How would Autonomous Vehicles Change Your Diving Habits?

[4601S/C]

They say that autonomous cars are coming soon, and that traffic and stress levels will be much better because of it. I want to try and keep this as simple as possible. Just wondering how this would affect your daily drive. Lets say [for the purposes of this thread] that you have been given an autonomous vehicle that will drive from point A to point B for you including finding a parking space at the destination. Lets also say that this vehicle operates by the book (max speed=speed limit, full stops at stop signs...etc) ,defaults to fastest known route including traffic, and there is no chance of an accident by fault of misguidance on roads with nothing but autonomous vehicles.


Questions:

1. Would you tell your vehicle to speed by any amount? If so why?
2. What would do on a routine basis that normally couldn't do if you have to drive yourself?
3. Would you trust your autonomous vehicle with a major task, like picking up your kids from school, if it could do such a thing? Lets say it was a great area with no crime.
4. If you're alone in the car would you ever consider NOT sitting in the drivers seat for the ride if all other cars on your route were also being driven autonomously?

My Answers:

1. I would not tell mine to speed. I hardly speed as it is.
2. I would: surf the internet, maybe have breakfast if it's something simple, and just look around since driving would not be the main focus.
3. I could not trust a robot to pick up my kids alone.
4. I would sit in passenger seat at least once on a short 5 minute or so drive.

Please feel free to add more questions, I'll try to keep the OP updated.

 

[thomas91169]

1) I would let it drive how it wants. A purely autonomous vehicle would know the best way to go about its route.
2) Id probably do work on the drive to work and count driving in as my work time. Id have my lappy and checking emails, responding to clients, etc before I ever hit the office. I drive 45min each way so that would be nice to only be at the office 6.5hrs.
3) A human needs to be in the vehicle at all times. I do not believe self sufficient autonomous vehicles will ever be 100% safe, there will still be instances where a vehicle will need to be rendered to manual control.
4) same as #3, someone always needs to be in the operators seat for possible manual override scenarios.


I have an issue though, my version of self-driving cars is not each car being autonomous for itself, but an interconnected system that has full control of all vehicles and can optimize speeds, merges, groupings, etc based on origination and destination points. I think what we have now where we have a lexus whatever and you hit a button and it just drives itself based on what it sees on the road is pretty rudimentary. There needs to be a better system where a mainframe sees all vehicles at all times, and optimizes accordingly. Otherwise youll just have autonomous cars fighting eachother which will be no different than humans jockeying through traffic. Then youll still have assholes like me who instead of driving like a dick through all the gaps, youll have hackers who "tweak" their autonomous driving settings to more aggressive, by changing the throttle and braking rates, the margins for error or spacings all around. Thats why id rather have a fully automated and controlled system that just sees all and knows the best way to route you, and this way you can do it at far higher speeds by removing human error from the equation. Imagine no stops, 100mph freeway speeds (or greater for longer distances), etc. I believe autonomous cars will eventually evolve into cars that link up with the vehicles around them and then into the system I describe above.

 

[oldmodman]

I would want an autonomous RV.

I wouldn't care how fast it was going since I would be asleep in the bed in back.

Or maybe eating a pizza and watching a movie.

For any short drive I would prefer to be doing the operating myself. Except when it is bumper to bumper on the 405.

 

[AustinSN]

That's one of those things I wouldn't really be sure about until I had it. I think I would prefer to drive myself. The biggest benefit to a self driving car, from my point of view, is that you should legally be able to get away with drinking and "driving".

I like the thought of having a P85D that I can drive to the bar, tell it to drive home and park in the garage (door dings) and then text it to come pick me up when I want to go home and I'd climb in the back lol.

 

[Zinc03Cobra]

There would be a lot less DUI related collisions/fatalities! and I'd be out of a job collecting autographs.

win! I could retire.

 

[Blown 89]

I get too car sick to have an autonomous car do any of the driving. If I can't drive I'm not in a car, bus, train, or anything else.

 

[TK Doom]

I get too car sick to have an autonomous car do any of the driving. If I can't drive I'm not in a car, bus, train, or anything else.

This.

Not that I will have one ever, as I drive for work all the time.

That said, I don't see cars like that REALLY happening in our lifetimes..and when it does it needs to be like Minority Report.

 

[RedRocketMike]

I would end up working in the car. Much like the computer and the cell phone, something intended for convenience would soon turn into a way to become a burden.

 

[CobraRed01]

I would get more sleep on my daily commute.

 

[Never_Enough]

I wouldn't want one. Also, everyone saying they will work, etc while in the car. What happens when they malfunction, and they will, and you are too busy "working" & then you end up smashed into a semi...dead?

Also, why would you want to work while on the way to work? F that.

 

[2001sleeper]

I would tailgate less as less people would be driving slow in the fast lane.

Asshats

 

[TorchMach]

I would buy one of these cars as long as I have the option to engage whenever I want..I can see myself using it a lot in the morning and in traffic.

 

[motoman991]

Cars like this would kill revenue generation for cops. They'd have to make new laws to create revenue elsewhere.

 

[thomas91169]

I wouldn't want one. Also, everyone saying they will work, etc while in the car. What happens when they malfunction, and they will, and you are too busy "working" & then you end up smashed into a semi...dead?

Also, why would you want to work while on the way to work? F that.

This scenario would happen far less than your human that falls asleep at the wheel, or gets behind the wheel drunk.

