Driverless car can interpret a cyclists hand signal

[classic33]

Gee thanks!

I wouldn't mind too much, but I started the thread!

 

[Dogtrousers]

My overwhelming feeling was so what?

I would expect a driverless car to be able to do that, otherwise it wouldn't be fit for purpose.

Ditto detecting pedestrians by the side of the road who may make sudden movements, etc, etc.

Sure it's difficult, and an impressive feat of technology, but creating a safe driverless car is going to be very, very difficult.

 

[byegad]

I agree with you Dogtrousers. Although I suspect liability insurance will ensure it's not introduced before it is 100% fail-safe, at which point it will be terribly slow and clunky and most drivers will ignore it!

 

[jefmcg]

Introducing it it definitely going to be harder than building it. Say they reduce the road deaths by half. They aren't going to get 800 letters of thanks from the people who didn't die, they are going to be sued by the families of the 800 who do.

 

[byegad]

Well there's big money behind the technology, firms that could buy and sell entire countries are developing it. Money of that kind can skew decision making in favour of early introduction, possibly in a 'good enough' form. However, money in the form of accident liability will keep it in check. I hope!

Given they can develop something that is 99.99% safe, where does a driver stand if the 0.01% accident leads to a claim or court case? We have no law in place that clarifies this I for one would probably not use the technology. I'd rather make my own mistakes and take responsibility for them.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

I am all for this technology and I think we'll be better of because of it. I'm amazed at the advances in car safety and intelligence. In the 1990s we thought ABS was the bees knees, followed by air bags, then ESP. Since a couple of years ago some cars could recognize collision scenarios and apply brakes and tighten safety belts. Now cars can park themselves, keep a constant distance from the car in front, brake when you're not looking and are supposed to and do things like plot your route according to charging station availability.

Robots in dark factories already move goods around, so why can't they move us around. I can think of nothing better than sit in the back seat of my car reading or sleeping or drinking beer whilst the car delivers me to my destination. Obviously the odd recumbent rider will get caught in the lead-up to perfection, but that's just collateral damage.

Where do I sign up?

 

[byegad]

Well my risk level is rather less. Having driven an average of 15000 miles per year for 45 years and only 5 'accidents' None of which occurred when my car was in motion and three of those when I wasn't even on in the car as it was parked outside the house!

 

[Drago]

Never had even a stone chip in 3 decades of driving. I put this down to driving stupidly large cars, which are mainly also old and knackered, any people tend not to take dangerous liberties with such vehicles.

Peace through superior firepower.

 

[Kookas]

Well my risk level is rather less. Having driven an average of 15000 miles per year for 45 years and only 5 'accidents' None of which occurred when my car was in motion and three of those when I wasn't even on in the car as it was parked outside the house!

By that sort of statistical view on safety, the Google driverless car is 100% safe. It's never had a single crash while driving autonomously in 700,000 miles of driving (while it has actually crashed when being driven manually, which speaks volumes).

 

[byegad]

By that sort of statistical view on safety, the Google driverless car is 100% safe. It's never had a single crash while driving autonomously in 700,000 miles of driving (while it has actually crashed when being driven manually, which speaks volumes).

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Today's BBC text service is reporting that of the 48 driveless cars running around California, four have been involved in accidents, IN THE LAST EIGHT MONTHS.

Not 100% safe and foolproof then.

 

[Drago]

And if you read the full story on the BBC we site not one of the incidents was attributable to the Google or Delphi cars themselves, and a fair proportion occured while under manual control. 100% of the incidents were the fault of other road users.

So far both 100% safe and foolproof then.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Today's BBC text service is reporting that of the 48 driveless cars running around California, four have been involved in accidents, IN THE LAST EIGHT MONTHS.

Not 100% safe and foolproof then.

Yes, but how many caused the accidents? A man in a large Buick pulling out in front of a driverless car at such short notice that even a perfect braking technique can't prevent an accident is hardly an indictment on the driverless car.

I think, you on your funny bike better start lobbying for AI to recognize your supine figure on the road as a type of cyclist too. I'm still queuing up for my driverless car.

Edit: Drago is faster on the draw than me.

 

[byegad]

The spurious claim, often made is that they are fail-safe. I'm yet to be convinced, although I still suspect that the US courts will decide the ultimate fate of driverless car technology. Wait for the fist $multi-million awards to some poor sod clobbered and crippled by one of these cars. Google will not want the adverse publicity, let alone giving away the ca$h.

 

[Drago]

According to the California authorities, most of the accidents were low speed rear shunt jobs, with folk sailing gently up the area of the test vehicles.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

The spurious claim, often made is that they are fail-safe. I'm yet to be convinced, although I still suspect that the US courts will decide the ultimate fate of driverless car technology. Wait for the fist $multi-million awards to some poor sod clobbered and crippled by one of these cars. Google will not want the adverse publicity, let alone giving away the ca$h.

Nothing is fail safe. But if you look at the prevalence of driver error in our motor car accident record, I do prefer the machine option. Besides, I still want to sit in the back seat drinking beer whilst being driven around. I hope that happens in my lifetime.