Autonomous cars... Would you own one?

[hondatech03]

lol i was thinking more of like the 1920s and 30s when it was a privilege to own and drive a car, where glove boxes held your driving gloves and cap, taking a car out meant you were gonna have some fun.

good old pre-war cars.

Although i do see the comfort and use in commuting via autonomous cars, just wont be for me anytime soon, as much as i love building and designing robots, i still dont trust them all systems can have flaws and fail, a car autopilot is one i just wont risk

I agree 100%. I can't help but think of the movie iRobot.

 

[kn0x47]

if you dont want to drive just take the bus.

if we had good public transportation systems there'd be no need for this crap

 

[RedRyder]

I wouldn't let my wife and kids step into an autonomous machine that plays such an important role in their safety. Iimagine getting that call, that they were in a serious accident due to a "software error" or the like. Humans make mistakes too, but I'll take my chances with them.

Imagine al the things you get annoyed about that your computer, smartphone, etc does wrong...then think of that on the scale of an automobile. There would have to be a major breakthrough in software/hardware tech to get something like this to be viable and last.

if you dont want to drive just take the bus.

if we had good public transportation systems there'd be no need for this crap

Good point. And riding a bus is cheaper than buying, owning, and maintaining a vehicle over several years.

 

[puzzlemaster94]

This is a relatively good idea, but applying it is another thing.

For one, as someone who enjoys driving and cars in general, I wouldn't buy one. Just not up my alley.

But to apply to this, they have to program the cars to either go due to voice command I would assume. This means just possibly anyone could potentially "drive" your car. Then you have all the software that had to be put in for it to maintain a safe distance from traffic (a lot of people could learn from this) do its own braking, stopping at signs, lights, etc..... To me that seems to be implementing a lot of things we don't need, nor can we afford. Changing basically the road infrastructure isn't cheap for these "cars", and no money (for the US at least) to do this with.

Then if this happens, most of the people will get lazy, and then you get back to where we are today, people simply do not know how to drive. If they are going to implement these, I think a test should be in order, that you must be able to drive a normal car without all the bells and whistles well enough, before hopping into a "self-driving" car.

Sorry for the rant

 

[RedRyder]

You know what this would be great for, if they could get it to work? The elderly. If the car was voice activated it would never get where it needed to go, but at least it wouldn't be doing 20 in the fast lane. And it could drop them off at the entrance to Walmart and get rid of all 40 unused handicap spaces.

 

[Mikey]

I would but I wouldn't.


I would for ease of and ridding having to drive when tired or I just dont feel like it. But I wouldn't because I like to drive. I like to be in control of things. Just depends.

I wouldn't let my wife and kids

You don't have kids...

 

[RedRyder]

No, I do not. Its called a theoretical. Lol

 

[Russianred]

How about we take everyone, cut their brain out, and replace it with a computer, which is standardized for a certain entity to make decisions about. Oh wait, that's how people pretty much are nowadays period.

How about you just learn to drive and use both your head and and common sense people? I can't believe this is even a point of contention..

I would NEVER own a car like this.. Nor would I associate with people who would.

 

[KombatVirus]

These cars are for sure the way of the future, and in theory they operate better than humans, without error, without strain, without being tired or otherwise intoxicated. This can result in a major cut-down in commuting time as well, as traffic will be better managed.

Unfortunately for us car enthusiasts, driving will most likely be reduced to a hobby on the track. Prior to these autonomous cars being released, there will be a HUGE amount of testing before release, to make sure human lives are not at stake. And it will probably be quite buggy for the first little bit.

However many organizations are on board with this project, including the innovative Tesla motors who perfected the electric car to date who are scheduling release by 2015, Google is currently developing this technology too, as well as Daimler AG

Personally I believe that at first, these cars will not be fully autonomous and these options will only be available in high-price luxury cars. For example the new Mercedes S-Class features, such as auto-parking, stop-and-go traffic control (moves by itself in traffic and stays in the lane), as well as highway lane control (stays in lane for up to 15 seconds, at which point the car tells you to put your hands back on the wheel).

The death of manual driving is definitely coming, by 2020 or at the very most 2030 everything will be autonomous.

 

[Brad2274]

You know what this would be great for, if they could get it to work? The elderly. If the car was voice activated it would never get where it needed to go, but at least it wouldn't be doing 20 in the fast lane. And it could drop them off at the entrance to Walmart and get rid of all 40 unused handicap spaces.

YES, that would be great, down here in florida i have so many near-misses and avoid some incidents that could've easily killed me, 90% of those are because of old people(notice im not even giving them the courtesy of calling them eldery) and i cant stand it.
if not cars to drive them around, then maybe require driving tests every 5 years after the age of 60, i would go and vote for that in a heartbeat