Autonomous cars are coming and it's going to be glorious

[Darwin333]

Buh bye, DUIs.

I bet the various .govs will delay implementation due to the revenue they will lose from traffic stops.

 

[Belegost]

3D TVs. That's all.

3D TVs in our automated cars? Sounds good to me!

 

[jackstar7]

I'm picturing people playing 3D racing games while their car drives them to work...

 

[Moonbeam]

Reactions will change as soon as we come to a consensus as to whether autonomous cars are conservative or liberal.

 

[First]

Pretty much all the design, engineering, and manufacturing of the driverless control systems will be done offshore. The only people who will profit from them will be the richest of the 1%. And it will cost millions of middle class jobs that will be replaced with... what? You can only have so many walmart greeters. This is purely the result of the top 1% totally running away with the entire economy. And the middle class and poor being so completely mindfucked as to go along with it like the good little germans did in the mid 1930s.

And the real killer is going to come when we get thousands of these things jammed together on a highway during rush hour. Just what the heck do you think is going to happen to traffic flows, when every single one of those cars will be following some stupefied program that says "increase space between vehicles to velocity in mph times 3 feet" every time the vehicle begins to accelerate in stop and go traffic. Traffic isnt going to flow at all. It is going to grind to a complete and total halt. You're going to have human drivers bobbing and weaving around all these stupid cars following their stupid traffic-choking programs. There is a reason there are so many damn accidents. It's because traffic flows together in a dynamic that far exceeds any reasonable safety specification. Cars are practically bumper to bumper at 30 mph in a traffic jam. They come to a complete stop, accelerate to various speeds, all the way up to 70mph in some cases, and then completely stop again. All the while many of them are practically bumper to bumper. No computer could match the flow rate efficiency of human drivers without building in so much safety margin that it completely decimates traffic flows. People who think that humans are such bad drivers are completely and utterly misunderestimating the amount of mental processing that occurs on the roadways in heavy traffic. Sure, like many, I'd rather not deal with it. I'd rather sit there and read a book. But I'm telling you that that convenience is going to come at a heavy heavy cost. In the end, we will have spent all this money and all these resources to implement something that only benefits the extreme wealthy, and costs each of us far more commuting time and therefore lowers productivity, not to mention all the lost jobs.

On the plus side, road construction spending would skyrocket, because the number of traffic lanes will have to effectively double to support driverless car algorithms in heavy traffic.

This is some utterly clueless claptrap, and that's really saying something for you, kiddo.

 

[brycejones]

This is some utterly clueless claptrap, and that's really saying something for you, kiddo.

Don't forget to get off his lawn and phones with dials are fancy contraptions when he could just tell a person who he wants to call.

 

[theeedude]

Truck drivers are 3/4 Republican. I guess we'll see how anti-welfare they are once they get canned.

 

[brycejones]

to no more wasting of money on ridiculously non-value add work like truck drivers

That truck driver that delivers food to your grocery store today is adding no value today.

 

[ScoobMaster]

I just want them to get the technology perfected and into production before I retire. I want it in my big honkin' class A motorhome so I can just tell it " go to the Grand Canyon" then grab a beverage and a sammich and lounge on the couch and watch a ball game and a movie along the way.

 

[woolfe9998]

Read the article. I understand the other benefits discussed, like not needing to park (which would be amazing in and of itself) but why would it reduce total vehicles on the road by 99%? Anyone understand the theory behind that?

 

[jackstar7]

Read the article. I understand the other benefits discussed, like not needing to park (which would be amazing in and of itself) but why would it reduce total vehicles on the road by 99%? Anyone understand the theory behind that?

Perhaps publicly shared vehicles?

 

[woolfe9998]

Perhaps publicly shared vehicles?

Wouldn't account for a 99% reduction in vehicular traffic.

 

[werepossum]

You don't think a driverless car won't be massively texting and reading data behind the wheel? And the computer crashed will have a whole new meaning. And what a great way for hackers to commit murder.

lol +1

I can just see it now with Idiocracy, where everything is automated and we all learn how to do or operate much of anything without machines doing it for us. 😀

You can see that now at any fast food restaurant. Say your bill is $6.37. Give the kid a twenty and let him key it in, then say "Oh wait, I have exact change!" Take back the twenty, then hand him a ten, a one, two quarters, and two pennies. You might as well have handed him a nuclear reactor in melt-down wrapped in live Shakespeare-quoting rattlesnakes.

Pretty much all the design, engineering, and manufacturing of the driverless control systems will be done offshore. The only people who will profit from them will be the richest of the 1%. And it will cost millions of middle class jobs that will be replaced with... what? You can only have so many walmart greeters. This is purely the result of the top 1% totally running away with the entire economy. And the middle class and poor being so completely mindfucked as to go along with it like the good little germans did in the mid 1930s.

