Self-driving cars are here!

Not at all, parallel parking systems are already advanced enough to be better than many, if not all humans.

Especially if you got enough auto-mated cars, then they could have sensors describing their positions, based on ones in the lot itself, report it back to other cars, and any issues with cameras or whatever else would be nil.

Yeah, with enough networking and stuff, each car would know how the other automated cars are. I'm thinking about the problem with the sensors being able to see beyond the cars on either side of it (not parallel parking) in order to detect a car travelling down the parking lot lanes. If their view of the lane is blocked by a vehicle parked next to them, the system might not be able to determine if it's safe to exit the stall, unless it just creeps out slowly.

Wait, scratch that. I'm looking at this as if the sensors are limited in where they can be fitted on the vehicle. Okay, easy fix, some side-looking sensors on the bumpers and bam, not a problem.

Exactly. Parking-wise, an auto-drive car can be dozens of times safer than a human. It's almost embarassing, if you think about it.

I like the idea of indicator lights that a car is on auto-drive. My concern would be that manual drivers would try to take advantage of it by intentionally performing dangerous maneuvers around cars displaying an auto-drive indicator. If you don't think that would happen, you haven't seen how drivers will rage about stuff...

...maybe just to mess with the guy sipping his latte and his car is on auto-drive.

"Watch this, I'm gonna make that Yuppie trend-humping fashion lemming wear that drink." -swerve-

-autodrive car brakes and neatly avoids an accident with inhuman precision, but this causes yuppie guy to dump his hot latte onto his white dress shirt-

HAHAHAHAHA

edited 10th Jun '11 1:40:21 PM by pvtnum11

And then the camera on the auto-drive vehicle sends a notice to the State Department of Reckless driving and your cheap laugh becomes a 500 dollar bill.

Bit of a thread-hop here, but the big problem I can see with auto-driving cars, is that people won't know how to drive them if the sensors fail.

... So?

Calculated Risk.

I addressed that. The car would trigger some alarms to alert the driver and state in that flat high-pitched female-like voice (easier to hear) something like:

[PLEASE ASSUME DIRECT CONTROL OF THE VEHICLE.] Bonus points if it sounds like something out of Mass Effect.

People already have problems driving their cars if things fail, case in point the people apparently having issues with accelerators sticking.

But tire failure and other things go wrong too. We may need more simulators for that.

edited 10th Jun '11 1:52:09 PM by blueharp

@Blueharp: Not even something quite that bad can cause people to lose control of their car. Heck, just losing power steering causes quite a few crashes, because nobody's driven a vehicle without power steering any more.

^ Rack and pinion is teh suck when at a stop. Once rolling, it's okay.

^^ Good point - the system will have to know how to deal with catastrophic damage to the tires, drivetrain and other things in order to maintain control.

That and possibly dealing with a panicking driver that wants to grab hold of the steering wheel for deal life.

edited 10th Jun '11 1:56:59 PM by pvtnum11

"That and possibly dealing with a panicking driver that wants to grab hold of the steering wheel for deal life."

Well, that can be avoided by disconnecting the wheel from the drive shaft until a manual override is engaged or something.

I actually thought of that issue after I posted it. Give it a electro-mechanical coupling so that if the electrical coupling part doesn't want to engage again, you can flip a lever and manually connect it again. Simple splined collar that can slide back and forth on the steering column. Just two different methods to move it.

A sensor would detect if you are trying to take control by sensing if you're handling the steering wheel, so disengaging auto-drive coudl be as easy as grabbing it. Ka-chunk, the coupler snaps into place, and you're in control again. If the car senses a loss-of-control condition and overrides manual input, it disengages the collar and it can bring the vehicle to a safe stop.

Hopefully.

Drive-by-wire is… Well, asking for trouble, to put it bluntly, especially on brakes and steering.

It works on F-16 jets, has been since they were introduced. I think BMW has dome some interesting work on electrically-actuated brake systems, eliminating the mess and fuss of hydraulics.

Also, relevant:

edited 11th Jun '11 1:01:16 AM by pvtnum11

Driving on the freeway today for the first time in a long while.

Nervous as hell. This is why I want a self driving car

I guess it depends on the location. Ours are limited to only 55, and they're short - it's driving downtown that sucks here. I did not like driving on the Florida Interstates, in comparison, everyone thee was doing at least 85, but I forget what the actual limit was. Oregon was okay, from what I can remember, so was Washington (but I blew an exit in Washington trying to get to the other side of the Sound).

Assuming one went full taxi mode would the environmental impact of reduced parking spaces offset operating 24/7/350-ish?

That's an interesting point-with self-driving cars, taxi cab drivers would be put largely out of work, which would HOPEFULLY radically reduce the price of taxi cabs. Hmmm... would that equalize to less cars on the road, or more?

It would indeed lead to less parked vehicles...

Probably less. Combined with the improved efficiency, since cars don't have any of the problems people have, there'd be a net gain.

Am I the only one who hopes for cars like Minority Report ? DAMN those were cool!

They were.