And a car that is smart enough to drive itself can see things in time that we can only dream of. Imagine a computer that can tell pass front tire is all of a sudden losing psi at a rate of 1psi every 3 seconds meaning potential blowout. It could compensate far faster than your human will ever be able to do, by reducing speed and pulling over. It would be proactive in this situation instead of a human being reactive only.

Your scenario would be legit if the car malfunctioned in turn 3 of Daytona. Going straight on a freeway and all of a sudden it shuts off and driver takes control (again, why there needs to be someone in the drivers seat at all times) would not be an issue. Those 5 seconds that the whole interior goes red and says "manual control to driver" would let me put the lappy down and grab the wheel. Also, while this is going on, all other vehicles around them are seeing this car all of a sudden not in auto mode and doing what they need to do to avoid it.

 

[thomas91169]

Cars like this would kill revenue generation for cops. They'd have to make new laws to create revenue elsewhere.

you mean actually having them do real cop stuff? instead of sitting on the side of the road eating donuts while charging anyone that does 5 over $250 to make them "slow down".

 

[97desertCobra]

This scenario would happen far less than your human that falls asleep at the wheel, or gets behind the wheel drunk.

And a car that is smart enough to drive itself can see things in time that we can only dream of. Imagine a computer that can tell pass front tire is all of a sudden losing psi at a rate of 1psi every 3 seconds meaning potential blowout. It could compensate far faster than your human will ever be able to do, by reducing speed and pulling over. It would be proactive in this situation instead of a human being reactive only.

Your scenario would be legit if the car malfunctioned in turn 3 of Daytona. Going straight on a freeway and all of a sudden it shuts off and driver takes control (again, why there needs to be someone in the drivers seat at all times) would not be an issue. Those 5 seconds that the whole interior goes red and says "manual control to driver" would let me put the lappy down and grab the wheel. Also, while this is going on, all other vehicles around them are seeing this car all of a sudden not in auto mode and doing what they need to do to avoid it.

+1

An autonomous car would be able to communicate with other autonomous cars hundreds of times per second. It would be an extremely safe driving experience.

This will happen in our lifetimes, especially for those of us that are in our late 20's, early 30's or younger. The US military is already blazing the path with the autonomous drone taking off from and landing on an aircraft carrier. Figure 25 years for that technology to become mainstream with major airports so that commercial planes take off, fly and land themselves. 10 years after that its widespread and offered by every major manufacturer.

This will also require a network for these vehicles to operate on. That will be an additional challenge to overcome but I'm sure in 35 years it will have been easily discovered.

 

[Never_Enough]

This scenario would happen far less than your human that falls asleep at the wheel, or gets behind the wheel drunk.

And a car that is smart enough to drive itself can see things in time that we can only dream of. Imagine a computer that can tell pass front tire is all of a sudden losing psi at a rate of 1psi every 3 seconds meaning potential blowout. It could compensate far faster than your human will ever be able to do, by reducing speed and pulling over. It would be proactive in this situation instead of a human being reactive only.

Your scenario would be legit if the car malfunctioned in turn 3 of Daytona. Going straight on a freeway and all of a sudden it shuts off and driver takes control (again, why there needs to be someone in the drivers seat at all times) would not be an issue. Those 5 seconds that the whole interior goes red and says "manual control to driver" would let me put the lappy down and grab the wheel. Also, while this is going on, all other vehicles around them are seeing this car all of a sudden not in auto mode and doing what they need to do to avoid it.

Never said it would or would not be safer than a drunk driver or happen less. I am talking about when, not if, they malfunction & someone is hurt or killed. Electronics malfunction. It will happen.

 

[CobraBob]

Looking into the future of autonomous cars, I have to believe that the ultimate goal is having these cars depend entirely on a network and let the programming control the driving 100%. Step into the car, set your destination and don't do a thing until you arrive. Travel route, speed, etc. are all automated and pre-planned. A drive plan. In that scenario, you don't even have the option to speed, race, etc. Everything is automated to fit the (regulated) drive plan. And the drive plan incorporates max speed based on the network and all of the other vehicles within that network. JMO. Tailgating would be unheard of. Reckless driving would be unheard of. DUI unheard of. That said, I agree that the system must have built-in safeguards for an electronics malfunction, like pulling off the network prior to the failure of the electronics, if that will be possible. And there is the possibility of a situation where a vehicle is disabled on the network. All other vehicles in the network would have to have their drive plan modified to avoid the disabled vehicle. A complete revamp of driving as we know it today.

I see this happened beyond our lifetimes, but there are a lot of difficult challenges to overcome to really make it work successfully and safely. JMO.

 

[thomas91169]

Never said it would or would not be safer than a drunk driver or happen less. I am talking about when, not if, they malfunction & someone is hurt or killed. Electronics malfunction. It will happen.

Would it be any less different than if a blowout caused someone to be killed?

Just this week a family was killed because a blowout caused them to wreck.

You seem to want to be able to blame something for a failure that happens. Accidents can and will still happen. But the majority of them caused by human error won't.

 

[vortecd]

I enjoy driving my Mustang and do not live in a big city so I would have no interest in such a thing.

You also haven't truly lived until you drive a car on the limit through the snow. It's like a rally car race for me driving back and forth to work in the winter as long as no one is holding me up.

A car that drives inself is perfect for people not into cars and don't car how they get to where they are going