And the real killer is going to come when we get thousands of these things jammed together on a highway during rush hour. Just what the heck do you think is going to happen to traffic flows, when every single one of those cars will be following some stupefied program that says "increase space between vehicles to velocity in mph times 3 feet" every time the vehicle begins to accelerate in stop and go traffic. Traffic isnt going to flow at all. It is going to grind to a complete and total halt. You're going to have human drivers bobbing and weaving around all these stupid cars following their stupid traffic-choking programs. There is a reason there are so many damn accidents. It's because traffic flows together in a dynamic that far exceeds any reasonable safety specification. Cars are practically bumper to bumper at 30 mph in a traffic jam. They come to a complete stop, accelerate to various speeds, all the way up to 70mph in some cases, and then completely stop again. All the while many of them are practically bumper to bumper. No computer could match the flow rate efficiency of human drivers without building in so much safety margin that it completely decimates traffic flows. People who think that humans are such bad drivers are completely and utterly misunderestimating the amount of mental processing that occurs on the roadways in heavy traffic. Sure, like many, I'd rather not deal with it. I'd rather sit there and read a book. But I'm telling you that that convenience is going to come at a heavy heavy cost. In the end, we will have spent all this money and all these resources to implement something that only benefits the extreme wealthy, and costs each of us far more commuting time and therefore lowers productivity, not to mention all the lost jobs.

On the plus side, road construction spending would skyrocket, because the number of traffic lanes will have to effectively double to support driverless car algorithms in heavy traffic.

Done right, automated cars would have better density as they would network, so that each car would immediately know when the cars ahead were going to brake or change lanes. And yes, the engineering and manufacturing will be done off-shore, but that's because of our choices, not because automation exists. My next-door neighbor for instance is a journeyman electrician who wires robotic workstation control panels for a living.

I don't see us replacing truck drivers within my lifetime. Too much responsibility, too much potential harm. We haven't even replaced train engineers and trains (especially subway trains) can be easily automated, plus the engineer can seldom stop the train quickly enough to avoid an accident anyway.

 

[werepossum]

Wouldn't account for a 99% reduction in vehicular traffic.

Would if they cost $250k each and were the only cars allowed. 😉

 

[Jaskalas]

I bet the various .govs will delay implementation due to the revenue they will lose from traffic stops.

They'll move towards other behavioral citations, such as filtering what people say and do online. Can't stop the revenue baby.

 

[feralkid]

Wars, pollution, disease, hopelessness, poverty, despair, rampant greed, fear, uncertainty, doubt, etc.

and in the midst of all this some of you will have your autonomous car that will memorize and drive you effortlessly around every pothole, closed lane, detour, and road impediment in your ever crumbling infrastructure to the safety of your armed gated community while the unwashed masses look on with awe and envy while they are scraping by.

Sounds like the movie "Brazil".

 

[werepossum]

I just want them to get the technology perfected and into production before I retire. I want it in my big honkin' class A motorhome so I can just tell it " go to the Grand Canyon" then grab a beverage and a sammich and lounge on the couch and watch a ball game and a movie along the way.

Then you discover that unfortunately, you should have told it to drive to the parking lot NEAR the Grand Canyon.

On the plus side, you make very good time on the last leg.

 

[Jaskalas]

You can see that now at any fast food restaurant. Say your bill is $6.37. Give the kid a twenty and let him key it in, then say "Oh wait, I have exact change!" Take back the twenty, then hand him a ten, a one, two quarters, and two pennies. You might as well have handed him a nuclear reactor in melt-down wrapped in live Shakespeare-quoting rattlesnakes.

$11.52...called "exact change" on $6.37. Huh...
Maybe you meant one quarter and one dime, thereby expecting just a five back.

 

[werepossum]

$11.52...called "exact change" on $6.37. Huh...
Maybe you meant one quarter and one dime, thereby expecting just a five back.

Nope. That wouldn't be nearly as entertaining.

 

[WelshBloke]

You can see that now at any fast food restaurant. Say your bill is $6.37. Give the kid a twenty and let him key it in, then say "Oh wait, I have exact change!" Take back the twenty, then hand him a ten, a one, two quarters, and two pennies. You might as well have handed him a nuclear reactor in melt-down wrapped in live Shakespeare-quoting rattlesnakes.

You are a bad, bad man.

 

[werepossum]

You are a bad, bad man.

lol Hey, damned kid should have stayed off my lawn when he had the chance.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I think about the odd stuff like the first old guy who enters an address several states away then can't figure out how to stop the car.

 

[hal2kilo]

I bet the various .govs will delay implementation due to the revenue they will lose from traffic stops.

Oh yea, without DUI's and speeding tickets what will the local revenuers, um I mean police do. Investigating burglaries is hard work.

 

[SMOGZINN]

I think about the odd stuff like the first old guy who enters an address several states away then can't figure out how to stop the car.

Just consider the tech support call center for these cars!

Tech: Hello, Tech Support. What seems to be the problem?
Customer: Hello, tech support? I'm stuck on the New Jersey Turnpike.
Tech: Yes, we are having some technical difficulties in that area at this time, please be patient.
Customer: I was going to the grocery store, in Chicago.

 

[TeeJay1952]

Isn't truck driving the last bastion of the unskilled laborer? This will only profit owners who would need tech center instead of truck stops all across USA. All the cheap motels and where are all those hookers going to congregate? Interstate beer sales will plummet.