Computing
    • A retraining partnership between the TUC (Trade Union Congress), CBI (Confederation of British Industry) and the government
    • £76m to boost digital and construction skills
    Funding for 5G technology will go towards the National Cyber Security Centre to ensure the security of the mobile network, as well as testing on roads to help provide the network needed for driverless cars.

    A further £35m will be used to give rail passengers reliable mobile connections and "lightning-speed" internet during journeys"

    Looks like he's found the proverbial 'money-tree'? :roflol: He's obviously forgotten about our debt mountain of £3.4tr. :roll: Jesus, and to think I heard Jacob Rees-Mogg (the only politician I have any respect for) praise his 'intelligence' to the rafters on the BC TV news last night. So much for Jacob Rees-Mogg for high office then!
     
    Last edited: Nov 20, 2017
  2. The Scotsman

    The Scotsman Well-Known Member

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    Assuming that cars and trucks do actually go driverless...what are all the taxi, truck, van drivers etc going to do?
    [​IMG]

    Perhaps he should be putting the money aside for unemployment benefits for the millions that will lose their jobs?

    As the driver is the chancellors cash cow are they going to program driverless vehicles to break the speed limits...5 cameras that earn a mint...
    A1 / Great Ponton North Bound, Lincolnshire – £606,400
    M180 West of River Trent, Scunthorpe – £583,500
    M25 London Orbital junction 17-18, Rickmansworth – £538,500
    M25 London Orbital between junction five and Clacket Lane Services – £373,300
    A12 Stratford St Mary Southbound – £305,400

    Are driverless trucks going to have time limits imposed on them that they are programmed to break so they can be fined?
     
    Last edited: Nov 20, 2017
  3. cerberus

    cerberus Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    And what nobody has apparently thought of is - if the vehicles are all programmed to go at the same speed, how do we overtake a notional dawdler, or a heavily-laden lorry? Unless I'm missing something, this is all so surreal in that it isn't even workable, least of all a good idea?
     
    Last edited: Nov 20, 2017
  4. The Scotsman

    The Scotsman Well-Known Member

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    ....exactly! This has been the absolute proof of the concept for driverless cars. The M25 has been the test case for decades and its been proved that cars can remain in the same lane at the same speed for hours without any human intervention..... you can read or tweet or shout insults without any need to handle the controls....
    [​IMG]
     
  5. The Scotsman

    The Scotsman Well-Known Member

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    Sadly I think you are right as there have been numerous problems reported especially with the hardware systems on certain vehicles and road equipped units. It came to light at the Driverless Vehicle and Road Users conference at Bummblefuk, Montana that some units were not yet fully equipped with the proper signal reception and directional awareness equipment dispite many years of trials and road use. Representatives from Googlebuffalo who have been piloting schemes for synchronising units into convoys have suggested that they ran into problems due to the lack of external antenna and software on certain categories of users (females) - it seems that the hi-gain antenna (horns) needed to recieve the signals and the software to interpret the signals are not fitted or responding on all buffalos and resultant problems have occurred with their lateral directional stability and evidenced as follows...

    [​IMG]

    Note the example of the two lead units.... those lead units have not had the correct antenna fitted in accordance with the OEM instructtion pack. These female units have wandered from the correct path causing problems for other units in the immidiate vicininty causing a hazzard that needs further study. It has been proposed by the various driver experts that females should be banned from the road altogether!
     
    Last edited: Nov 20, 2017
  6. cerberus

    cerberus Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    [​IMG] Very droll!! But it's when you need to pee that the real problems start?
     
  7. cerberus

    cerberus Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I don't mean it'll be unworkable because of the technology, I mean in the normal progress of a journey - the overtaking bit? Each and every journey will end up being like commuting in rush hours?
     
  8. The Scotsman

    The Scotsman Well-Known Member

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    The prospect of driverless cars is just awful...all I can see of the future is this...
    [​IMG]
     
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  9. The Scotsman

    The Scotsman Well-Known Member

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    ....and we can't moan about women drivers....:)
     
  10. cerberus

    cerberus Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Another downside of autonomous cars? Well, the main one? lol
     
  11. Denizen

    Denizen Well-Known Member

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    He's probably influenced by the fact that the UK is currently driverless, rudderless, and heading for the rocks.

    The UK has been going steadily backward since WW2 and possibly even before. If the UK ever had 'it', they lost 'it' decades ago.
     
  12. cerberus

    cerberus Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    At the risk of repeating myself (lol) - that's 'dumbing down' for ya! 'Give 'em wall-to-wall sport, red-carpet ****, and crap tv reality shows, and we can bend the fools to our will!'
     
