self driving vehicles

[Rifleman]

I suppose the proper term is autonomous vehicles, but a talk with my son got me thinking.

Do you remember the various vehicle scenes in I-robot with Will Smith. nearly all vehicles are autonomous and thus the speed they operate at is much faster then human driven vehicles... rush hour traffic is "RUSH". The computer is in control of all the vehicles, maintains spacing, knows about a obstacle/construction ahead... all vehicles can be guided properly and efficiently to prevent accidents and to move traffic as fast as possible to it's destination.

all well and good. Loved the scenes where the good Dr. didn't want him to take manual control, and told him that his motorcycle ran on gasoline, gasoline explodes you know!!!!


Fast forward to the next movie (or reality for that matter) Nearly all vehicles are autonomous and traffic is controlled by computer. This is all fine and dandy in the city where single direction streets (much like interstate highway systems) however out in the burbs and farther, making all single direction roads would be costly and unnecessary.

picture the time traveler in say 2215 plunked down in a vehicle with a person from that day, reading the paper, drinking coffee, texting... narry a bit of attention paid to the road, approaching an at grade intersection at huge speed with cross traffic doing the same... no lights, no stop signs...

the computer is able to perform the proper speed and direction calculations to allow all the vehicles to simply "miss" each other as they wiz through the intersection. the 2215 person doesn't care a wit, the time traveler is almost out of their skull with worry.

would make for an interesting scene in a movie

[csmith12]

Movie aye... heh, it's coming, give it time.

It's no so far off and will not be limited to the surface. Separate the planes of travel and there is no problem of stopping to solve. This could be already done today if people were not so gosh darn afraid of the future.

Just start with a few select highways, all will come in time after that.

[Rifleman]

yeah, I see a lot of the interstate highway system going automatic first, hopefully where the traffic is the worst.

the real trick will be blending the non-autonomous with the autonomous. how will the motorcycles fit into the mix? I certainly don't want the computer pitching me into a turn I'm not ready for.

but it's coming, soon.

[spooph]

I think once autonomous is a reality, there is no reason for a motorcycle. I don't see why a motorcycle would ever be autonomous. A full automated system would be much better with a bunch of Smart-like cars, if'n they wanted something single/double occupancy only - like a motorcycle.

I mean, motorcycles are much less practical than small cars.

The other thing to consider is energy - wind resistance is an economy killer, so, if the autonomous cars are above ground in the regular atmosphere, they're speeds will probably be limited to 80mph, if not less. 65mph seems to be the most efficient speed for most ICE engines, so even if they can miss one another, it might still be too much to propel them much faster.

Now, if we're talking about mag-lev tubes, that would be super quick!

However, never say never, in another 200 years we might not even need a vehicle with the way teleportation is going...

[ForceofWill]

When there stops being train crashes we can talk about things going autonomous that aren't even on TRACKS. It's gonna be a while fellas.

[allanoue]

Originally Posted by ForceofWill

When there stops being train crashes we can talk about things going autonomous that aren't even on TRACKS. It's gonna be a while fellas.

Train crashes have already stopped where the autonomous controls are in place.

5 years they will be affordable to most. In 20 years people driving there own cars will be looked at like helmet-less motorcycles.

By 2045 your cellphone will be smarter then you

[choneofakind]

I guess my question is are we talking about a fully integrated centralized system that controls everything or fully individual autonomous vehicles all interacting with each other? Think window air conditioner vs central air. The effect is the same but the idea is totally different.


I'm very uninterested in owning/using an autonomous vehicle. Cool to learn, cool to make, cool to use as an academic experiment. But I enjoy driving. I like nailing the line I chose. I like getting that heel-toe just right and feeling like a pro, even if it's just for the turn into McDonald's. I like driving. If we go fully autonomous, we may as well stay at the office. We may as well be cattle, herded from place to place. The automobile will cease to be an expression of one's freedom and turn into an oblong device in which we do nothing but wait while we are whisked from point a to point b.

Novel in concept, academic in development, kills the sport of driving.

[dcj13]

Chris, you're an old man in a young man's body. 20 years from now, you'll recall this thread, shake your head, and laugh at yourself.

[MrAtom]

You guys should all read the novella Sally by Isaac Asimov if you're intrigued with the idea of autonomous vehicles becoming more intelligent than is good for them.

[allanoue]

@choneofakind I think tracks will become much more popular and numerous in the future. Electric power will stop the noise objections that current tracks have

[choneofakind]

Yeah and entire track days will only be 3 sessions...

[allanoue]

Originally Posted by choneofakind

Yeah and entire track days will only be 3 sessions...

1 hour full charge for the Zero
http://www.autoblog.com/2015/10/13/d...c-motorcycles/

[csmith12]

There is a gent who rocks a zero for track days in my area. He rides all day long... as long as he is ahead of the batteries. It's not 100% foolproof as "have gas will ride".

[Panda]

Originally Posted by choneofakind

I guess my question is are we talking about a fully integrated centralized system that controls everything or fully individual autonomous vehicles all interacting with each other? Think window air conditioner vs central air. The effect is the same but the idea is totally different.

Good point.

There could be a fleet of autonomous vehicles that are each independent nodes that provides data to the network - speed, traffic density etc and other cars route around areas of congestion. (Think current day GPS.) There would be a network that would capture and provide information but the computing overhead would be low as the routing would be handled at the vehicle level.

There could be a fleet of autonomous vehicles that provides data to the network with an secondary data layer that provides information for roads with minimal or light traffic and feeds this information to a central hub. Or a series of interconnected hubs serving a specific geographical area. The routing is handled at the hub level and this type of network topology gives you efficient unicast routing and and greater traffic de-confliction. (Think air traffic control.)

For either model you'd have to add in vehicles/objects that aren't part of the grid bikes, pedestrians, wildlife, etc.

[kfilla]

Originally Posted by allanoue

Train crashes have already stopped where the autonomous controls are in place.

5 years they will be affordable to most. In 20 years people driving there own cars will be looked at like helmet-less motorcycles.

By 2045 your cellphone will be smarter then you

What makes you think it will take until 2045? I've met some people......

[csmith12]

Originally Posted by kfilla

What makes you think it will take until 2045? I've met some people......

Some studies have the global average IQ over 80+ per person. I know I live in KY... but I seriously have a hard time believing that by what I witness with my own eyes, while having 0% influence on the outcome.

[allanoue]

Cali DMV robot car accident reports
https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/de...omousveh_ol316

overview
https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/de...nomous/testing

[spooph]

It's here:

https://youtu.be/3yCAZWdqX_Y

http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/your...ot-has-arrived

["A"]

I'd trust self-driven vehicles over manually-driven vehicles anyday.
So many of our everyday utilization of electronics are already being done without people even realizing.

[choneofakind]

Yeah, that's fine and dandy. I'm not worried about the safety aspect.



I enjoy driving.

[allanoue]

Well not realy. A robot is riding a R1

Link to original page on YouTube.

["A"]

I was hoping a BOT would be smarter, more like THIS.

[choneofakind]

Again, BADASS.


But I don't want it. It's badass as an experiment simply because we have the ability to do it. Not because it should be used for anything but science.

Badass though.





Was that a baby rossi?????