DRIVERLESS CARS

[Nick Algar - Competition Secretary]

22 minutes ago, djm said:

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!

Going to watch, but don;t forget it a TV program and there is almost always a hidden agenda ??

[djm]

I have a personal interest in autonomous driving as my grandson is head of the autonomous software at NIO in silicon valley. NIO is a Chinese startup company building electric cars to rival Tesla who my grandson used to work for. Their first development car is the NIO EP9 and their first production car will be the NIO EVE https://www.nio.io/visioncar 

As @Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Secretary said here's one for the Petrolheads the EP9 was used to set the lap record for production cars around the Circuit of the Americas in a driverless car which is also electric. This is a brilliant video of the achievement 

I love the bit where the race driver gets out of the car and it drives off!

[corsechris]

I think we are going to need a new epithet. Volthead, Watthead??

[johnev]

I work with several companies working on autonomous vehicles. Autonomy is mainly aimed at vehicles driven by a paid driver. Why do it? - it's simple really, eliminate the driver and make more money.

[pistonbroke]

call me a cynic but to my eyes that vid looks like all the on track stuff is playstation type CGI   

[Terry Everall]

I wonder how the car will know which lane to choose on a 4 lane motorway and when to overtake? How if its in the second lane will it make a move to the left lane if it appears to be full of lorries etc? Maybe it will just carry on to the next junction. Most importantly how will it know that I need a toilet stop????

[CraigHew]

As pointed out in Guy Martin's programme, the problem comes when a decision is needed with a strange / unnatural / random / unexpected situation.

The human brain can decide fairly quickly what to do based on experience, intelligence and "common sense" whereas the computer has to rely on its coded instructions.

Prime example was shown when the autonomous car engineers dialled the car up to 11 and didn't reralise the tyres had cooled significantly.  First corner induced a little slide, which was corrected but then immediate full power which produced a second slide from which the car couldn't recover.  As GM said, a brain would have linked the slide and tyre temps then altered the accelerator input in view of the first slide.

All interesting stuff but a decent way off yet I suggest.

[Nick Algar - Competition Secretary]

10 hours ago, CraigHew said:

As pointed out in Guy Martin's programme, the problem comes when a decision is needed with a strange / unnatural / random / unexpected situation.

The human brain can decide fairly quickly what to do based on experience, intelligence and "common sense" whereas the computer has to rely on its coded instructions.

Prime example was shown when the autonomous car engineers dialled the car up to 11 and didn't reralise the tyres had cooled significantly.  First corner induced a little slide, which was corrected but then immediate full power which produced a second slide from which the car couldn't recover.  As GM said, a brain would have linked the slide and tyre temps then altered the accelerator input in view of the first slide.

All interesting stuff but a decent way off yet I suggest.

I guess the debate is who will kill less people, stupid machines or the current batch of stupid people. Answers on the back of a postage stamp, assuming you can still buy those things  

[jeff oakley]

There a few reasons why there is a headlong rush toward autonomous vehicles.

The first is military, they have been pushing this hard as getting arms and supplies to the front line is dangerous and if this could be done safely away from danger it is a good situation as people do not like seeing their side die in a war.

The second is the truck and delivery industries. There are 40000 driver vacancies for HGV in the UK today. driven by poor working conditions, awful driving hours and low pay. Imagine a world were HGV can run 24 7 with no driver breaks.

The Third is politicians, they hate spending money on more roads but by having fully automated cars all driven perfectly communicating they could easily double the amount on the road with no cost. Add into that less accidents, cleaner environment and the attraction is there the big but is what about the number of people it will displace out of work? Yes Jeff Benzo will get richer as deliveries will be made without drivers but do we really want that.

It is being sold as a great way to give people back mobility and get them out, but unless they can afford a new car every year as these will be owned by the manufacturer and leasedback.

It will be yet another revolution and petrol cars will become the same as Steam Engines a transport curio seen at shows.

There are lots of people who will welcome them as they hate driving slightly less than sitting on a bus with people who smell of p***. it is a tool that is all.

They are coming as Ford have promised they will have one by 2020 and the others will want the same.