This semester my presentation will be about a topic which I have heard of quite recently – Driverless cars.
What is a driverless car?
According to Wikipedia it's an "autonomous vehicle that can drive itself from one point to another without assistance from a driver". In other words its car which is driven by computer not a human, you can also encounter the term Robocar which is perhaps more accurate since you can consider such car a robot.
What is so important about it?
According to Wolfram Alpha™ every year 1.189 million people die in car accidents.
One of the major causes of these accidents are drivers themselves, however problem is not only with irresponsible people like drunk drivers but it's about human nature as everyone can for example fall asleep, don't notice something etc. Truth is that humans are not perfect when it comes to such important things as driving cars and they may fail.
So if we eliminate a driver we can eliminate a lot of accidents, but there are also other benefits. What is now the safe distance between cars? Imagine it could be decreased a lot if cars would be driven by computers which can communicate between themselves in a matter of milliseconds.
In conclusion by eliminating driver we can not only safe millions of lives but also a lot of money so I think it might be most important invention since Internet.
Is it real or science-fiction?
At the time being there are working prototypes which are being optimized and tested, results are very optimistic.
Many organizations are supporting the idea by creating contests such as DARPA Grand Challenge.
Questions
What do you think about this idea?
Would you trust the computer and use such car?
When do you think it could be implemented on mass scale?
Driverless cars change a lot in terms of traffic jams as spacing between cars can be dramatically decreased and navigation systems could choose best available route to destination.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore there are also safety and comfort benefits. Isn’t saving thousands of lives beneficial to the society :)?
Of course teleport is much better but so far it’s pure science fiction.
I agree with J.M. s4071. New ways of transport should be created instead of cars that park on their own. Although in some situations it would have helped people in mastering so difficult driving "art", which sometimes seems to be totally unachievable. If we talk about reliance on such car, now it's impossible, what we're able to see on this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNi17YLnZpg&feature=player_embedded .Few days ago Volvo demonstrated new system, which was supposed to stop the car from the bar without human action. As we could see, it didn't work. To tell the truth there are some more successful presentations, e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_piO849uRdI&feature=player_embedded , but as I said before, I wouldn't depend on such solutions, at least now.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately electronics is the main source of defects in modern cars and I wouldn't expect a change soon. On mass scale should be implemented new transport means, e.g. aerial. Just like in american movies:)
Electronics might be main source of defects but the main source of accidents are drivers themeselves ( http://www.sixwise.com/newsletters/05/07/20/the-6-most-common-causes-of-automobile-crashes.htm ) so it's all about minimizing the risk
ReplyDeleteThere was a series of documentaries on Discovery about DARPA Grand Challenge. It's really unbelievable that such great minds that take part in that aren't able to get the car to ride without any incidents.
ReplyDeleteI think that computers will be driving cars better the human. It will be faster, the traffic jams will be reduced, but I am wondering what will happened if computer system managing cars will fail? Global paralysis?
ReplyDeleteI don't see a point in sitting in my own car and watching views while it drive by itself. Isn't public made for this purpose? It's definitely safer, more ecological and cheaper. Automatic parking could be useful for some people with weak sense of direction, but I don't see point in adding autopilot to personal car.
ReplyDeleteI think its a good idea to work on. Computer control would allow to do things that people are not capable to do them selves like starting to drive a whole que of cars standing on a light stop in exacly the same time and speed avoiding the large gap between the first and the last car (when they start to drive), maintaining the same distance between all the cars on the street (smaller distance). If done correctly im sure this system would greatly reduce the traffic jams and allow smoth traveling without major stops. Also eliminating human mistakes would greatly reduce car accidents maybe even avaoiding them at all... But to work with full effectiveness this system would have to be globaly implemented replacing all normal cars on the streets and thats not going to happen in the near future. Its hard to immagine that anything in terms of jams would change if half of the cars would be computer controled and the other half human controled
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think about this idea?
ReplyDeleteI agree that it's doesn't change anything. Cars are for humans. What about car driving pleasure?
Would you trust the computer and use such car?
For me it's not a matter of trust. But in case of accident who will be responsible? Owner? Manufacturer?
When do you think it could be implemented on mass scale?
I hope that it wont be implemented.
"Furthermore there are also safety and comfort benefits."
I wonder that you see any driver-less car and their safety :P In some case even my mother is better driver.
I agree that even automatic cars won't solve the traffic jam problems not to mention about airpolution etc.
ReplyDeleteHowever we know very well how is it difficult to implement such a logic which wouldn't be overwhelmed by a scale of complication of driving a car. There's literally a mass of factors that should be taken into account. I think it will take another 10 years to develop ready to market product and another 5 years for mass-scale implementation starting from city transports.
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ReplyDeleteDriveless cars is a very interesting topic to me. Although I find it inevitable that one day people will be "delivered" to the destination point in one of those machines, nowadays it's hard to believe someone would take responsibility for system protecting the life of a driver. It's too much of a technology gap for the time being. Nevertheless I too have heard about Volvo developing a system enabling cars to steer themselves on the highway. After Volvo being taken over by the Chinese I'm reluctant to further development though :)
ReplyDeleteIn the future big YES but nowadays it's still too little developed and tested and it's risk to use it! In general I have very limited confidence to anyone and I never gave anyone to drive my car. The more I wouldn't give computer control. But it's just my approach, maybe someone would decided to it
ReplyDeletePeople make a lot of bugs and that is why computers have helped. Already, new cars are all in the electron but I do not know if this is a good idea how far we have no streets to the normal running of continuous traffic jams or broken roads. When it will certainly standart.
ReplyDeleteI think that, maybe not soon, but in nearest future driverless cars will be produced on a mass scale. Nice idea, what's most important it will drive automatically, so there will be less accidents caused by drivers bravura.
ReplyDeleteWould I trust the computer to drive a car? We are already trusting computers in autopilots in planes. Of course on land there are more vehicles but I think that when used on a mass scale, it will be perfectly programmed and tested in many, many ways.