Thread: Autonomous Vehicles

Sounds horrendous, unless you’re just catching a taxi.

...I like wandering, roving, with no predetermined destination, steering my own conveyance.

Not in my lifetime anyway. It’s pretty obvious that the only way to avoid all the variables on the roads is for autonomous vehicles to go into the air. Otherwise and until then, the car msnufacturers need to get their hand off it, stop waving it around and stop using human lives as guinea pigs.

Cheers Z

They wont go into the air because the reliability and servicing regime required is too costly, plus there would be a lot of things in the air to fall on people below when things go wrong.

Originally Posted by Zeros

Sounds horrendous, unless you’re just catching a taxi.

...I like wandering, roving, with no predetermined destination, steering my own conveyance.

Cheers Z

Yes, agree 100% - apart from work, where I'd happily have a nap or do some emails while being whisked to my next appointment. As I do around 1,000KM of city driving a week, that makes up the vast majority of my driving, so bring it on. 👍

Work says that our driving is one of the biggest uncontrollable risks at work, so naturally they will buy us all mega dollar automomous vehicles as soon as they are able to mitigate this risk... 😆

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

Uber without a driver?

Yep

Originally Posted by Mick_Marsh

Uber's goal.

Yep

Originally Posted by Zeros

Sounds horrendous, unless you’re just catching a taxi.

...I like wandering, roving, with no predetermined destination, steering my own conveyance.

Not in my lifetime anyway. It’s pretty obvious that the only way to avoid all the variables on the roads is for autonomous vehicles to go into the air. Otherwise and until then, the car msnufacturers need to get their hand off it, stop waving it around and stop using human lives as guinea pigs.

Cheers Z

Yes but sadly, people like us are becoming a diminishing minority. Sure the car manufacturers like to sell the dream of the free spirited rover when they market their puss pile SUVs but they know damn well that they're selling to commuters.
We are all destined to become cargo and the vehicles we're traveling in will be carrying cargo alongside our blasé selves.

Originally Posted by cuppabillytea

Yep


Yep


Yes but sadly, people like us are becoming a diminishing minority. Sure the car manufacturers like to sell the dream of the free spirited rover when they market their puss pile SUVs but they know damn well that they're selling to commuters.
We are all destined to become cargo and the vehicles we're traveling in will be carrying cargo alongside our blasé selves.

Would that be Persian, Siamese or Tabby?

Sad days indeed. ...I don’t reckon I’ll set foot in a city when all that cargo robot ****e happens. The bush has never looked better.

Originally Posted by tact

Would that be Persian, Siamese or Tabby?

Hah hah hah. It seems I was a bit liberal with my 'S's. You know what I meant.

From the ABC news site:
"Fastest driverless vehicle to hit Australian roads unveiled in Adelaide"

The fastest driverless vehicle to hit Australia's roads has been unveiled in Adelaide in a five-year trial to transport university students in the southern suburbs.

The Flinders Express, or FLEX, will initially operate as a shuttle between Flinders University and a nearby train station, before expanding its route within a year to include the nearby hospital.

It is the first time a driverless vehicle has been allowed on public roads in South Australia, with special permission for the university to proceed with the trial.

While it may be express by name, in practice the shuttle will only reach top speeds of 30 kilometres per hour.

Despite this, the vehicle will set a new speed record for driverless cars on Australian public roads.

Flinders University head of civil engineering professor Rocco Zito said there would be an elaborate commissioning process before the vehicle could go on the road.

"We map the route using GPS ... it also uses odometry, lidar sensors, radar, ultrasonics," Professor Zito said.

"The route is programmed and then it just drives along ... all the speeds, all the turns, they're all programmed in.

"The whole purpose of our trial is to gauge the community's attitudes towards this new technology ... what do we need to do to get people to be confident about the technology?"

Professor Zito said a chaperone would accompany the shuttle bus, with the power to take full control of the bus through use of a gaming console controller if anything unexpected happened.

Flinders University Chancellor Stephen Gerlach said he hoped the community would embrace the use of the bus.

"There's always a natural concern about not finding someone behind a steering wheel, but I think that as people get more accustomed to it I don't think that's going to be an issue that can't be overcome," he said.

From news article "/news/2018-06-19/fastest-driverless-vehicle-unveiled-in-adelaide/9887458" on the ABC website.

I love the bit about the gaming console. Very MIBish.