Automated Driverless Vehicles

  On 8/1/2014 at 6:57 PM, Joyrex said:

This is why it's almost 2019 and the flying cars of Blade Runner are still just a fantasy... even then, in that movie, it was only seemingly the police and commerce that had the ability to take to the sky - people are poor enough drivers as it is in two dimensions, but add a third? Not gonna happen anytime soon.

 

This whole driverless vehicle thing will work in controlled environments, but as suggested before, there's really no practical or cost-effective way to retrofit basically everywhere to work with them under all the different conditions.

 

I think the best we'll get is computer-assisted driving (early-warning braking, etc.).

so why would Google invest lots of their money in driverless technology and why would the British government (amongst other governments considering this kind of tech) pull together millions of pounds to look into changing existing rules and regulations to potentially make way for driverless vehicles?

  On 8/1/2014 at 6:57 PM, Joyrex said:

This is why it's almost 2019 and the flying cars of Blade Runner are still just a fantasy... even then, in that movie, it was only seemingly the police and commerce that had the ability to take to the sky - people are poor enough drivers as it is in two dimensions, but add a third? Not gonna happen anytime soon.

 

This whole driverless vehicle thing will work in controlled environments, but as suggested before, there's really no practical or cost-effective way to retrofit basically everywhere to work with them under all the different conditions.

 

I think the best we'll get is computer-assisted driving (early-warning braking, etc.).

I don't want any of that computer assisted bullshit. I either want the computer to have full control or very minimal input like ABS. I don't want a computer making a decision that interferes with what I'm doing, for example changing lanes if a car is turning left ahead of me but the car thinks I need to brake instead. And knowing how far away the car companies determine is an acceptably safe limit (see my previous post about park-assist), braking-assist systems will be a nightmare for people who actually know how to drive, as opposed to the fat waddlers who can't tell the brake from the accelerator in an audi.

  On 8/1/2014 at 8:33 PM, Bread said:

 

  On 8/1/2014 at 6:57 PM, Joyrex said:

This is why it's almost 2019 and the flying cars of Blade Runner are still just a fantasy... even then, in that movie, it was only seemingly the police and commerce that had the ability to take to the sky - people are poor enough drivers as it is in two dimensions, but add a third? Not gonna happen anytime soon.

 

This whole driverless vehicle thing will work in controlled environments, but as suggested before, there's really no practical or cost-effective way to retrofit basically everywhere to work with them under all the different conditions.

 

I think the best we'll get is computer-assisted driving (early-warning braking, etc.).

so why would Google invest lots of their money in driverless technology and why would the British government (amongst other governments considering this kind of tech) pull together millions of pounds to look into changing existing rules and regulations to potentially make way for driverless vehicles?

 

The same reasons the governments thought the Industrial Revolution was a good thing and didn't mind pumping toxins into the air and water for decades before realizing it was killing them.

Just because you CAN do something doesn't mean you SHOULD do something.

To be honest I think it isn't a question of whether we can or should or must. It's something that happens and what you make of it is politics. That was the whole point of socialism and so on! There's something terribly wrong about self-declared "socialists" these days which are all for small, local production and almost new-age bollocks: socialism is a political project for the Industrial Revolution and for post-industrial societies, a project which embraces the unavoidable consequences of capitalism.

 

on the other hand, governments had been doing lots of things before the industrial revolution that made it possible more or less by coincidence, so it's not like it was all a misguided masterplan or something. it could've been otherwise but it wasn't, so it's what it had to be and you can't go back and you have to deal with it (politically and culturally). also in some ways it was more or less a direct consequence of the establishment of liberal democracy! which is why one should always handle any neokantian talk of "civil society" with extreme care, if not covering your nose.

 

imo driverless cars won't be a big deal at all when they come. at best you get less accidents and at worst more "cybercrime" and shady secret service operations. then there's the unemployment thing, which has always been and will always be a constant of capitalism anyway. whatever.

Edited August 2, 2014 by poblequadrat

Idiot gets out of his car to test it's self-driving abilities... on a highway!