Autonomous Vehicles

[derklug]

As more and more hype goes into the future of the automotive industry, I have been wondering what will be the rules for autonomous vehicles. If your car decides it is unsafe to drive, will it shut down? If you don't pay the loan, will it repo itself? Will the car decide if weather conditions are too bad for you to go out?

What is the verdict from the crowd? I just fear the day I watch from the bar as my car competes against the Chevy boys cars to see whose program works the best.

 

[TK1299]

I highly doubt the type of critical information processing you're asking about will happen in our lifetime. Autonomous vehicles will more than likely only be capable of simple traffic functions, such as staying in a lane, stopping, etc., for the foreseeable future.
Just my opinion

 

[HEMIHUNTER]

I hoping for one that senses your skill level
So if you’re a dumbass it keeps you in the slow lanes


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[CV355]

There is an entire new philosophy surrounding the logic and decision making of automated vehicles.

Having been in the automation industry for some time, I can tell you with confidence that vision systems have come a very long way, but they are still finicky systems that I would not trust anyone's life to. Light conditions, dust, bugs, etc all effect a camera system's ability to differentiate objects by pattern, glob, etc.

I was driving in a torrential downpour yesterday night and I struggled to see the road. I wondered how an automated vehicle could do it, even with non-vision based sensors. It would have to be a combination of extremely high resolution GPS, surrounding sensors, and vision. Good luck making sure all those systems communicate and have fail-safes.

Another interesting option is a 3D profiling scanner system. Those are a fortune ($50k+) and the latency right now would make it difficult. Let's put it this way- I was working on a system yesterday with a 50ms process latency at a speed of 1"/s. Work that out, and your resolution is 0.050". Customer needs 0.020". How does that relate to cars? If the scan time is 15ms (Generously), and a car is traveling at 60mph, that translates to roughly 4.5ft of resolution. Meaning, the system can only complete a full sweep every 4.5ft, excluding processing that image and correcting path. You would need an insanely fast processor to handle the logic there.

It boggles my brain. I know they have systems out there that do work, but I highly, highly doubt they can get safe technology down to a consumer price level any time in the near future.

 

[IronSnake]

It's inevitable. However, very far out.

I wouldn't go so far as to predict there will be some sort of new age electronic speed racer type stuff going on in the future. I think what we do as enthusiasts has a real place. The only issue is the pool of cars to play with will dwindle, and overtime become difficult to fine as RWD V8 cars go the way of the dodo.

As CV stated, tech is very advanced, yet not perfect enough to make it a legitimate contender for full autonomy. I have a strong feeling that lane departure, auto cruise control, emergency braking, etc will be the real definition of autonomy for a very long time. Self driving cars (level 5, complete autonomy) have many many moons to go.

 

[matab14]

I think it'd be great to have such a feature as type of Auto pilot system via Expressway or Interstate and then leave the rest as manual feature. I know I'd use the heck out that in my day to day commute. I agree with what others have said though. Working in machine design, there are so many plausible elements that come into play with different systems communicating among-st one another it'd be very hard to get something that works flawless. Which in my mind would be required for that type of application to go global so to speak.

 

[GTSpartan]

It's inevitable. However, very far out.

It's as simple as that. If they can land a rover on Mars to within ~600 feet of target after a 300 million mile journey, they can make AV work.

Commercially viable tech that we can afford is a whole other debate.

 

[SirShaun]

I'd like to see a combination of roads being reinvented, and car technology. Some redundancy and competition in the autonomous car market.

If anything solar powering roads, making them dynamic in a sense, to change to conditions. Holes for rain, heat for snow/ice, etc. **** reinventing the wheel, lets reinvent the road.

 

[KingBlack]

I highly doubt the type of critical information processing you're asking about will happen in our lifetime. Autonomous vehicles will more than likely only be capable of simple traffic functions, such as staying in a lane, stopping, etc., for the foreseeable future.
Just my opinion

the processing isnt the problem, the problem is the framework standards used to make these decisions. if there isnt complete agreement by all in the way it is structured and regulated, it wont work (very well)

i'll send you part of my report if you'd like to read it

 

[ur bittn]

Repo itself, hilarious

 

[13COBRA]

I wouldn't be interested in owning something that drove me, instead of me driving it.

I'd feel too much like Planter.

 

[My94GT]

Currently the problem that is stoping vehicles from going fully automated is infrastructure support for the guidance systems, and other drivers that aren’t working in conjunction with automated vehicles.

Our xc90 has semi autonomous drive mode and it works great except for in the snow, heavy rain, and I’ve noticed it sometimes has problems mitigating turns at speed. It’ll come in a little hot and it’s nerve racking.

Oddly being in the collision repair industry there is still no shortage of drivers crashing their cars even when equipped with all the driver aid systems currently available

 

[bigja01cobra]

I wouldn't mind cars that are autonomous on the interstates. Driving back from New Jersey last year was insane not a single accident but i was slowed to a stop 5 times...

Autonomous vehicles that link together and travel at much higher rates of speed will allow me to live hours away from my workplace, possibly work while travelling (persuade the boss that I can be productive in the 1hr(instead of 2+) travel time from Jackson to Nashville and back. I would work 9 hours 7 in the office the other two on the road. I can conference call, do CAD work, etc with the built in WIFI.

I imagine the median of the interstate could be converted into Autonomous vehicle only area at double speed limit and outside of that area autonomous at normal speeds or normal human operated vehicle. And all other roads the same as current just with the possibility of autonomous vehicles just at normal/slower speeds.

You have the option to drive or allow the computer to do it, the benefit is when a computer does it you get dedicated lanes higher speeds linking or sharing of power for higher efficiency etc...

I wouldn't mind at all.

 

[HEMIHUNTER]

I wouldn't mind cars that are autonomous on the interstates. Driving back from New Jersey last year was insane not a single accident but i was slowed to a stop 5 times...

Autonomous vehicles that link together and travel at much higher rates of speed will allow me to live hours away from my workplace, possibly work while travelling (persuade the boss that I can be productive in the 1hr(instead of 2+) travel time from Jackson to Nashville and back. I would work 9 hours 7 in the office the other two on the road. I can conference call, do CAD work, etc with the built in WIFI.

I imagine the median of the interstate could be converted into Autonomous vehicle only area at double speed limit and outside of that area autonomous at normal speeds or normal human operated vehicle. And all other roads the same as current just with the possibility of autonomous vehicles just at normal/slower speeds.

You have the option to drive or allow the computer to do it, the benefit is when a computer does it you get dedicated lanes higher speeds linking or sharing of power for higher efficiency etc...

I wouldn't mind at all.

I think that’s at least 20 years out though


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[CV355]

It's as simple as that. If they can land a rover on Mars to within ~600 feet of target after a 300 million mile journey, they can make AV work.

Commercially viable tech that we can afford is a whole other debate.

The difference is that they don't have distracted drivers, terrible roads, potholes, or freeways in space or Mars.

Well, that we know of. But I would figure aliens would be smart enough to fix distracted flying.