Autonomous vehicles OK'ed in California.

[Artlav]

If you have a save autonomous driving software, it should see pedestrians on the sidewalk, specially kids and just go slower, leaving safe space to brake.

You make it sound as if that's something straightforward.

Let's look at some educational material.
(somewhat disturbing content warning)

A. Here is the most common situation of a pedestrian being run over.
You are driving along, there are no signs of anything, no motion detectable anywhere, then suddenly a kid runs across the road right in front of you.
Nothing to detect, no time to brake.
Only general solution is to move at the speed of your knowledge cone, which would be slightly over walking speed on such streets.

All in all, you can't solve the pedestrian issue just by motion detection or people detection.
In most cases you would need the whole scene to be parsed and potential points of sudden appearance identified, which is quite a bit harder a task.

 

[Keatah]

In scene A the kid is visible several car lengths back. Fast moving kids can go anywhere and do anything at any time - therefore speed must be reduced when around them.

 

[RGClark]

In scene A the kid is visible several car lengths back. Fast moving kids can go anywhere and do anything at any time - therefore speed must be reduced when around them.

Yes. A person driving might have seen that only out of the corner of their eye and not recognize that the child was about to run into the street. But a self-driving car could be programmed to slow down then.

Bob Clark

 

[4throck]

Local farmer I would say, obviously poor security on the gates. Unless they are very clever cows and can pick the locks. Tricky with hooves.

N.

Those cows roam free as they please. It's a protected area and good for the environment. There are Danger Cattle signs so it's your problem if you run into the cows. :thumbup:

In that situation you don't speed, don't use the horn of light signals.
That may make the nice cows nervous.
You keep going slowly and they will move away :lol:

LOL that should be fun to program into a AI...

---------- Post added at 17:15 ---------- Previous post was at 17:09 ----------

You make it sound as if that's something straightforward
....
the whole scene to be parsed and potential points of sudden appearance identified, which is quite a bit harder a task.

Agreed.
But as a consumer I don't care if it's hard on the programmer/hardware.
I just care if I'm safer (including the danger of provoking and accident).

What seems possible is auto-driving in freeways, specially in heavy traffic. Constant speed, constant distance, etc.

 

[Andy44]

In that situation you don't speed, don't use the horn of light signals.

Which brings up another question: how will an automated car use its horn?

Use of the horn is a very human action, and the context in which it is used makes the difference between honking in anger, as a warning, or as a gentle reminder to look up from your phone because the light is green (with a long, sustained blast to add "you jerk" to end of that last sentence).

The horn is also governed by different laws. In some places, using the horn for anything other than an actual emergency is a violation. In other places, like NY City, not using the horn may be taken as a sign of weakness.

Use of flashing headlights as a signal is another one.

Presumably, two automated cars won't need horns or flashing lights; but interaction between automated cars and manual cars or pedestrians is another matter.

 

[Lucy]

Which brings up another question: how will an automated car use its horn?

Use of the horn is a very human action, and the context in which it is used makes the difference between honking in anger, as a warning, or as a gentle reminder to look up from your phone because the light is green (with a long, sustained blast to add "you jerk" to end of that last sentence).

The horn is also governed by different laws. In some places, using the horn for anything other than an actual emergency is a violation. In other places, like NY City, not using the horn may be taken as a sign of weakness.

Use of flashing headlights as a signal is another one.

Presumably, two automated cars won't need horns or flashing lights; but interaction between automated cars and manual cars or pedestrians is another matter.

Under the Highway Code here, the horn is a device fitted to your car to alert other drivers to your presence in case they are unaware and this might be potentially dangerous, like when they haven't checked their mirrors and are reversing towards you.

In practice, it tends to serve as an expression of distaste for the pillock and his reckless manouvre right in front of you (I've used it myself quite a bit for this).

I wonder, car-to-car autonomous communication between driverless cars - will they be sending digital middle fingers to each other for a 0.002s too slow reaction to the lights? :lol:

 

[Notebook]

BBC has been here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37706666

 

[Andy44]

BBC has been here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37706666

Excellent read, and exactly what I was getting at. Interaction between drivers.

As an aside, I am really starting to hate Google, and their cutesy little car isn't helping with that.

 

[RGClark]

Elon Musk: We Will Have “Full Self-Driving Capabilities” in 3 to 6 Months.
In Brief
Written By Author Dom Galeon Editor Kristin Houser
January 24, 2017

In a recent tweet, Tesla CEO Elon Musk wrote that cars with full self-driving capabilities will arrive in the next three to six months.
Tesla has been making improvements to both its Autopilot software and hardware, so this timeline seems doable for the cutting-edge company.

https://futurism.com/elon-musk-we-will-have-full-self-driving-capabilities-in-3-to-6-months/

IF true, then one segment of the labor force that of drivers will removed within a shorter time frame than expected.

Bob Clark

 

[Urwumpe]

Nobody really wants to talk about it, but Germany has also started to OK autonomous vehicles on its roads. Sort of.

The law is some sort of contradictory in its current form, like permitting to take your hands off the steering wheel for doing unspecified things until requested by the autopilot to take control, but the next paragraph requires the driver to watch the traffic all the time and take action should the autopilot react wrong. A blackbox is mandatory then.

It will get fixed in parliament I hope.

The annual congress on road traffic legislative (Verkehrsgerichtstag, VGT) in Goslar has already rejected the draft, because it is too hostile for new technologies and does not give drivers and manufacturers a clear definition of the legal responsibility.

