Seriously, friends. You suck at driving. Get a computer behind the wheel to save your life Much of the hype surrounding self-driving cars arises from the fact that people are terrible drivers. Automated systems, we're told, can help save lives. Ignoring for a moment all the technical problems that still need to be solved before people can expect to be chauffeured by machine – dealing with adverse weather or …
When somebody stepped into the road in front of my car, the brakes were already on before I could get my foot to the brake pedal. That sold it right there.
But my lane departure warning is audio only and doesn't really compete so well with loud music. A vibration through the steering would work much better.
The car also has a system to monitor driving and tell you to stop if it thinks you are unwell, tired, drunk or otherwise incapable of being safe. Happily I've never seen it work.
And without tech. Around here many of the highways have rumble strips on both shoulders, as well as the middle for two lane divided highways. Whenever they resurface/repave one of them they're adding this. I assume it is pretty cheap to do, just use a roller that isn't smooth in the appropriate places.
It is readily apparent if you leave your lane - you can tell with your ears, with your hands on the steering wheel, and with the seat of your pants.
There should be a Nobel-equivalent prize for inventions which are a perfect combination of simplicity, cheapness, reliability and effectiveness.
I'm all in favour of lane-departure warning systems and the eventual automation of driving, but we all know those will be necessarily highly complex and technical solutions. That's fine: they have to be.
But designers, whoever and wherever you are, spare a moment always to think about the Humble Rumble, and how something almost pathetically simple saves lives every single day.
The vehicles considered for the study all had a forward collision warning system in addition to a lane departure warning system. The systems communicated via audible alerts or vibration; they did not intervene to steer.
Hello, fellow Reg readers.
Last month I was slowing for stopped freeway traffic when two cars behind, a driver that was texting and driving swerved to the right (center) lane and sideswiped a truck. She then continued forward and rear-ended a pickup, which rammed my car, pushing it between the concrete guardrail and the stopped car in front of me.
My car is totaled and I'm pretty banged up. She had no insurance (people with no insurance are not financially well-off so going after her is useless).
If you ask me, lane departure systems and collision avoidance warning systems should be mandatory.
Oooof, time for a law change, insurance should be compulsory as it is here, not that it ensures that every driver in the UK is insured, there are plenty of scrotes who don't bother! If there is a crash involving one of these retards then I believe there is a an Insurance companies trunk that doles out compensation(some)
Why are we doing everything possible to stop culling the stupid from the human herd? We're de-evolving as a species ... spending entirely too much money trying to save 0.0000001% of the population who MIGHT chlorinate their own gene-pool because they are stupid.
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@jake
Hmm... Are we proposing Eugenics using automobiles??
Will there ever be a Godwin's law corollay referencing Henry Ford??
Sure, I'd love to see a bunch of t**ts bumped off(1), but there is WAY too much collateral with motor vehicles:-)
1. I'm only joking: death is too extreme - sterilizing is the transport method of the future:-)
While I think self-driving cars are the way to go if I am forced to be on the roadways, I prefer to partake as little as possible. I know it is not always possible to avoid getting in a car to go somewhere, but I have managed to replace more than 90% of time spent behind the wheel from my life with rail transport and walking. It looks as though I will be able to pare that down even more.
Cars are more and more a lifestyle choice and not a necessity. Doesn't that imply that those who use them most are, at least to a certain extent, choosing to risk life and limb simply by doing so? Will insurers start asking if you drive and inquiring about self-driving tech if you do in much the same way they currently do concerning smoking, drinking and drug use?
More or less, Jay. I live in the burbs about 25 miles out of the city. I moved to this area from another US state where there was less in the way of rail or bus service. There, I carpooled and used light rail as much as I could, but it was limited. I will probably move farther out from the metro center as the rail line is expanding beyond its current 60+ mile range. I appreciate the advantages of country life, but am more than happy to enjoy those of the city, too. I have no complaints about being able to have it both ways.
Cars are more and more a lifestyle choice and not a necessity. Doesn't that imply that those who use them most are, at least to a certain extent, choosing to risk life and limb simply by doing so?
