Driverless cars and horseriders.

[lhotse]

Today, it has been announced that driverless cars are to be trialed in my area.
http://www.gazetteseries.co.uk/news/11647867.Driverless_cars_coming_to_South_Gloucestershire/?ref=mr
This concerns me greatly.
We all know that not all drivers are careful around horses, but how the hell is a computer program going to know that I'm signalling for a car to stop or slow down because I can hear a pheasant in the hedge or a lorry about to come around a blind bend?
Does anyone know what the BHS stance on these vehicles is? How much regard has been given to horses and other vulnerable road users in their design? The council is involved in this scheme, the same council who kindly put horse warning signs on the roads by my yard. Have they never watched The Terminator? Stephen Hawkins might be right, Artificial Intelligence will be the downfall of man!

 

[bluehorse]

This is very interesting, I live in South Gloucestershire. I have heard of driverless cars but didn't realise they were actually going to be on the roads in the foreseeable future. I totally agree with your point, but there is no explanation in the article of how the car actually operates and how it recognises various situations on the road. It must be incredibly sophisticated, you could ask how would it recognise a cyclist making a hand signal, or a pedestrian crossing the road when a car driver has waived them over. It is scary technology and I have no understanding of it at all. I think I need to find out! By the way I do think Stephen Hawkins is right....

 

[Arizahn]

On the plus side, you won't have to bother smiling and waving...

I am also curious as to how these vehicles work. It doesn't seem likely that they would be allowed to be on the road if they were unsafe, but as you say, how reliable is any computer program? Are the vehicles limited to a very low speed etc?

 

[Exploding Chestnuts]

one word "why"
............ I can train a dog to go to the shops for a newspaper, but there is no point if he is not allowed in the shop [H&S]
Better to trial them in Borisland [Londinium]

 

[lhotse]

Walware could easily cause havoc, and what happens if the computer system fails to recognise that the driver wants to take control. Ok, so the driver 'should' be able to take control at any time, but just how attentive will they be to the road, or will they be playing with their IPad? Not to mention that they will rely on GPS and WiFi, and we all know how they can fail. Way too much reliant on computers these days, in all walks of life. As for smiling and waving, I actually enjoy it!!

 

[Beausmate]

They will probably have drivers in them, just in case. It's a trial and as it's on public roads, they need to have a failsafe.

 

[lhotse]

Yes, they will have trained drivers in them during the trial, but it would seem the Government is hellbent on making these available to the general public in rapid time (to reduce their CO2 footprint and make lots of money for fracking incentives no doubt). The thought of these cars going mainstream is rather frightening!

 

[Beausmate]

I find all of this technological input into our lives a depressing prospect. It's taking the life out of living and putting it into a mircochip.

 

[Firefly9410]

I agree with you Beausmate, it is very scary.

 

[NeilM]

Ok, so the driver 'should' be able to take control at any time, but just how attentive will they be to the road, or will they be playing with their IPad?

Given that most drivers are more concerned with their phones / iPad's than driving at present, I fancy we will be a lot safer when the computers are in control.

They are trailing these cars in Bristol too, but only on UWE campus sites.......for now.

 

[canteron]

Given that most drivers are more concerned with their phones / iPad's than driving at present, I fancy we will be a lot safer when the computers are in control.

They are trailing these cars in Bristol too, but only on UWE campus sites.......for now.

Yes, for example most plane crashes are caused by human error - they are much safer when left to the automatic pilot, hopefully it will be the same for driverless cars.

Computers don't have egos or emotions so potentially much safer than many of the idiots around.

 

[lhotse]

The sky is a lot less congested than the roads!

 

[paddy555]

that should be really good fun around here. Our roads are often no more than 7ft wide with high banks. There are loose cattle, sheep and ponies. Our journey usually involves going down the lane, looking at the particular cows, knowing from experience whether it is better to drive them down the road, stop and pull in and wait for them to walk past or try and inch past them one by one.
Same with the pony herds. Then half of them trot past leaving a mare at the back followed by the stallion who then decides it is fun time so he cuts the mare out and drives her off in the opposite direction. What about the mare who trots past the car but her foal gets stuck as it is too scared so we have to switch off the engine to let them get sorted.

Then we are driving cattle down the narrow road to get them out of the way and another vehicle comes in the opposite direction. Which of these 2 driverless cars (with cattle in between them) is going to back? Will the driverless car know that it has to back for a tractor and trailor? Will it have remembered the wide bit in the road it has just driven past that it could back into?
Why is this a good idea?

