Cars that drive themselves.

[mortiz]

I spotted this over at the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ukfs_news/hi/newsid_5200000/newsid_5205200/bb_wm_5205278.stm

Pretty cool stuff. Whether it's good or bad is whether you like driving or not. If the tech becomes advanced enough it could change everything in relation to road laws and the such. Also if enough people take up the tech you could have inter communication between vehicles, which would cut down on accidents dramatically. The only thing is you'd be trusting your life to a computer, and as we all know, bugs do sometimes pop up.

 

[Ren.182]

That's some pretty funky technology there. Did they say that car learnt the best way around the cones? If it learnt then thats cool... but will be the start of skynet

 

[Saketi]

Ive seen this about 2yrs ago, maybe more. Its nothing new..its basically had a makeover.

 

[theotherguy]

May I direct all of your attentions to the
Grand Challenge
The race across the desert by autonomous vehicles in which stanford's vehicle won.

The next challenge (next year) will be in an urban area, and the robots will have to obey traffic laws and avoid other cars and such.

 

[Dalamari]

Takes away all the fun of driving, worst invention ever

 

[Bob_Marley]

That kind of tech has been around for years. It hasnt been introduced because humans dont like handing over control for something they can do.

I've seen that kind of thing to tractors and combines for years, but I still think it will be a long time before we see it on a large scale on the roads.

 

[mortiz]

Ive seen this about 2yrs ago, maybe more. Its nothing new..its basically had a makeover.

I think things have moved on quite significantly since then, since in the 2004 DARPA challange the farthest any vehicle got was 7.4 miles. It hasn't been around for years. At least not in a state that it would be useful. We're only just getting to the stage were they're considering these cars for road use. As the next DARPA challange signifies.

Human error is responsible for 90%+ of road accidents. Surely if you can cut it out of the equation it must be a good thing?

 

[Raziaar]

This is pretty awesome stuff...
The only thing I saw about cars driving themselves before this... was on history channel with magnets imbedded in a road so that cars could cruise control on highways and follow in convoys and be much safer than if people were driving themselves.

Of course the biggest problem is with people having issues giving up their rights to drive freely.

But you know what? Being around or in cars is one of the most dangerous things you can do. And I don't trust 90% of the people out there.

 

[Dalamari]

All the fun in driving is going really really fast and taking risks, so what if you end up wrapped around a pole, atleast it was fun

 

[evil^milk]

Takes away all the fun of driving, worst invention ever

I agree; pretty boring if the car drives for you.

 

[Raziaar]

So what if it only reduces your chance of automobile related death by 85%

 

[Dalamari]

Fun > Chance of Dying

You can go ahead and live you live warding off the evil car, but I'll take my chances

 

[Raziaar]

You fail to understand me... i'm worried about dumbasses killing ME, not me killing myself.

 

[mortiz]

They could even have some form of A.I. assisted driving, you can control the gears, breaks and steering but if the A.I. determines you're going to crash or you're driving dangerously it could kick in. It could also monitor speed limits on the roads that you're on and prevent you from speeding. Or you flick a switch and the A.I. drives for you.

Like in Demolition Man!

 

[Raziaar]

If there's anything I hate more on the road than drunk drivers... its ****ing moronic speeders... people going way above the speed limit and endangering the lives of everybody around them.

I was out working on a deck at my uncle's place... it's a relatively rural place, and on this country road there was a car speeding down it going literally 90-100.

This is a poorly mainted country road, with no shoulders... and lots of wildlife including people riding horses alongside the road. It's sort of like a rural surburbia.

And this son of a bitch is driving down there going 90-100 at night... when there are dips in the road where cars can just leap out at you.

I hit a dog going on that road once, doing 25, 10 mph below the speed limit on the road...

 

[Dalamari]

Learn to drive better n00b

 

[Raziaar]

**** you Dalamari. The dog bolted out 3-5 feet in front of the vehicle going directly across the road. No time to react before the vehicle hit. And it was at night. My reaction time on that was less than a second, and by the time I hit the brakes it had already hit.