Self-driving cars - How do they make you feel?

[Xyn Kyu]

Apparently, autonomous vehicles are planned to be commercially available before the year 2020. This is truly some revolutionary and amazing technology that could easily prevent thousands of DUI incidents and road fatalities per year.



Although undoubtedly, this technology will have its disadvantages. What about taxi drivers, truckers and postal service drivers? Will we still even be able to drive off-road? In the event of an emergency, can we take control?



Personally, I think it's really cool. At the same time, however I'm concerned for the amount of unemployment this could cause, as well as the unbeatable feeling of being in complete control of an automobile that you, yourself own.


Article: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013...kfurt-daimler-selfdrive-idUSBRE98709A20130908

 

[Thatman]

I have already come to terms that we, as driving enthusiasts, are a dying breed. This will ultimately bring more safety to the roads and will save lives. But I am for it, its the future, where automated things bring the human factor out of the equation. I just hope there will still be a place for us. Likely a racetrack.

 

[Slash]

As cool as it is, you absolutely cannot substitute a pair of human eyes and hands when behind the wheel of a car. You just can't. There is no replacement.

If anything, I see this as more of a promotion for laziness. It's cool and all, really it is. But I can bet you it will flop. A lot of people simply love to drive. Taking that away from the human race over the next however many years and totally phasing out manual real human driving before younger kids can get to experience driving is a mistake in my eyes.

Also, what about motorsports? You cannot sit there and tell me racing of any kind isn't popular. How will it work? Will it die off? Will all the cars being raced have any human interaction at all? Why not make a race a however many participants there are tie then.

Then there is offroading. Strictly speaking after my time here, if you can't control a vehicle offroad, how the hell are trucks going to work then? Trucks are a big part of American motoring regardless of age of the vehicle or the driver. You can't deny that.

I fear that over the next 100 years or so even after I'm long gone that the world is going to turn into something from an '80s fantasy movie with all the weird computers and technology. At the rate the world is going, with federal mandates, crazy laws and now automobiles that drive themselves (mind you Ford has already started phasing that in slowly with the parallel parking button), I think they are just trying to make it a utopia. And as we all know, that ultimately fails and crashes hard when it does. Read the book called The Giver if you want an idea where the world is going. The human factor in anything is slowly diminishing in many ways and will eventually be gone, and while I might not be around to see it, the world is seriously in trouble and is doomed to fail. If you can't see it, then you need your eyes checked.

 

[MadMike32]

Well, I rather enjoy driving, personally. My only worry is that if this technology becomes successful, politicians will mandate it in the name of "safety". Unless that happens, I simply couldn't car less. I'll never use it.

 

[SVT Cobra GT]

I can see this being useful on long trips across places like the US, Canada, Russia etc.

If you're feeling tired and can't stop anywhere, switch it to auto mode and have a nap whilst it drives. Although the thought of going to sleep whilst still travelling 60mph and your well being left up to a computer is fairly nerve wracking.

 

[Xyn Kyu]

As cool as it is, you absolutely cannot substitute a pair of human eyes and hands when behind the wheel of a car. You just can't. There is no replacement.

If anything, I see this as more of a promotion for laziness. It's cool and all, really it is. But I can bet you it will flop. A lot of people simply love to drive. Taking that away from the human race over the next however many years and totally phasing out manual real human driving before younger kids can get to experience driving is a mistake in my eyes.

Also, what about motorsports? You cannot sit there and tell me racing of any kind isn't popular. How will it work? Will it die off? Will all the cars being raced have any human interaction at all? Why not make a race a however many participants there are tie then.

Then there is offroading. Strictly speaking after my time here, if you can't control a vehicle offroad, how the hell are trucks going to work then? Trucks are a big part of American motoring regardless of age of the vehicle or the driver. You can't deny that.

