Uber’s first self-driving cars will start picking up passengers this month

[s0me0nesmind1]

Yeah, but if everyone then drives everwhere, because its much easier and you don't even need to know how to do it...
(a) How long before everyone not driving gets banned from the roads/streets in order to make those roads/streets more predictable an environment for the robo-cars?
(b) What's going to happen to the level of obesity and inactivity-related disease?

Automated cars will eventually be able to function without stop lights, so things like pedestrians will likewise be programmed to avoid. All of this is just skepticism at this point, we do not know what the future will hold.

But I can definitely say that I don't think this will play anew overall factor in obesity.... we already sit still and occasionally turn our hands, would automated cars really make this any worse? I could argue the opposite - when all cars are automated there will be less traffic because computers can keep going without reluctance. Therefore, with automated cars you will spend more time outside of your car than in it.

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[TeeJay1952]

It will be car service rather than ownership. How many hour of the day are 99% of vehicles parked?

 

[Sonikku]

In 30 years there may not even be tractor trailer drivers. It could all be done with computers. Damn, what the hell are we going to do with all the people in society who's roles are invalidated by technology?

 

[Kaido]

I've seen enough videos of self driving cars screwing up I still would not trust one as a taxi.

Yeah...I'm good not being the beta-tester here lol.

 

[Kaido]

what are we going to do with all the people in society who's roles are invalidated by technology?

It's no joke either:

There are approximately 3.5 million professional truck drivers in the United States, according to estimates by the American Trucking Association. The total number of people employed in the industry, including those in positions that do not entail driving, exceeds 8.7 million. About one of every 15 workers in the country is employed in the trucking business, according to the ATA.

So that's:

• 3.5 million truck drivers in the US alone
• 8.7 million+ in associated positions
• ~1 in every 15 workers in the US are employed in the trucking business

Automating trucking will be a gamechanger in the industry. I mean, imagine the future in a realistic way:

• Automated trucking
• Automated trains
• Self-driving Uber cars for in-city rides
• Hyperloops between cities

I actually think Hyperloops would be the biggest barrier because of the real estate issue, but it'd be awesome even for shorter trips. I'd go to NYC a lot more often, but it's a 2-hour drive from Hartford (plus 2 hours back, and that's not even if traffic is bad), but if it were a 20-minute trip on a Hyperloop & then hopping in an auto-taxi to buzz around for food & entertainment, pssh, that would be awesome!

 

[Ns1]

In 30 years there may not even be tractor trailer drivers. It could all be done with computers. Damn, what the hell are we going to do with all the people in society who's roles are invalidated by technology?

Dunno, the millions of accountants that were replaced by Excel seemed to figure it out. Same with buggy whip manufacturers.

 

[Puffnstuff]

When I saw this thread only one thing came to my mind.

 

[JSt0rm]

It's no joke either:



So that's:

• 3.5 million truck drivers in the US alone
• 8.7 million+ in associated positions
• ~1 in every 15 workers in the US are employed in the trucking business

Automating trucking will be a gamechanger in the industry. I mean, imagine the future in a realistic way:

• Automated trucking
• Automated trains
• Self-driving Uber cars for in-city rides
• Hyperloops between cities

I actually think Hyperloops would be the biggest barrier because of the real estate issue, but it'd be awesome even for shorter trips. I'd go to NYC a lot more often, but it's a 2-hour drive from Hartford (plus 2 hours back, and that's not even if traffic is bad), but if it were a 20-minute trip on a Hyperloop & then hopping in an auto-taxi to buzz around for food & entertainment, pssh, that would be awesome!

You cant stop technology for the stupid. At some point the only jobs in society will be arts and custom hand manufacture of niche goods for the wealthy. So what do we do with the stupid people? Let them starve or give them a minimum income? And at some point stupid people will include engineers, IT professionals, medical doctors and teachers.

 

[Kaido]

You cant stop technology for the stupid. At some point the only jobs in society will be arts and custom hand manufacture of niche goods for the wealthy. So what do we do with the stupid people? Let them starve or give them a minimum income? And at some point stupid people will include engineers, IT professionals, medical doctors and teachers.

