I agree, people can be dangerous. If we could figure out the software I think self driving cars could be really safe. And, they'd be faster too because the road could be run with very little gap between cars so long as all of the cars are communicating and the cars are self driving. But, being a software developer, the failures terrify me. I'm too familiar with the way software is written and how buggy it tends to be to be all that comfortable in a 70MPH 3500lb missile. However, I'm already doing that in a drive by wire car. So, I guess it's just a matter of perception. But, manufacturers are going to have a lot of those perception issues to deal with. I think insurance will be kind of tough at first too. If a crash happens who do you blame? What if both cars were self driving? Will the automakers have to fight each other in court? What if the self driving car mistook your semi for the open sky (as just happened in the Tesla fatality)? I'm kind of leery of the millions of ways a computer could mistake the video coming in. Humans have a very finely tuned visual system and we still get it wrong sometimes. But, I don't think nearly anyone would have been fooled by the semi truck looks like the sky issue. I could see that it was a semi truck if I were driving. Apparently cars can't always. Though, I'm sure it'll improve. It's sort of a chicken and egg situation. I won't trust a self driving car with my own life until it is bulletproof but getting it there requires a lot of on the road testing.
> > I think that once the self driving cars can demonstrate they can avoid more > accidents on the road than the typical human, adoption will be rapid. Mostly > what they would be avoiding would be humans that weren't paying attention. > Once more humans are removed, the overall safety will increase again. > > We would like to think that all drivers are very careful and fully engaged in > driving, but what I see on a daily basis isn't that. I think that cars that > are more predictable and can dodge humans are a good thing. > > Mike > > _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Read EVAngel's EV News at http://evdl.org/evln/ Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
