Posted on 09/04/2013 1:10:10 PM PDT by rightwingintelligentsia
PITTSBURGH —A Pennsylvania congressman traveled to Pittsburgh International Airport in a driverless car designed by Carnegie Mellon University.
Rep. Bill Shuster, a Republican from Altoona, made the 33-mile trip at about 11 a.m. Wednesday. Shuster is the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and he was accompanied by Barry Schoch, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.
A Carnegie Mellon engineer was in the driver's seat as a safety precaution, but the Cadillac SXR was driven along local roads and highways by a computer system which uses inputs from radars, lidars and infrared cameras.
(Excerpt) Read more at wtae.com ...
What happens in bad weather, I wonder?
Catrans and some Berkeley boffins were working on this technology 20 years ago.
Big deal. I’ve seen an entire government led by an empty suit.
That’s nothing! Ted Kennedy rode in a driverless car on July 18, 1969!
Take away independent movement.
For SAFETY of course.
I was talking to my wife about this a few days ago. I strongly believe that most cars sold in 20 years will have a driverless option. And it will be used - a LOT.
It reminds me of the analog and digital speedometers on my car. I’ve always thought digital was dumb and preferred the nice dial of analog. But I’ve owned my car for three months now and I rarely view the analog speedo. Same thing will happen with these cars. Give it 15 years and I’ll bet most cars will be driven by computer. In 20, it will be the norm.
And though people will have the option to drive themselves, most people will be like me with my analog speedometer. I force myself to look at it, just so I feel it should be there.
This will be the last step before we go to cars that you CAN’T drive. The love affair with the manually driven car really will go away, but it had a pretty long run.
taking a driverless car to work in a brainless congress
The potential upside that I see to this is that it will give seniors who ordinarily wouldn’t be able to drive some mobility.
On a side note, I got third gear acceleration tire chirp in my Scion FRS on my way home from work last night. Kinda surprised me. It was oddly satisfying. :-)
Great way for electronic jihadis to kill a lot of people.
The potential upside that I see to this is that it will give seniors who ordinarily wouldn’t be able to drive some mobility.
The downside is people who are not capable of driving are going to get stranded in systems designed to have a driver as the backup. And those folks who would not consider getting on the highway are going to find themselves suddenly driving 65 mph in the heaviest traffic they have ever seen.
Maybe, but it might be more feasible for short trips to the grocery store, etc.
I think by that point it will not be an option, but a requirement. In fact, I think the driver option will have been eliminated long before then.
much of the time I can see this working fine, but I’m having trouble seeing how it works flawlessly every time, in every situation. I love technology, and expect I would use it frequently perhaps, but there are issues. If one is out of the habit of driving, and he system isn’t working right due to weather, conditions, failure, the drivers basic skill level will be poor from lack of use at a time when it is needed most.
I’m working on getting a 1947 pickup with manual everything, not planning on getting a new “new” car again. Rebuild an old one into a old “new” car is my plan.
Our society will continue to evolve into one with increasing variances in wealth, knowledge, culture and outlook. Technocratic and economic elite will be probably 5% of the population. They will drive the productivity and innovation gains such as these, which will continue apace.
The middle class will comprise another 25-30%, while the remaining 70% or so will increasingly just be filling space and living off entitlements. They won’t be encouraged to participate in the economy, and many won’t want to. Many simply won’t have the knowledge or skill to participate either and they will be pushed further and further into dependency.
Its the most obvious way forward for the US Government and the progressive left. They will need rapid technological productivity gains such as this to balance out the FED money printing and taxes to fund massive Gov’t debt and liabilities, and to pay for the nanny state.
I wonder how you would drive a vehicle across an area that was not a mapped road? For instance private property like big ranches, national forests etc...
Seems the government can also have control over your car like in the Tom Cruise movie Minority Report and basically drive you where ever they want you to go.
I thought of this last night, our society is in a push to “tech-up everything” in the name of cutting labor costs and making less human error. The down side I see to this is that over half of our population is too stupid to make the jump to the “panacea futuristic” world we sometimes see on tv where every one is released from manual labor to pursue higher callings and the world is all good. That leaves technology taking the jobs away from people who will never rise above the labor type jobs (some may not want to ex: real cowboys) and thus causing even more disparity in the classes. Will that tipping point come and cause those to get on board, get weeded out, or rebel? I am thinking #3.
He's still going to claim the mileage and per diem.
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