 

[RGClark]

Google’s self-driving cars just got way better at driving themselves.
Waymo is way safe
by Andrew J . Hawkins@andyjayhawk Feb 1, 2017, 2:23pm EST

...Waymo’s self-driving cars are failing at a much lower rate, even as they are driving a whole lot more miles. The company says that since 2015, its rate of safety-related disengages has fallen from 0.8 per thousand miles to 0.2 per thousand miles in 2016. So while Waymo increased its driving by 50 percent in the state — racking up a total of 635,868 miles — the company’s total number of reportable disengages fell from 341 in 2015 to 124.

http://www.theverge.com/2017/2/1/14474790/google-waymo-self-driving-car-disengagement-dmv-california

Making a personal comparison, I have to drive 25 miles to work, each way. So 50 miles round trip, for 250 work days per year or 12,500 miles per year. At 0.2 disengagements per thousand miles, that's once per 5,000 miles. Then I might have to interrupt the self-driving function only 2 or 3 times in a year.

I would have to leave on time though, since the self-driving function wouldn't be allowed to speed.


Bob Clark

 

[RGClark]

John Krafcik
CEO, Waymo
Apr 24
Apply to be part of Waymo’s early rider program.

Like many Americans, Ted, Candace and their four kids have a busy driving routine — heading to work, to school, soccer practice, student council, choir rehearsal and more. Except Ted and Candace aren’t commuting in a typical car. Over the last month, this family, along with a handful of Phoenix, AZ residents, has been riding around in Waymo’s fleet of self-driving vehicles. They’re among the very first people in the world to take part in Waymo’s early rider program.
Now, residents in the Phoenix area can apply to join Candace, Ted, and their family in the early rider program. Over the course of this trial, we’ll be accepting hundreds of people with diverse backgrounds and transportation needs who want to ride in and give feedback about Waymo’s self-driving cars. Rather than offering people one or two rides, the goal of this program is to give participants access to our fleet every day, at any time, to go anywhere within an area that’s about twice the size of San Francisco.

https://medium.com/waymo/apply-to-be-part-of-waymos-early-rider-program-5fd996c7a86f

Bob Clark

 

[AssemblyLanguage]

Trap for autonomous car.

 

[RGClark]

Trap for autonomous car.

Funny!

Bob Clark

 

[RGClark]

Elon Musk clarifies Tesla’s plan for level 5 fully autonomous driving: 2 years away from sleeping in the car.
Fred Lambert - Apr. 29th 2017 2:05 pm ET @FredericLambert
https://electrek.co/2017/04/29/elon-musk-tesla-plan-level-5-full-autonomous-driving/

Bob Clark

 

[RGClark]

The government just made a big move to get self-driving cars on the road as soon as possible.
Reuters
David Shepardson, Reuters

WASHINGTON, July 27 (Reuters) - An influential U.S. House committee on Thursday approved a revised bipartisan bill on a 54-0 vote that would speed the deployment of self-driving cars without human controls and bar states from blocking autonomous vehicles.

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-up...-speed-deployment-of-self-driving-cars-2017-7


Bob Clark

 

[Thorsten]

Now, WHY would anyone sane design a car control system with network access?

I dunno. For the same reason perhaps some banking apps want to ID you by a fingerprint on a touchscreen, something that I can circumvent if I have a glass you touched and some flour - convenience for the user as sales argument overriding every security consideration.

Automatic software updates, no need to drive into the repair shop. It all gets done while you sleep - surely you can see the picture.

And, well, you don't actually want to sell the car control system (no money in that) - you want to run your app store for the car. For which you need... network.

This isn't about making driving safe - this is about making money - lots of it.

 

[Col_Klonk]

Elon Musk will be bankrupt in 12-24 months via lawsuits... SpaceX will fold... and Blue Origin will continue :lol: The lawyers (hyenas) are just waiting...

Would you trust some dingbat to program your life...
No ways.. take a long walk on a short plank.
:tiphat:

 

[RisingFury]

Elon Musk will be bankrupt in 12-24 months via lawsuits... SpaceX will fold... and Blue Origin will continue :lol: The lawyers (hyenas) are just waiting...

Would you trust some dingbat to program your life...
No ways.. take a long walk on a short plank.
:tiphat:

/\ this is what reality looks like in your mind.



\/ this is what reality actually looks like:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space...aunch_market_competition_and_pricing_pressure

http://money.cnn.com/2017/07/29/technology/business/tesla-model-3/index.html

 

[RGClark]

Autonomous vehicles could reduce accidents with pedestrians to nearly zero.

One of the things I was surprised about is how hard it is to see pedestrians at night, especially if they're wearing dark clothes, and especially if they are off to the side. Pedestrians don't seem to be aware of this. They see these huge headlights heading towards them so they think you see them too. But your headlights only illuminate an area a few feet ahead of your vehicle, and very poorly to the side.

So in lieu of autonomous vehicles being fully in place, I think nighttime pedestrian illumination systems and automatic braking systems should be mandatory on all vehicles. Now, they are installed only on high end vehicles. But with mass production put on all vehicles that would greatly reduce the cost.

Driving a BMW with night vision proves illuminating.
Previewing technologies that make the dark less scary.
Last updated: October 20, 2014 11:30 AM
https://www.consumerreports.org/cro...th-night-vision-proves-illuminating/index.htm


Bob Clark