 

[NeilM]

I don't know what they intend to use in Bristol, but all the cars I have seen (apart from Googles Jeep's) have been little electric 'pod' type things. They are all designed to work within a city and urban type environment, so I suspect the chances of finding one (that isn't lost) within 50 miles of a major city, at least within the next ten years, is be remote.

 

[case895]

The final production robot cars will be far safer than human driven ones. They will not get tired, bored, distracted, rush because they are late, overtake on a bend or tailgate. Their sensors will detect hazards, analyse 1000s of options and pick the safest in less time than it took a human to notice the hazard.

They will inevitably have accidents, however the safety threshold for using them is "no worse than a good human driver" not perfect. This is the test on any new technology - is is no worse than what it replaces?

If the evidence shows them to be safer, insurance companies will charge a different rate for them. You could have to pay per journey depending on whether you or the robot drives.

One area which will benefit massively is country pubs as the car can drive you home!

 

[MissTyc]

I remember reading something driverless cars on the motorway a few years ago. Makes total sense to me - drive onto motorway, engage autodriver, pull out a book - car navigates all over autodriver cars via comms systems, I pretend I'm in a space ship, safe distances are always maintained, safe driving speeds for conditions are maintained, I read my book (and pretend I'm in my space ship).

For city centres as well, congestion, car deals with the traffic jam while I start work or finish my book. Car doesn't have a blind spot so doesn't kill cyclist in the suddenly spotted opening to the left omgcrunch. Car doesn't shunt into the one in front because it's getting bored of the stop/start.

For everything in between, I reckon cars will be mostly in driver mode for a while yet ... / and I'm pretty sure they won't be allowed to take drunk people home from the pub by themselves. Human will still be "in charge" in any case (although for those who DO drink drive anyway, perhaps it will provide some safety for other road users ... or perhaps OMG the car will lock you in and call the cops?!)

On the continent it's quite popular to drive your car onto a train for long routes (e.g. German, Austria and beyond) ... Car sleeps on train going at almost 200kmh while driver sleeps in cabin, eats breakfast, etc. Carbon foot print reduced, accident risk reduced. Driver gets off 2 hours and 400 km later ready to drive up the mountain for skiing holiday having not just had 6 hours of snow driving in heavy traffic and related-tiredness ...

 

[Meowy Catkin]

Which is great, until the technology stops working properly - which is bound to happen - and the human driver/passenger is too immersed in their book to take control quickly enough to avert a tragedy.

 

[NeilM]

On the continent it's quite popular to drive your car onto a train for long routes (e.g. German, Austria and beyond) ... Car sleeps on train going at almost 200kmh while driver sleeps in cabin, eats breakfast, etc. Carbon foot print reduced, accident risk reduced. Driver gets off 2 hours and 400 km later ready to drive up the mountain for skiing holiday having not just had 6 hours of snow driving in heavy traffic and related-tiredness ...

We used to have that over here on certain lines, we may still do for all I know.

The last time I looked into taking my wife and two kids, with car, from the South West of England to Scotland, it was so expensive it would have been cheaper to fly to Glasgow and hire a car for a week.

As for city centre traffic jams, once most people are in driverless cars, they will be a thing of the past, as all cars will roll along at a uniform speed. There won't be traffic lights, as all the cars will have sufficient gaps to allow other, computer controlled cars to pass between one car and the next, you will be able to hail a driverless cap, pay for the fare with your contactless credit card and be dropped outside your door .. the shape of things to come.

 

[case895]

The irony is that it is not the technology or society which will hold this back, but the law and specifically litigating ambulance chasers. A parent sends their 12 year old child to the supermarket, or the car is sent empty to collect something. Accident ensues, who do they sue?

 

[Spottyappy]

And, cyclists.
The partially sighted and blind crossing roads?

 

[lhotse]

Yes indeed, all vulnerable road users. I fail to see how a computer program can really think out possibilities like a human brain. Surely the £10 million pounds the Government has allocated to this trial would be better spent on filling in potholes so cyclists don't have to swerve into the path of cars!

 

[NeilM]

Yes indeed, all vulnerable road users. I fail to see how a computer program can really think out possibilities like a human brain. Surely the £10 million pounds the Government has allocated to this trial would be better spent on filling in potholes so cyclists don't have to swerve into the path of cars!

As a driver with something like 1,000,000 miles beneath my wheels, my considered opinion is that very few drivers think or use their brains when behind the wheel.

As for the potholes, I couldn't agree more.