Self-driving car release in less than a year

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Kirsten,

Like any thing that has a computer in it, it can be hacked by some nut. Not only that, what if something goes wrong with the car itself? What happens when it breaks down?

Will someone be behind the wheel in case it needs a driver during that time?

I think that it is a bad idea.
 
People already have the ability to hack cars but they choose not to--because electric cars don't share operating systems, it's just easier to create havoc in other ways. There isn't anything more vulnerable about this car over others in terms of hacking potential. It's merely a new kind of electric car. Same goes for break downs. Things break down. Better to have my car break down than to sit outside in a storm for three hours when the train breaks down.

Of course, I suspect there will always need to be someone behind the figurative wheel--I doubt the law will allow for anything less. There are emergency breaks and previous models also had buttons for other driving functions. I'm guessing that when legal issues begin to be negotiated, those buttons will have to be put back in this latest model.
 
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I just saw this last night and the 1st thing I thought of was that people that couldn't drive would be able to. I also wonder about the cost. I'm sure, initially, like everything when it's first released, will be high. Isn't technology great!
M
 
In some of the reading I've done about self-driving cars it seems that they are overall much safer and far more reliable than humans. There is the idea that these cars will lose control or be hacked and kill people, which could happen, but those things would probably be pretty rare. The cars would NOT, however, be drunk, or fall asleep, or text, or follow too close, or put on makeup, or get into high-speed chases, or race, or read, or have sex, or do any of the other things that humans do when driving which kill and maim so many people.
We always tend to be afraid of new technology, and then can't imagine living without it. I remember reading that when the automobile was first being introduced people were up in arms about the noise, the speed, the danger, the fact that it frightened the horses, and so on. In pretty much every other area of our life we welcome technological breakthroughs, and this should be no exception. In fact, it's the next logical step from where modern cars already are.
 
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I think we're completely wired to hate change.

A few publications have done experiments where they hired top hackers and asked them to hack into a range of different cars. The hackers did succeed but they said that it was several times more difficult than hacking into someone's bank account, which is more than likely why nobody's bothering with it.
 
I'm bet people said "what if it makes an error that only humans can fix" when they first invented calculators. It takes time for people to accept change.

The car is in its infancy stages, give them some time to improve the thing, like increasing its max speed(now its only 40 km/h)
 
Sometimes I'm more in a hurry than everyone else. How could I get ahead of the bunch? :D
 
CathyAnn31 said:
Sometimes I'm more in a hurry than everyone else. How could I get ahead of the bunch? :D
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Parade your gorgeous self in front of who ever is running the trial. It's not what you know, it's who you kiss.
 
Just stopping in to say, you can't hack my 91 pickup. Two keys, crank windows, manual transmission, manual locks.... If you can't drive it, its not a car.
 
N Sperlo said:
..... If you can't drive it, its not a car.
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At least it will get me from point A to point Z whether I'm driving or not!! What's the point of having a car anyway, if one can't drive?
 
Cint said:
At least it will get me from point A to point Z whether I'm driving or not!! What's the point of having a car anyway, if one can't drive?
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+1. I don't care if they call it a car or a unicorn, as long as I can regularly go to my epileptologist instead of on the public transport route to my neurologist. And I would just love to be able to cut out the hour walks with six kg shopping bags, in the rain, with gale force winds that turn my umbrella inside out.

People who drive just don't get it. I heard a driver complaining about having to make two trips with heavy bags from his car in the driveway to his front door. By the time I arrive home after 45 minutes of walking with my 2 litres of milk, 3 litres of juice, 2 kgs of sugar and 4 kgs of washing powder, I have dark blue incisions on my fingers, my arms shake for the rest of the day, and I'm completely drenched from head to toe, including inside my boots.
 
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kirsten, you sound like us with seizures will be able to have a car. Since we will not be doing the driving. Am I right or wrong? The car will be doing the driving with a driver behind the wheel.

I do not think that the DMV will be changing their policy with regard to us.
 
I am pretty sure that at some point in the future cars will be completely autonomous (no pun intended), and people will be along strictly for the ride. The goal of some designers and traffic engineers is to get people out of the loop altogether, since human error probably accounts for a huge percentage of accidents and much of the gridlock. Mechanical failure happens less and less, and often when there is a mechanical failure of some sort the person can't compensate for it anyway. Cars are already becoming more independent, what with self-parking, anti-lock brakes, blind-spot warnings, anticipatory braking, and I'm sure a lot more stuff that we mostly take for granted. Getting people out of the equation would save a lot of lives per year, I'm sure.
 
Ruth said:
kirsten, you sound like us with seizures will be able to have a car. Since we will not be doing the driving. Am I right or wrong? The car will be doing the driving with a driver behind the wheel.
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Yes, that's my impression. After all, why not?
 
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