I think you're making a universal assumption. Here in the States, some areas have excellent publc transportation (local). Other areas, none at all.
Unfortunately Jake, as someone has already pointed out, the proportion of road-using imbeciles is about 50% (something easily confirmed by empirical observation of Britain's motorways for an hour or so); worse, they are not confined to killing only themselves and will victimise other, more worthy specimens; and—worst of all!—their age means that in many cases they will already have spawned cretinous offspring. Your suggestion of a Darwinian solution won't hold water in this case.
There may be an argument for a cognitive function test before a driver is allowed to take control of a vehicle, but (a) it's easier just to make sure that once the tech has reached maturity, no one is allowed to drive a car unless in most exceptional circumstances, and (b) frankly, if you were to administer IQ tests before allowing folks to perform certain tasks, the Number One priority for intelligence filtering would surely be for those standing as MPs—which would pretty much empty Westminster and cause a constitutional crisis making the question of lane discipline look like small beer by comparison.
In short, I fear that this is a policy issue with far-ranging ramifications.
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"But my lane departure warning is audio only and doesn't really compete so well with loud music. A vibration through the steering would work much better."
Sorry, but it seems to me that if someone isn't aware that they've departed their lane then they shouldn't be in charge of a car.
As much as I, and many other people, enjoy driving, the sad fact is that most of us have an exaggerated evaluation of our driving skills so once autonomous vehicle technology is consistently reliable and predictable I think that all routes with a speed limit > 30 mph should be restricted to autonomously controlled vehicles only.
Of course, whilst I'd personally miss the enjoyment of controlling the vehicle myself, the trade-off is essentially between entertainment vs. the risk of killing someone, and only a fool would think that's reasonable.
LeeE,
are you having a larf?
I live in the middle of Devon, when going through Dartmoor, how the feck is an auto car going to cope reversing up a hill on a road that is wide enough for one vehicle when an arctic [semi] is coming the other way??
Devon, like most of England, has many roads that are literally as wide as a footpath, how is your whizzy car going to navigate through that then???
I would love an auto car for the 1k mile round trip to see my folks and the mother-in-law, but on proper roads in the country? yeah right...
Cheers,
Jay
"...how the feck is an auto car going to cope reversing up a hill on a road that is wide enough for one vehicle when an arctic [semi] is coming the other way??"
Probably the same way that they reverse themselves in to parking spaces. Not a problem.
"...roads that are literally as wide as a footpath..."
Hmm... literally, really? You're getting it up on to just two wheels then, I assume. There's not a chance that you actually are driving on footpaths, is there? Perhaps the world might be a bit safer if you had an autonomous vehicle, which would know the difference.
Like it or not, this is going to happen: manual control will be forbidden on all medium and major routes and restricted to low-speed/stop-start areas where obstructions are transient, varied, frequent and unpredictable, such as housing estates, car parks and high-streets/shopping areas etc.
LeeE,
I will type this bit SLOWLY.
There are many roads [for a legal definition of a road] that are not much wider than a car around here.
I don't get the sarcy cheekiness my friend.
It will be 'forbidden' on all medium and major routes - what are you on? [more to the point which country are you living in?] - how is that going to work for new/ancient tractors and commercial vehicles?
Also those big green things called plants/trees have a friggin annoying habit of not obeying rules about how they grow/fall/snap/get hit, an interesting edge case don't ya think????
How do you think the wheat/maize/milk/cheese/ham/steak/mutton is going to get from a field to your table???
I don't think you have really thought this through, 'cos what you are advocating is called A RAILWAY....
Thanks for your input anyway!.
Cheers,
Jay
Your definition of "proper roads" is one with which I'm not familiar. I've driven on those one lane roads where you have to back up if there's an oncoming car, so I recognize their existence and the inherent difficulty (and negative cost/benefit ratio) in widening them to actually have two lanes. So they are something autonomous driving software will have to handle.
However, I don't see any reason an autonomous car should have difficulty with it. It could go in reverse at the same speed it goes forward equally safely, unlike a person. An autonomous car should also have a much easier time of navigating very narrow roads compared to a person. You damn sure wouldn't see cars driving around with their driver's side mirror gone if they were all autonomous, and I've seen an awful lot of those around country roads in England and Ireland!