I fear that over the next 100 years or so even after I'm long gone that the world is going to turn into something from an '80s fantasy movie with all the weird computers and technology. At the rate the world is going, with federal mandates, crazy laws and now automobiles that drive themselves (mind you Ford has already started phasing that in slowly with the parallel parking button), I think they are just trying to make it a utopia. And as we all know, that ultimately fails and crashes hard when it does. Read the book called The Giver if you want an idea where the world is going. The human factor in anything is slowly diminishing in many ways and will eventually be gone, and while I might not be around to see it, the world is seriously in trouble and is doomed to fail. If you can't see it, then you need your eyes checked.

Yep. We're sacrificing so much just to dive into a new age of ultra-laziness, as I'd like to call it. I fear that these are the small signs of the human race declining into a lazy, dull and unintelligent civilization in which all manual labor, easy or hard has become nothing but a simple automated process.

Yes, autonomous vehicles are a great example of human achievement and advancements in technology, but what it comes down to is that we're all destined to become lazier and dull.

 

[Imari]

As cool as it is, you absolutely cannot substitute a pair of human eyes and hands when behind the wheel of a car. You just can't. There is no replacement.

I absolutely disagree, and I disagree with the laziness part too.

There's nothing lazy about not wanting to drive for ten hours to get to another city. An automatic car is basically a little bus or a train. If I'm going to go from Melbourne to Sydney, I'd rather have the car drive while I read a book and maybe take a nap. When I get there I will be refreshed and ready to do something useful, instead of exhausted and needing to go to sleep.

There's times when driving a car is great fun, and times when it's just a chore that needs to be done to get from A to B. I see nothing wrong with eliminating the chore part, because there's nothing that says it has to get rid of the fun part too.

Enthusiast cars will always exist, just like there's still enthusiast hikers, horse riders, sailors, and every other sort of transportation that is no longer strictly the most efficient but is still kind of fun.

 

[Murcie_LP640]

I will embrace the change but I won't be buying into it.

 

[AudiMan2011]

I don't like the idea of autonomous cars becuase you have to put a lot of faith into the technology to keep you safe. Things like autonomous parking also give me the shivers.

​

 

[Dan]

Thinking back to futuristic car shows from a couple years ago, I remember the shows talking about self-driving cars. One important thing they talked about was the problem if the technology were to suddenly stop working. Say you're going along the highway at 75 MPH, asleep in your car, letting it drive autonomously, when suddenly the driving computer stops working. Now, you're at the mercy of which way the wheels are pointing. This same scenario can be applied to mountainous roads or rocky areas.

I want people to remember this: When a machine makes a mistake or error, it will continue to repeat this error again and again until someone, or something stops it. A machine can't learn. The human race and every other animal on the planet learns from their mistakes so they know not to do it again.

 

[Xyn Kyu]

I don't like the idea of autonomous cars becuase you have to put a lot of faith into the technology to keep you safe. Things like autonomous parking also give me the shivers.

​

Haha, wow. I can definitely see the parking as a major positive. I may not approve of self-driving, but self-parking is a different story!

 

[Joey D]

I like the idea of automated cars, they'd be great for long road trips, especially ones that are mostly highway. When I drove to the Dragon in North Carolina/Tennessee, it was about 11 hours of highway, having an automated car would have made that so much better and probably safer too since I wouldn't have been driving fatigued.

I don't think you'll ever see 100% automation with cars but I do think in the next 10-15 you'll see an automatic mode start appearing that gives you the option to have the car drive for you. I know as soon as the technology becomes reasonable in price, I will be buying a car with it equipped.

As far as the safe I don't really understand how people think a computer driven car would really be any less safe. All you have to do is look around and see how distracted/oblivious many people are while driving their vehicles. Personally I'd trust a computer more than I'd trust someone texting, eating, reading, putting on make-up, etc. while driving. Sure there will be failures but I'm going to guess the failure rate will be less than the failure rate of a actual person.

 

[Pupik]

I'm not too worried about the overall safety of a fully-automated car. There's probably going to be a lot of them over the next twenty years, unless there's some sort of colossal backlash.

