Uber?

I believe I would sooner ride a pilotless aircraft, than have to drive on the road with driverless cars.

Quote: petroglyph

I believe I would sooner ride a pilotless aircraft, than have to drive on the road with driverless cars.

The only way it would ever work is
if all cars are driverless. We won't see
that in the lifetime of anybody on this
forum.

Quote: SOOPOO

even if it can be proven it is safer.

Some people (like my brother for instance) just don't enjoy being in a car with anyone else driving. Not sure what he thinks of machines. Probably doesn't like that either.

Quote: rxwine

Some people (like my brother for instance) just don't enjoy being in a car with anyone else driving.

I don't like not being in control. I always
sat up front in Uber, ever since Xmas I've
sat in the back and found the ride much
easier to take. I don't feel forced to talk
to the idiot who's driving. Yes, as a former
cab driver, if you give rides to people in
your own car for money, you are quite
far down on my intelligence graph..

Quote: Wizard

Isn't there some competition to have totally driver-less vehicles attempt to take back roads from Primm to Vegas and no vehicle has ever reached the finish line? I think these vehicles are even equipped with GPS points so they know something about a route. It makes me nervous that if they can't navigate a dirt road then why trust them on a busy street.

Then again, I'm all for considering the statistics, which I don't know.

The thing is a dirt road is way harder for them. I see these things running around town here all the time. They work when they map, map, and map--all working together. GPS alone can't come close to doing it. They 3D map the town. Something changes, they share info. They know if there is a new pothole.

One thing they need is really good road markings. If the lines are all not there, they get confused. A dirt road will be an acid test of sorts, since there are so few features to go by. There is LIDAR on the roof. Take the Strip. Just as you key in om TI, Caesrs, and Bellagio and in that order and then you know where you are, so does the car. On a dirt road you do not have many features to key in on, same with the car.

That being said, I don't see it in the next 20 years. And I see no controls as totally nuts. Did they close the strip or part of it when they had the recent shooting? You need a human to think how to handle that. Imagine an autonomous car just sitting there, confused.

I thought these Mars rovers could travel about without needing to be driven from earth. Then again, I think they try to land them in flat areas and they go slow.

Quote: Wizard

I thought these Mars rovers could travel about without needing to be driven from earth. Then again, I think they try to land them in flat areas and they go slow.

I remember reading an article in a GQ-type mag back in the early 2000s about a guy who had the job of driving one. A point you would like is they had to live on Mars-Time. It is just a touch off Earth-time, but they said over the mission it messed with you, they would be up in the middle of the night at a 24 hour diner because it was like the middle of their day.

"An Uber self-driving car hit and killed a woman crossing the street in Arizona, police said on Monday, marking the first fatality caused by an autonomous vehicle and a potential blow to the technology expected to transform transportation.
The ride services company said it was suspending North American tests of its self-driving vehicles, which are currently going on in Arizona, Pittsburgh and Toronto."

Suspended? No kidding. The article says Uber's
goal is to replace all drivers all over the world
with robot cars. Good luck with that now that
they murder people. Turns out they have Uber's
fault fender benders all the time, especially in
parking lots. Wait till they kill some old lady
at a Walmart..

Quote: Evenbob

"An Uber self-driving car hit and killed a woman crossing the street in Arizona, police said on Monday, marking the first fatality caused by an autonomous vehicle and a potential blow to the technology expected to transform transportation.
The ride services company said it was suspending North American tests of its self-driving vehicles, which are currently going on in Arizona, Pittsburgh and Toronto."

Suspended? No kidding. The article says Uber's
goal is to replace all drivers all over the world
with robot cars. Good luck with that now that
they murder people. Turns out they have Uber's
fault fender benders all the time, especially in
parking lots. Wait till they kill some old lady
at a Walmart..

Not only Uber, but I would think the person riding along shotgun, is partly to get some blame. I hope they were blood tested at the scene. Or can everyone just blame it on their cars?

Quote: Evenbob

Suspended? No kidding. The article says Uber's
goal is to replace all drivers all over the world
with robot cars. Good luck with that now that
they murder people. Turns out they have Uber's
fault fender benders all the time, especially in
parking lots. Wait till they kill some old lady
at a Walmart..

I never got why they wanted to do this in the first place. Why would you leave a model where someone else owns the cars and takes care of them to add all that capital and labor cost?