I specialize in IT Hardware at work. My job is going the way of the dodo bird. The latest toy is the Intel Compute Stick, which is a $129 computer complete with Windows 10, an Atom X5 CPU, and is the size of a memory stick:

https://www.amazon.com/Intel-Compute-Computer-processor-BOXSTK1AW32SC/dp/B01AZC4NHS/

I've been experimenting with using the Razer Core for engineering work as well...you can get a Skull Canyon NUC for $700 that has a quad i7, add 32 gigs of RAM, dual 2,400 Mb/s NVMe drives, and hook that all up to an eGPU chassis. No need to build a desktop anymore unless you have really high local CPU requirements:

http://www.razerzone.com/store/razer-core

Desktop VDI is getting really good with GPU offload & transcoding cards. Windows rarely crashes anymore (people legit FLIP OUT when they get a bluescreen these days!). Servers have been virtual for ages, and even building them is cake thanks to off-the-shelf hardware like 22-core CPU's from Amazon. I'd imagine at some point, once the WAN networks get good enough, we'll have Onlive-style Windows desktops-on-demands available just like Netflix, so you'll just fire up your Chromebook & connect to a high-powered online session for all of your desktop computing needs. It's crazy what's happening these days with technology...

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

It's no joke either:



So that's:

• 3.5 million truck drivers in the US alone
• 8.7 million+ in associated positions
• ~1 in every 15 workers in the US are employed in the trucking business

Automating trucking will be a gamechanger in the industry. I mean, imagine the future in a realistic way:

• Automated trucking
• Automated trains
• Self-driving Uber cars for in-city rides
• Hyperloops between cities

I actually think Hyperloops would be the biggest barrier because of the real estate issue, but it'd be awesome even for shorter trips. I'd go to NYC a lot more often, but it's a 2-hour drive from Hartford (plus 2 hours back, and that's not even if traffic is bad), but if it were a 20-minute trip on a Hyperloop & then hopping in an auto-taxi to buzz around for food & entertainment, pssh, that would be awesome!

Your job is to drive a truck... it's only slightly more talented than driving a normal car.

Cmon, when you do stupid shit like lobby for unions to pay 6 figures hujust to drive a truck down the road, you have to understand that there's a group of executives and consultants discussing ways to axe people as stupid as them. And good riddance, there's nothing rare or skillful in your ability to drive a motor vehicle.

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[JSt0rm]

Your job is to drive a truck... it's only slightly more talented than driving a normal car.

Cmon, when you do stupid shit like lobby for unions to pay 6 figures hujust to drive a truck down the road, you have to understand that there's a group of executives and consultants discussing ways to axe people as stupid as them. And good riddance, there's nothing rare or skillful in your ability to drive a motor vehicle.

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This would happen regardless of unions. The cost of a minimum wage work force is still way more then fully automated labor. This is going to become a case of the tragedy of the commons. The commons being human work and the tragedy being the tail spin the world economy will be in if we don't fundamentally alter how we view work.

 

[Kaido]

Your job is to drive a truck... it's only slightly more talented than driving a normal car.

The human element makes it more complicated though...there's only so many hours you're legally allowed to drive as a trucker, plus you have to factor in time away from family & a social life, so the payscale kind of makes sense when you look at it that way. And of course, there's a huge opportunity to slash costs by automating the system. Think back to say the 1950's when there were switchboard operators for phone calls...I'd sure never want to go back to that again.

 

[TallBill]

I will take 50 deaths by automated cars any day over the ~32,000 per year that we have now with non-automated. Statistics don't lie, and if you guys would learn to think for yourself instead of what the media wants you to think - you would realize that you are statistically better off.

So a 43% decrease in fatalities by replacing every single car on the road. Requiring a BAC test to start every car in America would be cheaper and save more lives.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

So a 43% decrease in fatalities by replacing every single car on the road. Requiring a BAC test to start every car in America would be cheaper and save more lives.

Bullshit.

Drunk driving is just a fraction of overall car related deaths. Every day in my city there are 20+ just from morning commute.

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[Ns1]

So a 43% decrease in fatalities by replacing every single car on the road. Requiring a BAC test to start every car in America would be cheaper and save more lives.

We need a solution for this: http://6abc.com/news/woman-caught-on-video-texting-driving-with-feet/1465137/

 

[BurnItDwn]

If the car talks and says "Hello, you are riding in a Johnnycab" then I will be a happy man!

 

[teejee]

if there's a human behind the wheel (i.e. computer-assisted driving), I'm fine with that. But not if it's 100% computer controlled with no human.
I used to work by an area with a few hospitals and it was common to have ambulances coming with sirens blaring. If the robocar has a green light at an intersection, how does it know it should stop anyway because an ambulance is coming down the cross street?

What if the robocar has a red light and the ambulance is behind it? When that happens, we just go through the light if cross traffic is clear so the ambulance can get going.

flashing blue light is easy to detect for a camera system in the future. It will also see a fast approaching vehicle (with both radar and camera). So it will not cross the road.
Not a big issue to solve.

