US Senate stamps the gas pedal on law to flood America's streets with self-driving cars America-wide rules for self-driving cars inched a bit closer on Wednesday when a US Senate transportation committee agreed to bring the AV START Act before the full Senate for consideration. The American Vision for Safer Transportation through Advancement of Revolutionary Technologies (AV START) Act, due before the Senate, is …
"If a car driving in another lane parallel to me veers into my lane due to inattention or lack of perception, I can make various signals"
middle finger? "Read my binary - 00100 00100" [in a convertible, this is most effective]
Seriously, I would think the robo car wouldn't have this problem, because its on-board sensors would detect you. But that brings up a possibility of "how do we know they're working properly". A self-test would need to be part of the system in order to make sure they continue to work properly.
At some point, maybe YOUR car will auto-detect the 'veering' and tell the other car about it, or take evasive action on its own [announcing to surrounding cars what it's about to do]. Just a thought.
Still good to think of these problems. Hopefully the engineers working on robo-cars already have.
Is a reduction in accident figures then just make it a 30 mph [or less] speed limit on all roads,install speed limiters in all vehicles and instant jail for any traffic offender or anyone tampering with such equipment.There ya go saved billions of investment in new technology and being unable to afford a new "high tech self drive car" and removing any miscreants from the road.
In doing so Ive increased the employment levels in Vehicle equipment and testing jobs, Prison officers, re-offence prevention officers.Thus enabling the Billions to be reinvested into the economy and jobs rather than unneeded equipment that constantly needs upgrading at great expense.
@ Arachnoid
"Is a reduction in accident figures then just make it a 30 mph [or less] speed limit on all roads"
Thats not a good plan. We could reduce things further to walking pace but then you are defeating the concept of road transport. To get stuff (items/meat bags) to places, and in a timely fashion. With emergency services probably needing an opt out of your rule as they have to get somewhere quick, but then the vehicles in front of them are all crawling along at a slow pace.
It will also reduce the distance that is drivable. Dont drive tired will still apply even if the best you can do is travel 30 miles in an hour. It will also destroy a number of specialist businesses, I would think particularly in manufacturing, where technicians have to get to a site somewhere in the country within a reasonable time frame as money is being lost rapidly on a faulty machine.
"removing any miscreants from the road."
No you havnt. This does not take the pedestrian on headphones out of the road, nor the one who crosses in the middle of a busy street. Nor the idiot who wont walk to the crossing but runs across a 6 lane road with a partition in the middle (used to live near that dawin award road). Nor does it remove the cyclists with their habits.
"In doing so Ive increased the employment levels in"
You have also massively reduced employment as the range to travel to work massively falls and the cost of transport reaches excessive cost (everything becomes more expensive).
"Thus enabling the Billions to be reinvested into the economy and jobs rather than unneeded equipment that constantly needs upgrading at great expense."
Let me suggest an alternative scenario. Autonomous vehicles doing the long, dangerous and even currently uneconomical journeys. Even if the person on the street cannot afford one they benefit the massive reduction of transport costs for goods and services. Then consider landmasses like the US, Europe, Asia, etc and even the amazing ideas of linking places like China with the US by road and having a transport system for goods and even maybe a massive improvement to the concept of trains! Imagine a bus/coach service that could automatically get you to your destination.
"they benefit the massive reduction of transport costs for goods and services"
Sorry, one of the biggest costs involved in trucking is FUEL, and then maintenance [brakes, tires, etc.]. Wages are a part, but it's much smaller than you might think.
Independent truckers make a profit, sure, but it's a fair bet that half of their revenue is burned up by the engine in order to deliver the stuff. If a trucker earns the equivalent of $50/hour in profit (probably not likely, just using this number for example), his fuel burn rate could be nearly the same [particularly on long haul]. 5mpg might be consdered very very good mileage for an 18 wheeler. At $3/gallon and 60mph [both a bit unrealistic in places like California], that's at least $36 in fuel per hour for "straight and flat". Factor in some hills, stops [and waiting] at weigh stations, plus the truck's maintenance costs [which are the same for robo-drivers] and it's not so much of a savings any more...
And since fuel is much more expensive on your end of the pond, my numbers for "middle america" are a 'best case' scenario. It's a fair bet that fuel costs in EU and UK are considerably higher than this.
THEN, consider that the truck drivers are likely to load and unload their OWN trucks. Having extra people on the dock to handle the loading/unloading of robo-truck might not be so economical. There'd be several employees there, working in bursts, and coking/joking/smoking the rest of the time.
Overall, I think robo-truck would be "a wash".
One more thing - for REALLY long hauls, freight trains are typically used. They stack them with pre-loaded truck trailers. So the trucks bring the trailers to the rail yards, or within the state the rail yards serve. The trains then take things everywhere else. In some cases, the 'trailer' is a shipping container with wheels and a hitch bolted on. So they're already being really efficient, if you think about it.
And the driver's wage isn't all that much, when you look at everything.
[I think I'd rather have a skilled driver anyway especially for traveling in mountainous areas]
"they benefit the massive reduction of transport costs for goods and services"
Most folks don't realize that truck drivers do a lot more than simply drive the vehicle. They usually have a lot of paperwork to manage, and local delivery drivers act as customer representatives for their employers.
Please explain how an unmanned UPS truck would work.
@ Gravesender
"Please explain how an unmanned UPS truck would work."
Thats an interesting question. Do you mean the customer facing which requires a meat sack? Or do you mean getting the items across a country to potential pickup points/redistribution centres?
A lot of paperwork is admin to add to a meat sacks misery and tracking. The joy of automation is the ease of tracking and ignorance of misery.
@ bombastic bob
Good points. It will be interesting to see how the future pans out with these devices.
In terms of conservation and other economies, autonomous vehicles reminds me of when someone bums a cigarette - the solicited complies with the request, the solicitor then asks for a light, to which the solicited replies "You want me to smoke it for you to?" as a way to bust their balls.
I keep thinking we are looking for ways to accelerate the consumption of natural resources to the point we won't even need human beings to ruin the environment.
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