Self Driving Car

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DWalt

DWalt

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As I was going to the WalMart this afternoon, I encountered a strange sight. While stopped at an intersection, coming at me was a sedan with a whirligig device on its roof and several pod-looking things hanging on the body. No identification painted on it. My first thought was that it was a self-driving car. I couldn’t see anyone in that car. Never saw anything like it before in San Antonio, nor seen anything on TV about such cars being tested here. Has anyone else seen anything like that? Wish I had seen more, it was only in sight for maybe 10-15 seconds.

Question answered. A little research showed that in August Waymo started testing a fleet of self-driving vehicles in San Antonio and is mapping city streets. I guess the future is here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waymo
 
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1) The Selfie Generation refused to learn how to drive. It would mean that they would have to become, you know, adults. Who wants that?

2) The corporations don't want you to drive. "Are you nuts? You need to spend that time on your phone. Let us do the driving for you."

Gentlemen, let's get on our dirty, stinking motorcycles and ride the blankety-blank out of here. :)
 
I think the novelty of it will be fun for me. My son, who lives there, uses them interchangeably with Lyft and Uber, depending on which pick up is sooner.
 
Onomea said:
I think the novelty of it will be fun for me. My son, who lives there, uses them interchangeably with Lyft and Uber, depending on which pick up is sooner.
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San Francisco is a pretty cool town, as long as you're not the one who is paying for things. I hope you will let us know how the trip went.

By the way, I have nothing against self-driving cars per se. It's just that the internal combustion engine seduced me at a young and tender age, and my life has been really messed up ever since because of it.
 
DWalt said:
A little research showed that in August Waymo started testing a fleet of self-driving vehicles in San Antonio and is mapping city streets. I guess the future is here.
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Yup. Congratulations. You're now a research subject in some tech bro's experiment.

Mister Coffee said:
It's just that the internal combustion engine seduced me at a young and tender age,
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That and shifting.
 
Self driving vehicles will eventually be the norm, no matter how anyone feels about it. I am good with this. Safety will be greatly increased. Traffic will be improved as vehicles are networked. Productivity will improve. Car ownership can change. Most of us need a car for one hour a day. If the car could drive itself, it could be working for me the rest of the day - running errands, picking up paying riders, taking the kids to practice. Or maybe I just call one of the thousands of shared cars that others own and hire out.

People will be eventually be stunned that humans were ever allowed to drive.
 
I understand there are already some self driving long distance trucks on the roads in some states. But they are presently required to have a human in the cab. Someday not far off those could put lots of truck drivers out of work. My opinion is SDVs will be good when they reach the point at which their operation is at least as safe and efficient as a normal human truck driver. For a brief period of my long-ago life I was a short haul heavy truck driver. I didn’t like the job.
 
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what is the self driving vehicle going to do when the road worker turns the slow sign to stop.
what is the sdv going to do when the sign says right lane closed, merge left.
what is the sdv going to do when the fire engine is behind it on it's way to an emergency.
what is the sdv going to do at the detour sign.
asking for a friend
 
Waymo is capable of handling all of those situations appropriately. (I just looked this up.) It will do what most human drivers would do: Stop, merge left, pull over, and take the detour.

Its safety record is considerably better than that of human drivers.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.14648?utm_source=chatgpt.com
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15389588.2025.2499887
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Sometime ago I was listening to an interview with one of the guys involved with developing Waymo. He said one of the more difficult problems to solve — and they did solve it — is when there are no clear, black and white rules.

At a stop sign we all know to stop. But merging traffic is different. Human drivers give each other all sorts of subtle clues as to how they intend to behave. Teaching that to Waymo cars was hard.

I think, as a precaution, Waymo cars are still not permitted on high speed highways
 
I worked in a patrol squad all my 25 years and have been to more vehicle accidents then I want to think about. I can’t imagine being the officer investigating a collision with a driverless car and an irate person in the other car especially if it caused injury or death.
 
Honestly, if there were reliable self-driving cars right now I would consider buying one for my elderly mother-in-law. She refuses to give up driving, but is the last person you would ever want to be anywhere on the same roadway with! I'm quite certain that she doesn't drive fast enough to ever get hurt in an auto accident, but rather it's the trail of death and destruction she will leave in her wake...

I have a saying about her: She can't see, can't hear, can't walk, doesn't pay attention to anything, doesn't know where she is or what's going on around her - but according to the State of Florida she's good to drive for another SIX YEARS! :eek:
 
I just can't see it, Radar, LIDAR, ultrasound along with cameras consistently calibrated to the nth degree working together in harmony during any and all conditions? I should live long enough although even if the tech does work with more and more of the devices hitting the road I can see frequency interference being a problem.
 
soFlaNative said:
I just can't see it, Radar, LIDAR, ultrasound along with cameras consistently calibrated to the nth degree working together in harmony during any and all conditions? I should live long enough although even if the tech does work with more and more of the devices hitting the road I can see frequency interference being a problem.
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The more electronics fecal material you have the more to go wrong. I can see specialized places spring up all over just to keep the electronics working like their superposed to!

Not on the same plain but my wife's you drive yourself car (Ford Escape) you never know what its going to do and the dealer at multiple visit can not find the problem.

Quick problem description. Sometimes the back up cameras work, sometimes it does not, some times the side warning arrows come on and there is nothing around to set them off, sometimes they do not go on when another vechicle or pedestrian is in range, sometimes you push the button to open the hatch and nothing happens, sometimes it will not close and you have to human power it down.
In plain English you never know what the damned thing is going to do. As stated the dealer has looked many times and no clue as it happens spasmodically. Other little quirks but you get the idea.

just think how many more problems there is for gremlins with a vechicle doing attempting to do all necessary things. :mad:
 
NYlakesider said:
Quick problem description. Sometimes the back up cameras work, sometimes it does not, some times the side warning arrows come on and there is nothing around to set them off, sometimes they do not go on when another vechicle or pedestrian is in range, sometimes you push the button to open the hatch and nothing happens, sometimes it will not close and you have to human power it down.
In plain English you never know what the damned thing is going to do. As stated the dealer has looked many times and no clue as it happens spasmodically. Other little quirks but you get the idea.
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The technical name for that problem is "crappy manufacturing." :ROFLMAO:

Regarding self driving, like every other technical innovation, they will eventually get it sorted out to within acceptable tolerances. When there is more money to be made in another technology, they will move on.

The great benefit of technology, and the great moral value of our time, is convenience. Every day, we are sold convenience as though it were the ultimate goal of life. I find it both dangerous and boring to become dumber and less powerful as my devices become smarter and more powerful.
 
My grandson in law took me for a self drive in a neighborhood in his Tesla. Its weird I would involuntarily be hitting the pedals
 
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