Starting early next year, the UK will allow self-driving cars on public roads! Very cool progress in what could be a major step forward in transportation. Per the BBC:
Business Secretary Vince Cable revealed the details of the new plan at a research facility belonging to Mira, an automotive engineering firm based in the Midlands."Today's announcement will see driverless cars take to our streets in less than six months, putting us at the forefront of this transformational technology and opening up new opportunities for our economy and society," he said.
We are all familiar with Google's driverless cars and this public test in the UK will provide for additional testing of other models, in particular RobotCar, an Oxford University project.
RobotCar is a modified Nissan LEAF. Lasers and cameras are subtly mounted around the vehicle and taking up some of the boot space is a computer which performs all the calculations necessary to plan, control speed and avoid obstacles. Externally it's hard to tell this car apart from any other on the road.
What do you monkeys think? When will this technology become widespread? Or, will it crash and burn?
Hate this shit. Soon enough they'll pass laws preventing humans from driving cars and the days of gear-heads and car enthusiasts will be over.
Humans won't be allowed to drive on public roads, but without question some enterprising gear heads (you?) will start buying land for tracks and operating private car clubs.
Then the hobby becomes ten times more expensive and rules most people out. Seriously I'd be pretty rustled if something like this happened, but I hope the current auto makers prevent it from happening via lobbying. Any company that makes a sports car, super car, hyper car, etc would be put out of business. Who the fuck wants to sit in a Ferrari that drives itself at 45mph?
I feel the same way. I dread the day I become the old man stubbornly sticking to driving myself everywhere, but thats exactly whats going to happen. Apart from long road trips where it would be convenient to sleep and drive, I hate this idea. I hate public transportation for the very reason that I am not in complete control. F* that. They can take our guns, they can take our freedoms, but when you make it impossible for me to autonomously buy & drive my dream car somewhere down the line you've gone to fucking far.
You guys can't be serious. The major car manufacturers are leading the charge into self-driving cars. You think they give a flying flip about the infinitesimally small market of car enthusiasts that basically has no impact on their bottom lines? They care about the mass market.
Like it or not self-driving cars are coming. I, for one, live in an area overrun by horrific traffic and am looking forward to a time when wide scale adoption of autonomous vehicles eases traffic through computer efficiency.
Are you a Prius owner?
I said companies that produce mainly sports cars and up. I know Toyota or something wouldn't give a shit because they're not in that market. Also, I was arguing that car companies with racing and motor sport divisions (think BMW, Audi, Mercedes Benz) would lobby against a law that ONLY allows self driving cars on the road. I know they're experimenting with this in their upper class cars, but thats only where the technology would stay at. BMW M, Mercedes Benz AMG, Audi S & RS line would all be shut down if human drivers were to be banned. That is not a huge part of these companies' sales, but it's still in the billions of the dollars and they don't want to lose that.
Then consider other people who would be affected if the law mandated autonomous cars/vehicles. Exxon, BP, and Shell wouldn't be so happy about it either. More efficient cars/drivers = more efficient fuel milage = less demand for oil. Lawyers, government from their license fees and tickets & taxes, insurers, would all lose money.
While you may be in favor of this, the technology is still very far away. I could see some cars being autonomous, but completely banning human drivers will cause car related enterprises to lose hundreds of billions probably and thus I do not see it happening.
By the time this shit comes out in mass market I'll be old enough where I shouldn't be driving anyways. So I'm all for it, car enthusiasts be damned :-)
Are you mental? Since when did car manufacturers assume that their high end technology would remain in only their high-end models? Mercedes, VW, etc. fully expect their self-driving technology to go into the mainstream. In almost every case technology starts with the higher end models and moves its way down.
Oh fuck.
I once got clipped walking across the street, guy pulls out of a parking garage takes a huge right turn and his mirror hits me. Long story short I, the pedestrian, got stuck having to pay for his mirror. London drivers are crazy as is.
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