Autonomous vehicles

[charlier]

16 hours ago, rocketraider said:

"Traffic calming" is one of the buzzwords that's trotted out to justify badly timed and sequenced traffic lights. 

I am guessing that the term "High Speed Traffic Circle" is also a buzzword that is used to justify some traffic circles. That term was used to describe two traffic circles with two lanes with 4 or more intersecting roads of high volume truck traffic. Those words were used more than once when the state DOT was trying to justify/sell a couple of traffic circles in a neighboring area. Funny how the DOT never fully explained how the combination of the words "High Speed" + tractor trailers + a traffic circle could be applied to these circles. I suppose that compared to a stopped tractor trailer at the traffic lights (replaced by these circles) any movement, no matter what speed could be considered "High Speed".

 

Traffic circles were also added to a road that I use occasionally closer to where I live. The slope of the road in one circle gives trucks fits as the trucks lean very much towards the outside not matter how slow they are going. I swear I hear the truck drivers swearing every time they use that circle. The first time I used the other circle I wondered how in the world the DOT's large blade snowplows would clear that circle when it snowed (due to the odd shape of the roads just before the circle). During the first part of the first winter that circle didn't get plowed much (although it needed it). Finally the DOT started dispatching a much SMALLER plow to clear just that circle. Talk about a waste of resources just to make up for what some might consider a design flaw of the circle.  BTW at both of these circles I use turn signals.

[alsancle]

I got to drive a Tesla yesterday for the first time and we used both self driving modes. 

 

We used "autopilot" on a marked road and the "full self driving" on a winding narrow back road.   It is disconcerting to somebody like me who is not accustomed to the system.  But it does work.

 

There is a camera on the drivers eyes and if you take your eyes off the road it starts barking at you.  

 

I can see a day in the future where there are no manual drive cars.   Not sure I like that idea, but for elderly people or people that can't otherwise drive a car it is a great thing.

[TAKerry]

10 hours ago, Marty Roth said:

1.     Exit your vehicle

2.     Initiate a "Meet-and-Greet" with the other three drivers

3.     Start a Poker game, or some other way to determine who passes through 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and last

4.     Remember to be courteous if one of the others starts to mouth-off.

5.     Enjoy your lunch

6.     Plan an alternate route

7.     Abandon your autonomous vehicle and wear your hiking boots

8.     Sell your autonomous vehicle and drive your antique/collector car

 

Or ---  Just grab the post and rip the 4-Way Stop Sign out of the ground, and sell it at Hershey,

and separately , just sell the @#$%&* autonomous vehicle

I think this is from the Canadian drivers instruction book, LOL.

[3macboys]

53 minutes ago, TAKerry said:

I think this is from the Canadian drivers instruction book, LOL.

Not Canadian - there's no line where each driver apologizes to the other 3 for arriving at the same time

[EmTee]

On 4/10/2023 at 8:29 AM, alsancle said:

I can see a day in the future where there are no manual drive cars.   Not sure I like that idea, but for elderly people or people that can't otherwise drive a car it is a great thing.

Eventually your car will decide when you are no longer fit to drive and take over from that point.

[alsancle]

51 minutes ago, EmTee said:

Eventually your car will decide when you are no longer fit to drive and take over from that point.

The risk is that when it decides you are not fit anymore because you said something politically incorrect.

[EmTee]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mme2Aya_6Bc

[Pete O]

On 4/7/2023 at 2:44 AM, DrakeYounger said:

each autonomous vehicle will likely use its sensors and algorithms to detect the presence of other vehicles at the intersection and to determine the appropriate actions to take based on traffic laws and safety considerations.

Or, they would all simultaneously hit the gas (there's an old saying that will go the way of the dodo) and have a 4-way T-Bone in the middle of the intersection.

[60FlatTop]

When the state and our village installed the roundabout I read all the propaganda. Apparently the basis of the design is "to create an obviously dangerous situation that will alert the motorist to proceed with caution".

 

I would not have remembered that if it wasn't so far out of touch with reality.

 

BTW, there was a plastic inner fender shield in the road this morning.

[zepher]

On 4/10/2023 at 5:29 AM, alsancle said:

I got to drive a Tesla yesterday for the first time and we used both self driving modes. 

 

We used "autopilot" on a marked road and the "full self driving" on a winding narrow back road.   It is disconcerting to somebody like me who is not accustomed to the system.  But it does work.

 

There is a camera on the drivers eyes and if you take your eyes off the road it starts barking at you.  

 

I can see a day in the future where there are no manual drive cars.   Not sure I like that idea, but for elderly people or people that can't otherwise drive a car it is a great thing.

 

Fully autonomous vehicles will not be a thing until Congress passes a law absolving the manufacturer of all legal responsibilities should one of their cars fail and be involved in an accident.

[nat]

8 hours ago, alsancle said:

Eventually your car will decide when you are no longer fit to drive and take over from that point.

     Or take you to the mesa and lock up.

[60FlatTop]

Wait for the driver operated cars to be banned like incandescent light bulbs. Banning solves all kinds of problems.

[alsancle]

1 hour ago, nat said:

     Or take you to the mesa and lock up.

 

 

[rocketraider]

1 hour ago, 60FlatTop said:

Wait for the driver operated cars to be banned like incandescent light bulbs. Banning solves all kinds of problems.

We used to call that the law of unintended consequences.

 

Maybe I'm a true T Rex, but I don't trust a machine to think for me. Hell, I don't trust many PEOPLE to think and arrive at a logical and desired conclusion!

 

America's Funniest Videos and especially TruTV Top Funniest prove that every day.

[EmTee]

20 hours ago, 60FlatTop said:

BTW, there was a plastic inner fender shield in the road this morning.

Let that be a warning to you...

[TAKerry]

I have been driving 2 hrs each way to work for quite a while. Yesterday a few miles from my house was an overturned tractor trailer that had the road closed, stuck in traffic for about 40 min. Then a bit further down the road a rear ender at a red light which involved a newer classic car. Further on a wreck on the highway. Got into town rear ender at the first light. Skip 2 lights and another rear ender. 5 accidents in total, never seen anything that crazy. Maybe there is something to be said for a self driver?

[EmTee]

Maybe it's me, but I think people are driving much faster and more aggressively since the initial pandemic pause.  At first I thought it might have been a 'cabin-fever' related phenomenon, but now it seems to have become 'normal'...

[60FlatTop]

2080 might be a little optimistic.

 

This is what I get for having the first two Sirius XM stations set for Willie's Roadhouse and Outlaw Country.

 

 

[nat]

     These contraptions do well in a well charted grid with satellite connectivity but have been known to be entirely baffled by lunch trucks and parking lots.  I don't want to create a new password and write a program for the sake of backing between the apple tree and woodshed.

     Accidents will still happen.  Who's at fault?  Unavoidable?

 

[Reynard]

On 4/10/2023 at 5:29 AM, alsancle said:

 

 

I can see a day in the future where there are no manual drive cars.   Not sure I like that idea, but for elderly people or people that can't otherwise drive a car it is a great thing.

Speaking for us "elderly people and others", about the time we can afford an autonomous car, it will not only have to be an inexpensive used car with the likelihood of multiple electronic/computer malfunctions due to age and abuse or a publicly owned vehicle on-call for a fee.

 

More likely would be an autonomous hearse that could pick us up automatically and deposit us appropriately without all the current manual handling, hassle and expense.

 

Maybe sorta like Amazon deliveries in reverse!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 16, 2023 by Reynard (see edit history)