What I worry about is that some "manual" drivers will probably take advantage of the automated cars, whereby causing them to brake quickly and cut them off, due to their potentially superior responses to accident avoidance. This in turn might lead to tougher driving laws and tighter restrictions, which might make the enjoyment of driving into a cumbersome task.

Hard to say where we'll be this in the coming decades. People will be slow to buy into the idea, but they will appreciate it as the public accepts their safety and reliability.

 

[Tornado]

As far as the safe I don't really understand how people think a computer driven car would really be any less safe.

Because even the laziest, most distracted driver can be proactive.

 

[Joey D]

Because even the laziest, most distracted driver can be proactive.

You have to be paying attention though, which many distracted people aren't. If you're reading the newspaper while driving down the road (something I see frequently) you can't really be proactive since you're too busy reading the daily funnies.

Even then I'm willing to bet any production spec automated car would be really easy to override if you needed too, much like cruise control is now.

 

[Slash]

Yep. We're sacrificing so much just to dive into a new age of ultra-laziness, as I'd like to call it. I fear that these are the small signs of the human race declining into a lazy, dull and unintelligent civilization in which all manual labor, easy or hard has become nothing but a simple automated process.

Yes, autonomous vehicles are a great example of human achievement and advancements in technology, but what it comes down to is that we're all destined to become lazier and dull.

This.

I absolutely disagree, and I disagree with the laziness part too.

There's nothing lazy about not wanting to drive for ten hours to get to another city. An automatic car is basically a little bus or a train. If I'm going to go from Melbourne to Sydney, I'd rather have the car drive while I read a book and maybe take a nap. When I get there I will be refreshed and ready to do something useful, instead of exhausted and needing to go to sleep.

There's times when driving a car is great fun, and times when it's just a chore that needs to be done to get from A to B. I see nothing wrong with eliminating the chore part, because there's nothing that says it has to get rid of the fun part too.

Enthusiast cars will always exist, just like there's still enthusiast hikers, horse riders, sailors, and every other sort of transportation that is no longer strictly the most efficient but is still kind of fun.

There is still too much flaw for them to be effective, period. You still need to be alert and paying attention, no matter how long the trip. Making an automated car where you still have control over speed would be pointless because you really aren't gaining anything over a normal car, except for the fact it can steer itself, which, IDK about, but parts wear out and I for one am not willing to get into a car and have no control where at this rate won't even have a steering wheel in the next couple decades. Just no. I for one, and I'm sure others agree, do not want to live in a world where a car is a couple of seats and a bunch of buttons.

What is fun about them when they go a set speed and that speed only and you have absolutely no control over it all? All you do is punch in a GPS where you want to go and it takes you there. Sooner or later road speed limits are going to be programed into GPS units so the car knows what speed to travel. You get back to me when riding a train 35 mph is more fun than racing a couple of cars around a track.

While it may not come to this any time soon, there is no doubt in my mind that it will come to that eventually someday. It absolutely increases the laziness of society. Once they start giving us fully automated cars, what will be next? You going to come up with some sort of device that feeds me too because you don't want me to lift my arm to put food in my mouth? I mean come on dude. You may as well make everything automated and put people out of jobs even more than they've already done with robots and computers in the last 25 years. The average lifespan will begin shorten rapidly the more they come up with because we can't be bothered to be self sufficient.

Again, go read that book. You can't possibly sit there and tell me that this isn't what this world is coming to in the long run.

 

[Joey D]

There's nothing wrong with wanting things to be easier, nor is it making society lazy. Driving isn't a measure of how hard you work, many people work 50+ hours a week and just don't feel like driving when they need to go somewhere.

Seriously you sound extremely sheltered and oblivious of how society works if you think an automated car would contribute to the "laziness" of society.

 

[Slash]

There's nothing wrong with wanting things to be easier, nor is it making society lazy. Driving isn't a measure of how hard you work, many people work 50+ hours a week and just don't feel like driving when they need to go somewhere.

