Google (and other) driverless cars

shop deals on amazon
Advertise with us
Shop deals on ebay
GroupDIY Audio Forum

Help Support GroupDIY Audio Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Things like parking in tight places at first attempt.  I may do a bit of a hack saw action but at the end I get there too. So that's not a starter.

May be we can drink or get blown without the risk of crashing.



 
DUI springs to mind as one advantage..  Old/infirm senior citizens that need/want more mobility than their electric scooter. Picking up teens after school, who are too young to drive.

When you go into the (big) city for dinner you don't need to hassle about parking, just tell your car to get lost for a couple hours.

Taxi-cabs where you don't need to deal with humans.

The immediate app IMO is for driver-less long haul trucks... computers won't get tired or wired on speed.

Now why is Apple looking into making a driverless car?

JR



 
Efficiency (MPG) can be increased significantly if you optimize the driving of cars (no excess accelerate/brake, no speeding, etc) - this might be a major path for manufacturers to meet GHG regulations. Additionally, once you take all driver error out of the picture, vehicle's might not need to be built to withstand crashes and could be lightened significantly. This would further increase MPG since it scales directly with vehicle weight. Of course, special lanes would probably be needed for vehicles like this.
And automation would be a big selling point for industrial / mining / long haul due to major savings in labor for business.
 
Oh I'm sure Google has mega bucks and mega lawyers behind this program. Google is so big it could probably afford to hit and kill someone, God forbid. Perhaps they have some back room dealing going on with Mountain View California's local government.  I don't recall any federal laws being passed regarding driverless cars.

After reading that article, it seems on public roads, there is actually a person in the car who is able to take control of the car when needed. Maybe not all the time, I don't know.
 
pucho812 said:
do driverless cars need car insurance? they had one up north in san francisco that got into a car accident recently.  who has to pay for that?
Click to expand...
There have been a number of accidents but none were the driverless car's fault (so far).

JR
 
dmp said:
Efficiency (MPG) can be increased significantly if you optimize the driving of cars (no excess accelerate/brake, no speeding, etc) - this might be a major path for manufacturers to meet GHG regulations. Additionally, once you take all driver error out of the picture, vehicle's might not need to be built to withstand crashes and could be lightened significantly. This would further increase MPG since it scales directly with vehicle weight. Of course, special lanes would probably be needed for vehicles like this.
And automation would be a big selling point for industrial / mining / long haul due to major savings in labor for business.
Click to expand...
Driverless (remote control) vehicles are already in use in large strip mining operations in OZ...There it's labor cost/availability. Hard to get humans to live out in nowhere outback.  Easier to hire people to drive them remotely from some nearby city.

JR

PS: Interesting tidbit about insurance. The recent low cost of gasoline has encouraged more driving, which means more accidents, which means the big insurance companies did not reserve enough to cover claims.  :eek:
 
> What problem is going to be solved by driverless cars?

All those OTHER (not me!) idiot drivers on the road.

More and more, I'm ready to have self-driven cars be the default; manual driving to require flashing lights.
 

Similar threads

B
Jury duty and involuntary servitude
2 3 4
Replies
63
Views
2K
CJ
CJ
ruffrecords
What's up with REDDIT
Replies
6
Views
521
jabe
J
sr1200
Radio Killed The Studio Mix
2
Replies
34
Views
2K
sr1200
sr1200
B
USA power grid
2
Replies
37
Views
2K
sodderboy
S
MountCyanide
Eagle (software) is dead in 2026
Replies
2
Views
290
JohnRoberts
JohnRoberts

Latest posts

Back
Top