Would You Feel At Ease Being Driven In A Fully Autonomous Car?

Many of the big auto manufacturers are working on developing fully autonomous cars, with no steering wheel or driver controls, so you'd be totally at the mercy of the car's computers were you to be driven in one.

A Mercedes prototype:

Mercedes unveils a new all-electric and autonomous Smart prototype for ride-sharing

Granted, the one above is only meant for City driving so you wouldn't be going too fast, but would you trust such a vehicle to get you from A - B safely knowing you couldn't take control in an emergency?

I don't think I would!

If such a vehicle had a steering wheel, accelerator and brake pedal so you could take control if required then that would be different, IMO. Then I'd happily let it take me around a City. But I don't think I could ever feel at ease in an autonomous car that offered no such controls, especially if, as seems likely they end up making them for all road and motorway use.

Any thoughts?

 

I am a semi-truck driver. I've had a lot of experience the last five years, or so, with some of the technologies.

I do like the idea of control being taken away from all you idiot car drivers. But I digress...

The syestms that I have experience with have glitches. The worst is collision avoidance. Its always exciting to be on an empty road and have the brakes suddenly lock up for no reason.

 

Seeing as I have driven a car on a public road, and thus see just how useless the average morons are at driving cars, I can't possibly trust a computer any LESS than I already do humans.

 

So I could do a drive by with no witnesses to rat me out? Hummm.....nope still wouldn't trust em.

 

I don't know how it would deal with road closures. I almost made a turn but then I saw the flares embedded in the road, so I had to change course and go another route. I felt glad I wasn't driving a self-driving car because it might have just run over the flares and then crashed into the police roadblock. How would I stop it? I wouldn't be driving.

 

Frankly, I think there are scenarios like yours where automation will make things way better. For example, the car could be aware of what is farther ahead than you can see, due to wireless communication. And, roads won't be blocked the same way. The officer could warn and divert automated cars from inside his vehicle. No more flares on a rainy night!

However, I'm not at all saying I'd be comfortable in a self driving car!

Software has bugs. Period. Cameras get dirt when used outdoors. Information networks fail.

And, the distance and speed between vehicles is such that one wonders how an automated vehicle could analyze the amount of data available in time to detect a problem and make and execute an avoidance plan that would be obvious to a human.

 

But then you might have to pay a subscription service to update the traffic conditions in the car??? Or would that be included in the price with the lifetime of the car like car GPS devices???

 

I have absolutely no idea what the pricing models might be for self driving cars.

There are issues with insurance. There are issues related to having multiple individuals who share no business relationship other than the right to use some car. There are undoubtedly rules of evidence, etc., when accidents occur. There already are various levels of automation, where the rules are probably not the same for every level.

It might be that individuals will subscribe to a business that provides a fleet of cars - maybe a little like Uber or Lyft.

One of the advantages might be that you don't have to own a car in order to have one when you need it - without having to park, fuel, do the paper work, buy insurance, schedule maintenance, etc. It might be nice for cars to never again provide surprises in the family budget!

 

One the one hand, a network of cars that are talking to each other and are taking the steps to maximize traffic flow and minimize human error is a good thing.

But I'm not comfortable with purely autonomous driving cars. What if the autonomous truck pulling a flatbed has a tie-down fail and now all of a sudden...part of the load is flying off in the slipstream and I'm right behind them.

Not having controls means that the only thing I can do us pucker my arse, duck and pray. If I have controls...I can at least take the controls back and make an emergency maneuver.

Give me the self-driving properties, but retain my manual control.

 

I know what you mean.

However, the theory is that automation will react and avoid - panic stop, swerving, or whatever. The car may know what is on all sides without "looking", knows braking efficiency, can warn other cars of the panic stop so you don't get rear ended or space is made available, etc.

Also, if the car is doing the driving, I'll bet few are awake enough to intervene in the required time.

But, I do know what you mean.

It feels like betting my life that my computer won't lock up.

 

Another way to put it. We now have autopilots on commercial airliners that can literally take off, fly to and land on a specific runway at another airport. We have TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) that can instruct an autopilot of one plane to climb while another plane on a collision course is instructed to descend so they both miss each other. They're working on a system that gives traffic controller level awareness as to else is in the same airspace as you.

Yet even with all of that...they still need pilots and co-pilots and they still have manual controls.