Seriously you sound extremely sheltered and oblivious of how society works if you think an automated car would contribute to the "laziness" of society.

Making things easier I totally get. There are certain things I enjoy myself like say a remote start for my car and my iPod and cellphone. I don't have a problem with that. My problem lies when you start to substitute the human factor for things that shouldn't need simplifying anymore. It's already refined enough. I certainly see the appeal of something like this, but it just wouldn't work. I don't trust it. It's cool if you do and all but again I just feel it makes everyone even more lazy. There's always an alternative for transportation.

I can understand partially automated cars like what's out now but too much more and they are going overboard in my opinion. It's like the government doesn't want us to do anything. By the time you could get a fully automated car, what point is there to go out and do anything like grocery shopping when you aren't doing anything but buying them loading them into the car. At that point just pay someone to go get them.

 

[Joey D]

Not trusting it or not liking it is one thing. Saying it's going to make society lazy is just completely wrong and shows you don't really understand how society works. If I work 10 hours in one day and get into my automated car to take me home then how in the world am I lazy?

There's also not a valid form of alternative transport in many areas. I'd love to take the bus to work but there aren't any routes.

 

[Slash]

Not trusting it or not liking it is one thing. Saying it's going to make society lazy is just completely wrong and shows you don't really understand how society works. If I work 10 hours in one day and get into my automated car to take me home then how in the world am I lazy?

There's also not a valid form of alternative transport in many areas. I'd love to take the bus to work but there aren't any routes.

My point is, once this takes off who knows what else they will do that will affect ours lives that drastically. Driving has been around for 100 years or so. There's no point in changing it now if we all got along fine with it thus far. I think it's cool, don't get my wrong, I just think it won't be good, for lack of a better word.

 

[Beeblebrox237]

I want to drive myself. Forever. But there are people who would be better off not driving.

 

[Dan]

I want to drive myself. Forever. But there are people who would be better off not driving.

This.

 

[Adamgp]

I do think this is kind of neat, but I'll never buy it given a choice.

I imagine this being a lot like the Segway. Everybody thought they were cool when introduced, but ultimately the proved too expensive for the masses. New cars are already getting more and more expensive thanks to safety and fuel economy regs, etc. I can't imagine adding automated driving tech to cars would make them any more affordable.

These will be toys for rich nerds.

 

[Joey D]

My point is, once this takes off who knows what else they will do that will affect ours lives that drastically. Driving has been around for 100 years or so. There's no point in changing it now if we all got along fine with it thus far. I think it's cool, don't get my wrong, I just think it will be good, for lack of a better word.

Your point about the way driving is now is a valid one Your point that automated cars would make society lazy is completely wrong and severely misguided though.

I want to drive myself. Forever. But there are people who would be better off not driving.

While it's true that there are many people in the world that shouldn't be driving, you and I both know that making it so these people can't drive isn't a valid solution.

 

[Slash]

Your point about the way driving is now is a valid one Your point that automated cars would make society lazy is completely wrong and severely misguided though.

Yeah, but don't you think that it promotes it? I mean maybe it's because it's new and we aren't used to seeing it. I just feel as though it's something for those who don't want to drive.

 

[Joey D]

Yeah, but don't you think that it promotes it? I mean maybe it's because it's new and we aren't used to seeing it. I just feel as though it's something for those who don't want to drive.

Not at all. Like I said someone who works a ton of hours and wants to be shuttled home after a long day isn't being lazy.

Just because something makes your life easier doesn't mean you're going to be a slacker.

 

[Slash]

Just because something makes your life easier doesn't mean you're going to be a slacker.

Good point. I still can't help but feel like it might make more people become bums though. Ah well, I'll just let it go.

 

[kikie]

Definitely Do not want

If I should reïncarnate in a body 300 years from now, I probably wouldn't want anything else but as I live now, I definitely want to drive myself.

 

[Sage Ages]

No. I don't trust machines.

 

[xXKingJoshXx]

No. I don't trust machines.

A car is a machine...