Self-Driving Car Driver Killed in Florida Collision, a First

[stro]

Car couldn't see the semi with the sun reflecting off the white side of the semi trailer.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/driving-car-driver-died-crash-florida-40260566

 

[ohio_grad_06]

And yet self driving cars are a good idea....No thanks, prefer my nice dumb cars that I drive.

 

[katz]

I've NOT been on board with this concept since day one, although I know it is the future and there is no stopping its' progression.

There will be accidents like this until they get all the bugs worked out & even then, nothing is certain. What is really troublesome is the autonomous trucks they are pushing. I listen to an overnight trucking am radio show sometimes, and the truckers are very up in arms over this, because of the safety factor, and all of the jobs that will be lost as well.

https://www.wired.com/2016/05/otto-retrofit-autonomous-self-driving-trucks/

 

[sapphirescales]

The Tesla autopilot is an extremely primitive and limited "self driving car." It's not like the Google cars that are coming. I'm not concerned.

 

[Krynn72]

Self-driving cars are an inevitability, and will overall drastically reduce auto-related deaths and improve traffic conditions. Theres going to be problems at the outset like this, and they will create certain dangerous situations that may lead to fatalities. But once most people are on-board they will be avoiding the far greater number of user-created dangerous situations that kill far more people. I regret that we will not see it come to its full fruition in our lifetimes, but am excited to see it start.

 

[katz]

It will be real hard to convince a certain age/mindset (such as myself) to get on board with anything like this. I will tend to agree that there may be fewer auto fatalities, except for software glitches, viruses, etc. take over the on-board system.

With all of the automation that is coming down the line, self driving cars/rigs, self checkout at many/most stores, self stocking stores... or even doing away with local stores altogether, huge regional, fully automated warehouses supplying each region of the country, drones delivering everything.

Where will us humans fit in to this new world?

The freedom is dying...

 

[glennd]

Where will us humans fit in to this new world?

You will be assimilated!

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

I've been looking forward to this for a while but not like they are planning at all. We can't make a single vehicle without issues, I mean as far as I know there is not a single make/model of a vehicle produced in the last 5 years that is flawless from manufacture defects. If every vehicle was produced flawlessly we would still need to worry about the quality of the development of the self driving system. To actually produce vehicles without steering wheels and pedals is foolish. If every vehicle is using the technology and every intersection, turn, etc has been analyzed and all construction requires reporting to some agency that makes sure it won't cause a problem for self driving cars at that point I may be willing to give up the steering wheel but not the brake pedal. At the very least I will always want a brake pedal.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

Oh and the whole not seeing the truck due to being white and the sun is laughable. Let me guess the huge tires were invisible?

Edit: Also in other articles it has the driver quoting "It was still playing when he died and snapped a telephone pole a quarter mile down the road,"

I mean how could it hit a pole a quarter mile down the road? to me that says theres a lack of sensor checks in place and the vehicle continued to try to drive with the car damaged. I mean its either that or they wherent working properly before the accident.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

I am only 35, but am kind of glad I won't see all the automation. I like computers, but you know what? When I want to go somewhere, I want to go. I want to be in control. I don't care how good they get self driving cars, how many windows machines do you see get infected? Think about it, if someone wants to do you in, they could potentially hack your car and run it into a tree. No, I like the freedom that comes with being able to get out on the open road and go where I want, how fast or slow I want, and if I want to change my mind and change directions, I don't want to ask my car.

Plus, there is still a thrill about driving for me sometimes. Like my 2013 focus, it's not a fast car, but it has some pep. It's still so much fun when I mash the gas if I'm trying to pass someone etc, and suddenly it revs up to 5000 rpms and takes off like a scalded dog. Driving is fun to me. We also have a newer 2016 chevy sonic. When we got that thing, it had options for wifi etc. I told them turn all those things off. Seen one too many articles about newer cars getting hacked. Look at the article below and tell me these cars are still a good idea.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2886749/teen-hacks-car-with-15-worth-of-parts.html

You can't prevent everything. I know the argument will be that you can't prevent accidents from the cars we drive now, but at least if I get killed or something in an accident, I'll have some degree of control to hopefully try to swerve or prevent it. And that is the other question. Will self driving cars be able to predict and do evasive manuevers on the fly like a person?

Anyone ever see the movie iRobot? Or the terminator movies? Just saying.

 

[BlackLabTechs]

Tesla will end up blaming it on truck by saying if that truck had been a self driving version, it would have communicated to the car it was there. So therefore it's the trucks fault.

Overall I'm 50/50 on the whole idea. Kind of scary but even the self driving cars with glitches are safer on the road than some of the drivers I deal with on a daily basis.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

I will say, I will keep my right to drive as long as I am able. But there are some people driving who have no business having a license imo.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

And that is the other question. Will self driving cars be able to predict and do evasive manuevers on the fly like a person?

That would actually be fairly easy to implement for most evasive maneuvers. Dodging a car getting into your lane, dodging a head on collision by turning right if space is available, doding a pot hole, programming wise these would be pretty easy. I know that the tesla can already dodge cars getting into its lane.

the really hard part is those confusing intersections, you know the ones where even you as a human has to think about the right thing to do or the ones where you have to think of which traffic light is the one for you. intersections like that would require special programming or perhaps a database of historic driving patterns through that intersection.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

Exactly. You can program instructions, but to replace human logic and reasoning I think is the part they'll have a hard time with. As I said, I'm only 35, been driving since I was 18. So 17 years? Why change a good thing.

 

[Larry Sabo]

You can program instructions, but to replace human logic and reasoning I think is the part they'll have a hard time with.

Hmm, I don't know about that. AI has come along way and can do better than humans at many tasks, like this Raspberry Pi beating a seasoned fighter pilot in a simulated dogfight.

 

[Krynn72]

I have a friend who is an engineer up here in CT where he is designing sensors for drones to avoid collision. He says they already have it good enough that if flying at chest-high levels, a human cannot catch it while on foot if they tried. Thats how good the evasion sensors are already.

IMO the only threat to automated cars are the people who want to be in control. Because humans suck at controlling cars. Like, we suck real bad at it. It doesn't matter how good you are at driving, because ultimately you are not going to be as good as a machine, and you have absolutely no control over another human driving in another car so your fate is often out of your hands anyways. Once cars are being driven with a hivemind everything will be glorious like it is in the Minority Report scene.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

I have a friend who is an engineer up here in CT where he is designing sensors for drones to avoid collision. He says they already have it good enough that if flying at chest-high levels, a human cannot catch it while on foot if they tried. Thats how good the evasion sensors are already.

IMO the only threat to automated cars are the people who want to be in control. Because humans suck at controlling cars. Like, we suck real bad at it. It doesn't matter how good you are at driving, because ultimately you are not going to be as good as a machine, and you have absolutely no control over another human driving in another car so your fate is often out of your hands anyways. Once cars are being driven with a hivemind everything will be glorious like it is in the Minority Report scene.

Famous last words....lol. Still have seen terminator movies once too often. No thanks, still prefer my dumb cars.