 

There are some major differences with airplanes. For example, airplanes can't pull over to the side and stop like cars can.

Also, as drones and your own comments demonstrate, the work load for airplane pilots could be reduced significantly. Removing pilots from airplanes would probably be disconcerting to passengers. Until then, there will be system after system after system designed to make sure the pilot is doing the right things at any point in time - instead of just doing those things. Your TCAS example is a case of automation being able to perform a function better than a human can.

Could a drone passenger plane land in the Hudson river? That was a miracle landing, but what happens when there are major failures is an important question.

 

My point exactly. Artificial Intelligence isn't able to deal with all eventualities. We aren't either really, but we're a lot more adaptable. Something comes up that we don't have a plan for...we're wired to "just wing it".

The average computer on the other hand...not so much.

 

Well, automation is catching up in that area. Humans have limitations, too, and automation is stepping in.

Remember that Sullenberger's plane was flyable even though all the engines went out. Those systems weren't crippled even with that kind of catastrophic failure.

And, there are numerous horrible airplane crashes where the sole problem was human error.

My bet is that cars will be safer, and the kind of accidents will change. With some accidents, we'll recognize that a human could have done better. But, overall fewer people will be injured.

 

I think in order to answer the OP question we would need to assume that all contingencies have been designed into the system, and, that ALL vehicles are driverless. So, will we ever know all contingencies? And I doubt in the next 100 years that ALL vehicles will be driverless.

However, in a perfect driverless system, this would be great! Not only can we rest and not deal with the other idiots, the vehicle can even be used to deliver and pick up stuff without any passengers...

 

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Yes, I would trust an autonomous vehicle more, for any other drive except myself .

Seriously, at this point, I'm not sure that they've been tested sufficiently. But they are getting close and the time will soon be here.

I see many other posts pointing out that these may fail at certain situations. But so do regular drivers.

The real issues is not whether computer drivers are perfect, but whether they are better than the average human driver.

 

Whenever I hear about driverless delivery I think about how lazy people are about not wanting to unload the truck. They want to leave it to the truck driver. There's got to be more than driverless trucks for delivery to work, perhaps robots on the scene to unload them.

Until then I'm thinking of whatever company's driverless road test where the passenger was killed by a truck that the driverless system confused for a road sign, or something.

 

One way to handle the offloading chores on package deliveries is to use pick up and drop off fixed-size parts bins...each vehicle can have the option to transport the bins.

No matter...I agree this technology has a long way to go before wholesale acceptance...

 

The first time for anything is uncomfortable


The reality is that this technology is gonna happen
Regardless of how we feel about it
And any current defects will get ironed out


By in large, self driving tech is already more reliable than a large number of current drivers
And will get better
Which is something you cannot say about human drivers

Btw, I can definitely see requiring this tech for anyone with a dui

 

I have two roombas at my house so no, I'll drive myself.

 

They need kiosks out on the street, all over, that you can use to summon a driverless taxi.

Some people think they will own a driverless vehicle, but the estimated model is that you don't own one you pay for one when you go out somewhere. I hope the fees per ride are cheap if that's the case.

 

I wouldn't 'feel at ease' if my autonomous car was overtaking another vehicle at speed and on a motorway - or any other 'way' - that's for sure. Especially if I thought it wasn't doing to necessary speed to overtake then tuck back in again to avoid oncoming traffic. It'd put years on me!

 

I would like to drive a car and not have to put my meat hooks on the steering wheel unless I want to drive. Then I should be able to take the steering wheel at any time.

 

A huge issue with driverless cars IMO is they do not reduce the number of cars on the road. As population and urban density continue to grow, in any long term discussion, having more and more vehicles on the road simply does not work. No matter if a person is a passenger or the driver of a vehicle, a two-hour commute is still two hours! And unless 100% of the vehicles on the roads are driverless and under computer control, there will always be risk for accidents. The future of transportation must greatly reduce the number of vehicles on the roads...

 

How would a driverless car be programmed? We can guess the programming must be within the laws. If the speed limit is 65mph what can be the maximum speed of a driverless car? Legally the answer is 65mph. Will they allow it to go 5mph faster only when passing? If we have a mixture of driver and driverless cars on the roads, those with drivers pay little attention to speed limits. For me it's as obtuse as allowing cars and bicycles to share the same roadways...each have extremely different speeds and capabilities and don't mix well...