  13. LafayetteBis

    LafayetteBis Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    STRENGTH IN NUMBERS


    That is far too large an indictment to be true.

    The UK has progressed economically pretty much in lockstep with the rest of Europe. What Europeans fail understand presently is that the EU is a "country". We make the mistake of thinking that spoken languages differentiate countries. They don't really, only economies accomplish that feat effectively.

    And the heart of any "economy" is its population in numbers that promotes Demand for goods/services.

    The EU is a common-market (at present) of 743 million souls. With Brexit, it is less 56M (the UK and Wales as well as maybe Northern Ireland) and Scotland may well vote (as they did with Brexit) to remain. Thus the EU has a post-Brexit population of about 690 million people. That is, a population of 325M more than the US - meaning a population double that of the US!

    The GDP ranked-distribution (2016) of the world's present economies is (in nominal GDP dollars, 2016):
    US - 18.6T
    EU - 16.5T
    China - 11.2T

    Population-levels in comparing comparative market-economies of roughly similar characteristics is key to understanding eventual economic potential - all else being comparable. At the end of the day, we are all consumers. The EU as well as China still has much economic development ahead of them. But inevitably the classification above in terms of GDP likely will be China, EU and the US as the top three (and in that given order).

    Which leaves the UK and Wales on the outside looking in. For the future of its peoples, both the UK and Wales should stop this present silliness and fall into line.

    Leaving the EU is not just stoopid but potentially an economic disaster and the UK should fall back in line. There is strength in numbers* - always has been, always will be ...

    *Preferring to drink beer in pints rather than liters is simply not a good-enough excuse for leaving! ;^)
     
    Last edited: Nov 22, 2017
  14. The Scotsman

    The Scotsman Well-Known Member

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    Our population has always been less that the US but they are one of our biggest trading partners likewise China!
    Population numbers are meaningless (DRC has a larger population than the UK by 30M!!) what counts is the value of the products and services you produce and sell and consume not how many people you have.
     
  15. LafayetteBis

    LafayetteBis Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    You are dead-wrong on that bit outlined in red above. There are the essence of any market-economy.

    As I tried to underscore in my comment, Population number is the heartthrob of any market-economy without which there is no Consumer Demand (that sparks Supply-side employment).

    To wit, It is amazing that the Krauts have all got tied-up in knots over the Muslim-migrants when their economy is crying-out-loud for warm-bodies to sweep their streets (etc.)! And the newly educated-Germans are putting further and further off in time the creation of families.

    Second corollary rule: The more a population is educated, the higher the standard of living AND the ability to prevent economic recessions within the whole-economy (the EU). Assuring low unemployment is not just Social-Democracy liturgy - it is just simple good-sense, because people who work-well generally keep up with the Joneses and don't create disorder!

    All the rest is relative to each country, that is, customs, language, idiosyncratic wants (often confused as "needs"), etc., etc., etc. (ad nauseam, there are so many) ...
     
    Last edited: Nov 22, 2017
  16. The Scotsman

    The Scotsman Well-Known Member

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    Indeed but there are far more drivers, subtleties and complexities than just having a large population. Granted growing economies need population growth but the issue with the UK is not just population its what you do with that population and how productive is that population amongst other things. Despite population increases in the UK the GDP/capita has remained stagnant for over a decade. The increase in the population has created a growth in jobs but are these jobs productive enough? We are told that the increase in the population is good - it increases the tax earned by the exchequer however does the tax take match or exceed the consumption of public services or stress of demand on infrastructure?

    Based on the current state of the demand for public services and the lack of avaliable resources to service that demand population seems to an issue and not a benefit. If ones large population and economy are based on (inter alia) low paid automotive cleansing operatives and hot brown liquid refreshement dispensing technicians then GDP will be an issue. These sterling chaps still consume public sector services whose salaries and pension benefits (based on current patterns) exceed the avaliable resources to maintain them efficiently.
     
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  17. cerberus

    cerberus Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Those in the gig economy, and those on minimum wage in the service industries - and I'd hazard a guess that's about half the working population - earn so little they don't pay any tax. And they sure aren't 'productive' to any great extent?
     
  18. Baff

    Baff Well-Known Member

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    They might not pay "income tax". But there are plenty of others.
     
  19. cerberus

    cerberus Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Well I'm referring to income tax - thought that was effing obvious! :wall:
     
  20. Baff

    Baff Well-Known Member

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    Yes, it is, but that is to ignore all the other taxes people pay. I feel that focusing on one single tax alone does not give a good understanding of the amount of taxes people pay.
     
  21. cerberus

    cerberus Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Delete
     
    Last edited: Nov 26, 2017

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