DRIVERLESS CARS

[Steve (sdh2903)]

4 hours ago, Stuart said:

I had a hire car recently with the intelligent cruise control designed to always keep you at safe distance.  It was an absolute PITA

Really? I love my adaptive cruise control.

[Stuart]

8 hours ago, sdh2903 said:

Really? I love my adaptive cruise control.

Suzuki Vitara.  'Range finder' kept dropping out for no apparent reason.  For up to 30mins at a time, and when that was out the cruise control didn't work at all...... 

[corsechris]

It's a numbers game though. How many occasions when a human suffers terminal (literally) brain fade would an autonomous vehicle NOT make the same mistake? I don't think even the most hopelessly optimistic proponent of the technology could honestly claim it'll be foolproof though.

It's early days yet - give it a few years and they WILL be on our roads, like it or not. Thing is, places like here & Pistonheads etc, where most folk gather because they actually enjoy driving (some of the time) aren't really the intended target for this tech. so it's not going to go down very well.

[Steve (sdh2903)]

21 minutes ago, corsechris said:

It's a numbers game though. How many occasions when a human suffers terminal (literally) brain fade would an autonomous vehicle NOT make the same mistake?

Vs how many times does a human pre-empt something due to previous experience or think out of the box to avoid a situation? Doubt a computer would do that.

I think the only way it will ever work is to have 100% autonomous or 100% human driven. A mix of both will just be a disaster.

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

22 minutes ago, sdh2903 said:

Vs how many times does a human pre-empt something due to previous experience or think out of the box to avoid a situation? Doubt a computer would do that.

I think the only way it will ever work is to have 100% autonomous or 100% human driven. A mix of both will just be a disaster.

Yes, but we think as Petrolheads. The vast majority of non enthusiast drivers, for whom a car is virtual another white-good don’t tend to think and drive so proactively as they’re not so fully engaged in what they’re doing.

[John Loudon - Sponsorship Liaison]

We wont ever get to need them anyway as we will all be using HS2

 

 

[Steve (sdh2903)]

1 hour ago, Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Secretary said:

Yes, but we think as Petrolheads. The vast majority of non enthusiast drivers, for whom a car is virtual another white-good don’t tend to think and drive so proactively as they’re not so fully engaged in what they’re doing.

I don't buy into that viewpoint. That's like saying you have to be a car enthusiast to be a good driver. I know people who aren't interested in cars at all who are very good drivers. On the flip side we see videos of "petrol heads" driving like complete turds all the time.

Aircraft have had the capability to be automatic for years. I imagine the rail system could operate autonomously quite easily. Yet they don't, why? Because we inherently want the squidgy bit of dna up front to protect us in the case of the non normal situation. Computers are incredibly reliable these days yet still now and again I have to give the laptop a power  cycle to sort it's head out. Imagine that in the fast lane of the M6. 

All this money invested in the technology is a farce. The money needs to be spent on the public transport system instead. The best way to get people off the roads is to provide a reliable cost effective rail network as ours is stuck in the Victorian age. Look at what some of the Europeans have done or the Japanese. I read last week a Japanese train company apologised as one of their trains left 20 seconds EARLY. Ours don't even apologise when they're all on bl**** strike  (again).

And if they are hell bent on driverless cars then are our government going to accept the fact that on the whole the road network is creaking under the strain and needs a massive overhaul? 

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

But you’re just talking about another minority, one I subconsciously included in petrolheads, perhaps wrongly - those that are interested in driving. 

It shouldn’t detract from the fact, that playing the numbers game, there are way to many people that simply don’t care, and as a result probably “cost” a disproportionate amount in terms of the knock effect they cause. ie, it’s not always them having the accident, but they can be the incidental trigger.

Whether the public is ready to accept it or not is a different matter. (I don’t believe we are, and suspect it will be sometime before we get to that state.)

I’d agree on public transport too, but it’s just not where the big money is pushing.

[corsechris]

I didn’t intend to imply that any particular group were better or worse drivers as such, just that as “enthusiasts” we are probably biased against this tech.

sadly, it’s something that only the test of time will prove or disprove as a good idea. Time and accidents.

[Alan France]

Before I retired I drove 40,000 miles a year. Leaving a project meeting at 6pm, with a 4 hour drive home, I would have loved a driverless car, why not? Make a few phone calls, read, sleep, even work.

Driving to the Silverstone Classic on a nice sunny day is a different matter, but freedom of choice between the two would be good. 

Like rockets, the science is easy, it's the engineering that's hard.

Does anyone seriously believe that in x years we won’t have safe, reliable, cheap, driverless cars? The x will be sooner than we think.

It will work because there is money to be made.

[dombanks]

On 22/11/2017 at 20:27, DamperMan said:

It’s just a vanity project.. no one has asked the customer (us) if we want it.      

I have to say when i used to do the slow crawl over the old runcorn bridge for an hour each way i wished for a driverless car.. And tbh i would still be up for it. Something like the irobot film would be perfect. Where there is manual or autopilot. 

This whole concept tho of needing to be there is pants. It has to be good enough for the driver to be able to sleep/read/play on phone etc tho. 

[Nick Algar - Competition Secretary]

8 hours ago, dombanks said:

I have to say when i used to do the slow crawl over the old runcorn bridge for an hour each way i wished for a driverless car.. And tbh i would still be up for it. Something like the irobot film would be perfect. Where there is manual or autopilot. 

This whole concept tho of needing to be there is pants. It has to be good enough for the driver to be able to sleep/read/play on phone etc tho. 

I've done a lot of 3 to 5 hr journeys recently always on motorways and it would have been great to have had driverless car. Could quite happily have set the sat nav to destination and let it get on with driving. One of them was from Newcastle to Aberdeen and back in the same day. It's average speed cameras almost all the way, so everyone is doing the limit. Just a long boring drive that tires you out and a machine could do better. 

[Kit Car Electronics]

8 hours ago, dombanks said:

I have to say when i used to do the slow crawl over the old runcorn bridge for an hour each way i wished for a driverless car.. And tbh i would still be up for it. Something like the irobot film would be perfect. Where there is manual or autopilot. 

This whole concept tho of needing to be there is pants. It has to be good enough for the driver to be able to sleep/read/play on phone etc tho. 

Good points- in fact, the level of autonomy already available isn't always realised. For example, the latest generation of cruise control systems work right down to stationary (with an auto gearbox) so the traffic jam becomes more relaxing. Combine that with active lane keeping plus camera based speed limiter and you might start to question who's actually driving already...

[dombanks]

Exactly... I read a cracking article about this  a while back jyst cant remember where. Basically said there are 5 (i think) leves of automation lowest is yesterday's tech so nothing.  top is fully auto... The holy grail... But its not that holy. We have had automation in cars for years its creeping in under the safety guise and is good and bad. 

Take abs or stabilty control (in its many guise). Cars now scan the road @50+ hz or whatever. They change the speed keep the lane. Emergency stop. Warm and massage our bums. Navigate etc. It might be at a low stage but then who remebers moble phones the size of bricks? 

Automation isnt a syfy 1960 robot its simply tying these systems together. The tech exists to see hear process data faster than most of us in a vastly superior spectrum we just cant make it small enough yet. But thats time and its a societal mind change about transport and movement. 

 

[djm]

Guy Martin is exploring the world of automated self driving cars on C4 9:00pm tonight "Guy Martin vs the Robocar". Guy's take on this should be very interesting!