It's great to hear that companies like Tesla, Mercedes and Audi (and many others!) have been committed in to changing the future of driverless cars and the ever growing progress of technology in this field.
Do you think driverless cars will become the next common means of transport in the near future? Your views are much appreciated :)
"What happens in a carwash, drive-in movie…multistory carpark"
In man made situations you can have clear white lines for boundaries, radio frequency markers and guidance instructions from the premises beamed to the car when it arrives. Much better than now.
For flat tyre, same as now.
Accidents will be less. Insurance will cover it, and most likely will be cheaper as the software will be lower risk.
Off road will probably not happen for a while. I doubt this is an issue for most.
wildlife avoidance will be safer: car will have better vision (see through fog and night vision), faster reaction times, and the vehicle will be able to simultaneously know whether it is safe to change lanes, rather than be bopping out to Britney spears when someone's cat runs across the road causing random swerving and mayhem.
"Does the driver simply tell the car the final destination. Does he do it telepathically?"
Driver speaks or types final destination as in android phones now (iphone maps suck). You could open Maps app in your phone, tell it the destination, it shows you what it thinks you want, and the route, confirms it can get there, gives you traffic times and an option to stop along the way for a break (sponsored by McDonald's). You confirm and off you go. You could do it on your phone and send it to the car, which works out traffic times. Car can have own coffee pod machine in it an tv so you can eat on the way to work. Or your pre-ordered mcmuffin is ready when you pull through the drive thru on the way. Car can park a few km away so you can drive straight to your city office, have the car drop you at the front, then it parks itself a few km away. Call or schedule it at the end fo the day to pick you up.
Whats not to like.
A lot of the discussion on driverless cars is very short-sighted. The modern trend in urban development is egalitarian transport accessibility that maximises efficiency and minimises use of environmental and human resources. The long-term goal of urban planners wouldn't be to have AI-directed transport that seamlessly integrates with humans while maintaining the status quo. Unfortunately, AI is most efficient when personal autonomy is sacrificed.
Much like we have special bus lanes now to give priority to the many over the few, wouldn't we expect similar patterns to apply in the future to AI-driven share vehicles? Who'll need dedicated drivers when every neighbourhood could have multi-level depots dedicated to driverless share-cars and buses that get called on-demand? The most economical modes of transport would probably reward those willing to get off their arse between zones and/or dedicated lines, with special considerations for the disabled and the elderly. These shared vehicles could be tailored with complimentary technology to allow for containers and logistical capabilities.
Just to stress how out of touch Australians are with the rest of the world, have a look at car ownership per capita (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_vehicles_…). We have over 10 times the number of cars per capita in countries such as Indonesia yet no one in their right mind would suggest more individual car ownership would solve Jakarta's traffic problems.
So the future potential of transport is bright. And possibly boring.
In Holland, I experienced getting to work in a driverless vehicle. I was akin to a cable car, but on wheels obv. It was designed to take employees/passengers from the train station to their work destination around the industrial park. There would be 'bus' stops and a button to press at the stop to let the vehicle know to stop at that station to pick someone up; and also a button in the vehicle to let peeps off at the next stop, as in the conventional way. The problem with these things is that they go approx 10 kph and if a bird flies in it's path, for instance, it will slam on the brake and all the standing passengers go lurching forward considerably whilst the seated passengers receive minor whiplash. Sometimes the vehicle is not able to recover itself to proceed on, as the workers become increasingly late for work. There is an 'alert a human' button on board also that is used for that purpose. The human responsible for rectification is able to view the aforesaid stranded vehicle through the multitudes of surveillance cameras along the route. At a moment of unexpectency for all on board, the vehicle comes alive with a mighty jolt, adding injury to injury as it proceeds on it's way. Note. this unexpected stopping can occur without any bird involved, for no apparent reason at all. I can't tell you how many times I walked to work or to the train station, because a vehicle just never turned up. I would see them stopped somewhere along the route (for no apparent reason) with all the optimist workers gawping at me from inside as they were waiting for it to get going. Once one got fed up and decided to walk, the whole bus load would pile out and leave the vehicle empty and stranded.
Can't wait for it to happen, so many more accidents are caused by people than will be by automated cars because by the time it takes for it to actually become widespread the technology would have had years to be tested.
If I get a driverless car I'll probably get pissed a lot more.Government will need to generate revenue another way.
What happens in a carwash, drive-in movie, off road, multistory car park, wildlife avoidance, flat tyre, accident your car causes? Does the driver simply tell the car the final destination. Does he do it telepathically? Sorry for the last one.