Will autonomous cars repo themselves?

Verdinut

Verdinut

Audioholic Spartan
I think you are being a bit short sighted.

Maybe for the next ~25 years this will be true.

But in the next 50 years, we will have completely autonomous cars, no steering wheel, etc. It is coming.
You are probably right. Time will tell the world but we will be gone then.:)
 
slipperybidness

slipperybidness

Audioholic Warlord
Keep in mind, they don't have to be perfect!
All they have to do is beat we humans, who did not evolve to be optimized for continuous attention to something that is more or less the same as it was for teh last hour (driving interstate).
As an analogy, when I was doing work in Human Factors, read some research where they needed a human to visually monitor test tubes passing by, to determine the results of blood work (I think computer vision systems could easily perform this function now). This was a medical test lab and they had a very difficult time getting the high level of reliability they needed. The positive indication (for the relatively rare disease they were testing for) was an off-color which was easily distinguished, but not a dramatic contrast from the others (let's say it was blue-grey among grey samples). They ended up solving the problem by "seeding" the line with "dummy positives".
(I don't remember the exact times/numbers, but the concept will be clear)
Before seeding, a "positive" would show up randomly, but at an average of once every two hours! This was too long to hold the inspector's attention, and they would lapse into daydreaming. By mixing in "dummy positives" such that positives were presented every 10 minutes on average, the inspector could maintain his vigil at a much higher level and the reliability of detection went up dramatically! I don't believe they told the inspector about the dummies, but he also found his job more rewarding after the trickery!
So I guess the conclusion is, if we want to make people better drivers, we need to present them with extra "near miss" accidents to keep them engaged!

But my point is we are not great at driving and I know of no one who has not at some point in their life taken chances in the form of driving when they know they are very tired and a lot of prescription drugs are clearly labeled "do not drive or operate heavy machinery" and most people I know (myself included) don't give that a second thought!
If automated systems can perform more reliably that we can, that is the measure by which these systems will be gauged. It seems they are not far from this target right now!

As far as having a person as a back up, I don't see that working out very well! Just like the "positive" test tube about every two hours, a person needs to engage their mind and if the assigned task is dreadfully boring the human mind will wander!

PS just for the record, I am 59 and have had one minor accident that was my fault; however, if I am honest, I know I have had other instances where dumb luck worked in my favor to avoid an accident!
That is quite interesting on the blood test! I had never considered that before, but now that you have enlightened us, I can absolutely see these types of complacency items popping up in my daily work, where 98% of all results are "good", so you almost become blind to the 2% of bad results. I will have to keep this in mind and think about how I can use this knowledge to improve my work too. And, hey, that also gives you an excellent check--"How many positives that we know should have been caught but did not get caught".

What I am really looking forward to with autonomous vehicles is the "hive mind". This is what we need to solve traffic problems, all vehicles communicating to create the least delay for ALL vehicles. 80% of traffic problems today are due to A-holes that have the "me first" mentality.
 
KEW

KEW

Audioholic Overlord
What I am really looking forward to with autonomous vehicles is the "hive mind". This is what we need to solve traffic problems, all vehicles communicating to create the least delay for ALL vehicles. 80% of traffic problems today are due to A-holes that have the "me first" mentality.
Yeah, the idea of clusters of cars forming and moving in unison and aware that one car needs to hop in and another to exit the cluster all coordinated as a group is the future of autonomous cars.
 
Verdinut

Verdinut

Audioholic Spartan
Those autonomous cars are controlled by a GPS to get to a specified destination. For example, one is programmed to go to the center of a big city. It has to park somewhere and it shall find a free spot. Of course, it will find a free spot but It could park in a "No Parking" area or even worse, a "BUS STOP" area. I wonder how that kind of problem would be avoided.
 
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slipperybidness

slipperybidness

Audioholic Warlord
Those autonomous cars are controlled by a GPS to get to a specified destination. For example, it is programmed to go to the center of a big city. It has to park somewhere and it shall find a free spot. Of course, it will find a free spot but It could park in a "No Parking" area or even worse, a "BUS STOP" area. I wonder how that kind of problem would be avoided.
You could have RFID tags for parking spots, no RFID then no parking.

Or, paint the parking spots with paint of a very specific color or reflectivity (i.e. it emits a very narrow band of light wavelengths).

Or, perhaps car ownership is meaningless in the future, you simply lease time so the car does not park, but picks up the next person and takes them to their destination, the next available ride gets you when you are ready to leave.

Of course, I'm thinking in terms of tech that is available today, no telling what new tech will solve such problems in the future.
 
Verdinut

Verdinut

Audioholic Spartan
You could have RFID tags for parking spots, no RFID then no parking.


Or, perhaps car ownership is meaningless in the future, you simply lease time so the car does not park, but picks up the next person and takes them to their destination, the next available ride gets you when you are ready to leave.

Of course, I'm thinking in terms of tech that is available today, no telling what new tech will solve such problems in the future.
With the future possibility that the car does not park, but picks up the next person, that next person has to program it to take him to where he wants to go. We already have taxis for that purpose that will remain a lot cheaper and without the need to learn to program an autonomous car.
 
Alex2507

Alex2507

Audioholic Slumlord
Will I be able to program my car to run over people?

Asking for a friend.
 

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