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[poofyhairguy]

But the argument is still valid. Its not whether such things will more more-or-less common but self-driving cars will change the legal context of such events - the machine will have to make decisions about whose safety to prioritise. At the moment that happens in a way that isn't explicitly defined before the event. Now it will have to be explicitly decided and encoded somewhere.

Which by definition makes it a political/judicial decision. People need to wake up to the fact that SDCs will mean more regulated transportation than we have today.

Today if a human decides to hit a kid instead of driving off a cliff to avoid the kid that person might avoid arrest but they could still be sued (and be held liable) by the parents of the kid in a civil suit.

When it's Google or Tesla or Uber or whoever's software driving the car that liability now rests with them, which means the parents have a much bigger target to go after. Therefore SDC decision won't be based on "morality" or what the driver wants, they will decide based on what result brings the SDC creator the least amount of liability. Actuaries will make the decisions.

And that is only if we are lucky. If certain groups get the idea that SDCs means they can REGULATE the morality of driving they will use their political power to do so. Imagine every child has a microchip implanted, and cars are regulated to go off the cliff every time instead of run over that chip because "children are our future."

We need to realize that getting the technology right is a small part of the equation unfortunately.

 

[kranky]

flashing blue light is easy to detect for a camera system in the future. It will also see a fast approaching vehicle (with both radar and camera). So it will not cross the road.
Not a big issue to solve.

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True in some cases, but not always. I can easily think of 4 intersections in that area where you wouldn't see an emergency vehicle flying down the cross street until it was less than 50 feet away from view. Bridge abutments adjacent to the road block visibility and "stop here on red" signs keep you back from the edge of the intersection. A robocar would have to be programmed to stop if a siren was detected, and stopping would be unnecessary more often than it would be essential. (Emergency vehicle is on a parallel street, not the one you are on, it's on a ramp above/below you, etc.)

Visibility can't always be the deciding factor.

 

[Ns1]

True in some cases, but not always. I can easily think of 4 intersections in that area where you wouldn't see an emergency vehicle flying down the cross street until it was less than 50 feet away from view.

pardon the obvious, what makes a human superior to a computer in this instance? do these SDC's not have any sound input to detect sirens?

 

[teejee]

True in some cases, but not always. I can easily think of 4 intersections in that area where you wouldn't see an emergency vehicle flying down the cross street until it was less than 50 feet away from view. Bridge abutments adjacent to the road block visibility and "stop here on red" signs keep you back from the edge of the intersection. A robocar would have to be programmed to stop if a siren was detected, and stopping would be unnecessary more often than it would be essential. (Emergency vehicle is on a parallel street, not the one you are on, it's on a ramp above/below you, etc.)

Visibility can't always be the deciding factor.

How does a normal driver detect these scenarios? I cannot believe ambulances are suicide pilots where you live. Where I live it won't be an issue with visual and radar (including front side radars of course) for detection of emergency vehicles.
In fact there is no special need at all for emergency vehicles. An autonomous vehicle must be able to detect crazy drivers as good as a normal driver. And this is no problem with camera and radars (and maybe lidar).

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[TallBill]

Bullshit.

Drunk driving is just a fraction of overall car related deaths. Every day in my city there are 20+ just from morning commute.

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Technically any number is just a fraction. 1/1, 1/8, 1/1,000,000,000.

Where do you live so I can look up your false data. There are roughly 31,000 traffic fatalities per year. I'm to believe that 7,300 or 23.5% of them occur during the morning commute in one city alone?

By the way, 31% of American traffic fatalities have alcohol involved.

 

[kranky]

How does a normal driver detect these scenarios? I cannot believe ambulances are suicide pilots where you live. Where I live it won't be an issue with visual and radar (including front side radars of course) for detection of emergency vehicles.
In fact there is no special need at all for emergency vehicles. An autonomous vehicle must be able to detect crazy drivers as good as a normal driver. And this is no problem with camera and radars (and maybe lidar).

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Here, when you hear the siren getting louder you typically stop until you can see the vehicle. Sometimes that means stopping at a green light, or if it's behind you and can't go around, you go through a red so they can get going. If it's rush hour and both lanes going out of town are packed solid with cars and an ambulance or police car with siren is behind you, then everyone pulls over towards the closest curb so there is room down the middle for the emergency vehicle to get by. I maintain visual is not going to solve the problem for robocars.

Since that location is barely two miles from where Uber is doing their testing of robocars, I'm sure they are aware of the challenges. I just don't think it will work in those situations.

 

[WHAMPOM]

If we had auto driving cars? It would reduce fatalities by 90%.

 

[bradly1101]

I quite like how the self driving future was depicted in Minority Report. Need different roads and buildings though.