[Technology] Driverless cars

[Flounce]

I am a self confessed old Luddite and this would scare the shit out of me. I don’t even much like the driverless trains between the North and South Terminals at Gatwick!

Are you likely to be able to do this without stress?

UK driverless cars unlikely until 2027 - Uber says it's ready now

The previous government had said autonomous vehicles were "set to be on the road" by 2026.

www.bbc.com

 

[Perfidious Albion]

You wouldn’t get me in one of those !

Edit … further thoughts. For the Uber passenger what is the advantage .? You are still phoning for a taxi, they say the fare is the same… so what is the point? The benefit is all for Uber.

 

[GT49er]

'Other'; definitely no thanks.

 

[lost in london]

Self driving (but not driverless) cars should be allowed on the motorway. The tech is there.

I am unsure how self-driving cars will work in the UK on our narrow, windy, packed roads with cars parked on the curb. They might work on nice big wide US roads, but going through UK towns and villages where you're often stopping to let someone through, driving into the middle of the road to get round an Amazon van, flashing your lights to let someone else through etc feels like a real challenge for a self driving car.

 

[John Byrnes Mullet]

Sad times when we are relying on robots instead of humans. Uber will ger richer and people get poorer.

 

[Bozza]

Waymos are happily driving around a few US citiies now.

The amount of tech required is far beyond that on any current conventional consumer-targeted cars, even Teslas with their various cameras.

I can't help but feel that UK streets will present different challenges to the large, open roads of the big US cities.

 

[RandyWanger]

Other, no.

 

[WATFORD zero]

Two significant issues I can see.

Technology working with technology is fine as is humans working with humans. It's nearly always the technology human interface where the vast majority of issues lie, and putting a self driving car into a world populated by Human drivers, pedestrians, cyclists etc all doing things technology would find 'irrational' opens up a whole world of issues.

There is also a £24B car insurance industry insuring humans in cars. Shirley if the car is self driving there is no need to insure a driver anymore and that falls on the manufacturer. I can't see the Insurance industry giving up £24B lightly.

It will happen, but not as quickly as people think.

 

[Bozza]

 

[Flounce]

Waymos are happily driving around a few US citiies now.

The amount of tech required is far beyond that on any current conventional consumer-targeted cars, even Teslas with their various cameras.

I can't help but feel that UK streets will present different challenges to the large, open roads of the big US cities.

f*** THAT!!!

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

There is also a £24B car insurance industry insuring humans in cars. Shirley if the car is self driving there is no need to insure a driver anymore and that falls on the manufacturer. I can't see the Insurance industry giving up £24B lightly.

It will happen, but not as quickly as people think.

Spot on. I think this will be the blocker.

It's fine for Uber to trumpet that they think it's ready. and I don't doubt they will pay off the odd James May type to say everything is ready. But it will be the manufacturers on the hook for the losses. What is going to motivate them to make these? I don't see that there is a massive demand outside the taxi sector

 

[gazingdown]

For motorway, main roads, mostly OK I would think.

However, what happens (and this will happen if they don't avoid our many potholes!) they get a puncture? Drivered cars, we just get out and change tyre if we can, 20m later back on the road and get punctured tyre in due course.

For driverless, that depends on someone (AA/RAC etc.) which could take ages, meanwhile, customer is sat in the back! Guess they send out a replacement (if available) driverless car to take them onto destination......

 

[BLOCK F]

Nope.
I can just see all the ‘lessons will be learned’ stories coming out after we all end up in ditches or worse!
Seriously, I can’t see it happening for quite some time yet.

 

[Gwylan]

I think people are looking at this the wrong way. I do agree that driverless cars are a lot further away than people think but it's not the technology that's holding us up, as others have pointed out, it's the insurance/legal issue that gets in the way.

However, when they do come to pass, we'll be looking at a different model. For more than 100 years, there's been a single economic model for cars: a manufacturer makes a car and then a driver buys (or leases) it. I think that model will change: the manufacturer may not want to sell it but keep the car and run its own taxi service, or it could sell a subscription where an individual doesn't own a car but subscribes to it - maybe between 7.00 and 7.30 in the morning to get to work, while someone else could subscribe from 9.00 to 4.00 for work calls. Maybe a bar could buy some, ferrying its customers to and from the establishment. Maybe, for example, a football club with a ground a few miles away from a city centre could offer a service to its fans, getting them to the city and back - or maybe find driverless buses, so they don't need to find qualified drivers.

One thing that I'm sure of, firms like Uber won't always charge the same for driver and driverless cars: what would be the point? A £20 ride would currently net Uber a £5. If taxi firms (or a company like Lyft) offered the same trip for a tenner, why would people go with Uber? And if, say, BMW offered the ride, it could be even cheaper as there'd be no mark-up on the car to pay for.

There's also the effect that the government will have. There could well be a penalty for having driver cars: driverless cars will be inherently safer (no falling asleep at the wheel, no driving at inappropriate speeds, no more driving while texting) thus saving healthcare costs and roads running more smoothly.

This is all some way off but I reckon that the models we'll be looking at will be very different.

 

[chickens]

I can see driverless being rolled out for motorways first, then A roads, then B roads, then “to the door.” Staggered over a decade or so I suspect.

The change of business model and insurance issue doesn’t necessarily kick in until the “to the door” model is in place, since until that point there will need to be a driver in the driver’s seat, a steering wheel and a set of pedals for a human driver to take over as needed.

By which time I will not be driving regardless, so may increase my mobility and be a real benefit.

 

[beorhthelm]

Spot on. I think this will be the blocker.

It's fine for Uber to trumpet that they think it's ready. and I don't doubt they will pay off the odd James May type to say everything is ready. But it will be the manufacturers on the hook for the losses. What is going to motivate them to make these? I don't see that there is a massive demand outside the taxi sector

the vision is you dont own a car any longer, you simply rent a robo-taxi from a pool to turn up whenever you need one. in theory this means less cars and traffic as fewer cars will service the population. as they'll be replaced every 5 years the manufactures will be quite happy. getting from here to there is a challenge, insurance liability biggest problem, along with people just like having a car for the sense of independance and prestige as you go up the ranges. Tesla's ridiculous market value is largely based on this future, valued at more than rest of combinded manufactuers.

 

[Iggle Piggle]

I want one that talks to me like KITT

 

[chickens]

I want one that talks to me like KITT

I want one that talks to me like Sid James.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Don't have a problem with it - bring it on. Even better when all cars are driverless - no speeding, no drink driving.

I test drove a BMW last week which had self parking - absolutely bonkers and brilliant. Parked the car far better than I could have done. Lets just do away with human error around driving.

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

the vision is you dont own a car any longer, you simply rent a robo-taxi from a pool to turn up whenever you need one.

Who's vision? Uber's? It doesn't mean you have to adopt it if you don't want to. I certainly won't be.

And it doesn't mean it is an inevitability.