I think there are harder problems for them, like negotiating roads covered in fresh snowfall without tire tracks of previous cars to guide you. Sometimes I'm not sure where exactly the road is in such a situation, so I don't see how the car could tell unless/until it has GPS accurate to within a foot or so. Road construction where there are detours that confuse even people would surely confuse cars. Those the problems I'm worried about. Following a narrow road or driving in reverse are very simple things for software. They won't be one of the corner cases that will give the cars fits to get that last 2-3% of driving situations covered.
> I live in the middle of Devon, when going through Dartmoor, how the feck is an auto car going to cope reversing up a hill on a road that is wide enough for one vehicle when an arctic [semi] is coming the other way??
I'd expect my autonomous vehicle to a). be much better than me at reversing and b). to have wirelessly negotiated with the artic before it was visible.
Wrong! My car has that - but on British roads, you can't tell whether you've drifted out of lane, or just over more potholes. There are other problems with it too, but the pothole thing alone makes it useless.
Then the vibration frequency or characteristics are wrong and need to be changed so you can tell the difference.
My lane departure gives feedback and makes corrections. Sadly, it frequently corrects in the wrong direction when taking freeway transitions e.g., I am turning vehicle into left curve and vehicle things I am wandering so it corrects to the right. This has caused me to keep it off unless I am on an extended drive.
>When somebody stepped into the road in front of my car, the brakes were already on before I could get my foot to the brake pedal. That sold it right there.
Volvo S60?
When Volvo first launched this car in the UK, to demonstrate all the safety features they organised a series of track days because you needed to drive like a madman (in a controlled environment) - at times overriding your normal reactions and fully trusting the technology... Impressive, shame about the price even after the substantial discount offered to those invited to the track days.
But my lane departure warning is audio only and doesn't really compete so well with loud music. A vibration through the steering would work much better.
Not sure, the Qashqai's system beeps when you wander too far without indicating - interestingly entering or leaving a contraflow (lanes narrow) can trigger it, so it seems to not only check the white lines but also the drift of the car on the road.
The system in a Vauxhall Corsa didn't beep instead it increases steering resistance which requires a little extra effort to over come.
Of the two I preferred the Qashqai's because it didn't interfere with the steering, because with both systems there were times they had come to the wrong decision. For example overtaking a cyclist (wild animal, pot hole etc.) on a clear road, normally, I would simply anticipate and 'drift' out and in the couple of feet needed, with the Qashqai I simply got beeped, with the Corsa I find myself 'fighting' with the steering wheel - obviously, if I bothered to indicate no problems...
If the lane departure alarm doesn't compete well with the music, then I think the solution is to reduce the volume of your music. Hearing is one of the senses that helps improve the safety of driving. Hearing horns, emergency vehicles, and police cars - as well as your lane departure alarm - should not be compromised by the volume of your entertainment.
Driving requires people to maintain high concentration while doing lots of repetitive tasks
Too true. Many years ago I did a 2hr weekly commute by car. Roads at 7am on a Monday in mid-Wales are pretty quiet (and incredibly beautiful, seeing the sunrise over frost-covered hills). One day I realised I was in Rhaeadr, but couldn't remember a single thing about the last 15 miles of the journey. Obviously I had managed it safely (it's quite a windy road) but I'd done the journey hundreds of times and nothing of sufficient interest had happened that day to be worth remembering. The following week I signed up for the Institute of Advanced Motorists scheme!
Another I read but can't remember the source sadly, but apparently if do do something regularly, such as the drive for your commute, your brain realises you're not learning anything new after a long time doing it and as I understand it stops bothering to store memories.
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The overwhelmingly vast majority of the people who suffer the consequences of those actions are also male. Males also account for the vast majority of suicides (and suicide attempts) and are disproportionately more likely to die in war, in industrial accidents and in a whole variety of other ways.
Statistically speaking, if you have a Y chromosome, you're very likely to be dead.
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