"Hope you enjoyed the ride!"
Posted on 05/06/2012 11:56:29 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
You are right. There are a myriad of unique situations which a human can [usually] handle, but a computer will not be able to. Eventually, they might get the software right for 99.9% of those, but that pesky 0.1% will be enough to generate tons of horror stories. That and the inevitable lawsuits will ruin a lot of these companies early on. Software products typically have NO warranty. They will not be able to get away with that for software that controls driverless cars.
Lawyers are looking forward to this. There will be much money to be made sorting out the accidents and deaths the driverless cars will cause.
BMW rejects this technology.
Otherwise, they’ll have to change there slogan to ‘The ultimate riding-around-in machine.’
On a system designed for driverless cars, is a human driver illegal due to the unpredictability?
Delete competitors from the map and no one can go there?
Deny access of vehicles to locations and refuse to take them due to the current passengers?
Politically incorrect venues blocked or simply errored out by automated systems so that no one goes?
There is a lot of potential horror in this technology.
I think this is about the stupidist thing they could have ever thought of!!!
Just EXACTLY what entity is the auto insurance company supposed to be underwriting?
If there is an accident-—you cannot sue the DRIVER of the car-—he wasn’t driving!!!
Sueing the driverless car won’t work, wither, since under American laws, you are allowed to cross examine your opponent, and how do you cross examine a CAR!!!!
This has lots of legal loopholes.
I won’t EVER haul my horses with a vehicle that ‘drives itself’!!!
It won’t drive above the speed limit!!!
How does one pass when necessary? Sometimes you are above the speed limit for a good reason!! Even if only temporary!
Icy roads? Icy bridges (Common where I live). Black ice is a bugger! Patchy snow? Heavy splash from the truck going the opposite direction? How fast will it decellerate when I am hauling a trailer? If too fast, a very good way to wrap the trailer around yourself!!!
If the designers are halfway intelligent, they'll go anwhere their onboard sensors say there's a road. If they're depending on GPS, they're nuts.
I could get behind this technology. Less accidents, DWIs start disappearing, alot less traffic violations for towns to pad their coffers with, etc.
Nothing can go wrong ..... go wrong ..... go wrong
"Hope you enjoyed the ride!"
Its already here. Just get a license plate for your tractor: http://www.trimble.com/agriculture/autopilot.aspx?dtID=overview&; and head on down the road.
Or at that critical time you get Windows Update or a real BSOD.
Sadly, I wonder how many under 30 have even had any exposure to even high school physics, not that those numbers would translate in their minds to traumatic amputations and tissue destroying and bone crushing blunt force trauma.
Far too many have been sold on widget safety: Anti-lock brakes (there are times I want to be able to lock up my brakes!), traction control, airbags, seat belts, crumple zones, and all the features which make cars "safe", all allow people to ignore that the most important safety device in the car is between the driver's ears.
I think somewhere in there the cell phone (immediate one sided blinder), not to mention dinking with 'smart' phones (total loss of focus), music devices, and navigational aids, combined with a general sense of unreality make some oblivious to the consequences of a moment's inattention.
When I drove those old, noisy, drafty vehicles with brakes which worked better when you pumped them, balky manual gearboxes, and no power steering, I had to focus on what I was doing, the road, and drive well ahead to be ready for what was up there by the time I got there. Even in the heyday of the CB radio, we were aware of where we were, and what was going on around us.
Now, it seems the insular environment of a modern vehicle deprives the driver of the real sense of how fast they are going, and what the road conditions really are.
Prepare?
Which will cause people to have to walk to get to their drug dealer or strip club, making people more 'fit' and reducing usage of 'gas'.
How could anything go wrong?
Gives new meaning to the term, BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH.
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