Waymo Testing Self-Driving Cars on Public Roads with No One at the Wheel, Ridehailing in a Few Month - Sensationalist Headlines

[QUOTE]The tests aren’t limited to one or two routes, either; the test area where the truly driverless trials are being conducted is in Chandler, Arizona (part of the greater Phoenix metro area), and the cars are able to go anywhere within this defined space. It’s hard to understate the importance of this milestone: Waymo is operating at full Level 4 autonomy, sharing public roads with human-driven cars and pedestrians, with no one at the wheel able to take over in case things don’t go as planned.[/QUOTE] [url]https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/07/waymo-now-testing-its-self-driving-cars-on-public-roads-with-no-one-at-the-wheel[/url] [video]https://youtu.be/aaOB-ErYq6Y[/video] Wew lad the future is here. They're adding them to their test ridehailing service in a few months too. I legit thought this was at least 4-5+ years away. RIP car ownership.

That'd be a sight for people who have no clue what's going on

[QUOTE=SIRIUS;52866520]That'd be a sight for people who have no clue what's going on[/QUOTE] The LIDAR sensor is pretty hard to miss, and they're doing this in an area they've been testing at with backup drivers for a while, so I suspect people will know what's going on. Even then I'm sure it'll be labeled. They already all have the Waymo logo on their side.

Even then, seeing no driver in a car will be weird for a lot of people

I wonder if it can detect a police vehicle hailing it to pull over?

Self driving is nice and all but can we go back and fix self flushing toilets so they don't flush in the fucking middle of me taking a shit and scare the holy ghost out of me.

Why would that happen?

[QUOTE=Bradyns;52866543]I wonder if it can detect a police vehicle hailing it to pull over?[/QUOTE] Yep. [url]https://www.citylab.com/amp/article/543351/[/url]

finally, i can get a ride somewhere without having to worry about whether or not the driver will be excessively chatty

RIP transportation jobs.

[QUOTE=MoopsiePook;52866545]Self driving is nice and all but can we go back and fix self flushing toilets so they don't flush in the fucking middle of me taking a shit and scare the holy ghost out of me.[/QUOTE] Vote this guy president please.

I would not ride in one of those even if you paid me. You can't really guarantee that the system isn't going to fail and end up killing yourself or other people, even aircraft which have some of the most advanced computer systems that have been developed for decades still fail on occasion. If you can manually take control in an emergency then that's fine but I still think it's a bad idea, people riding it at are hardly going to be paying much attention to the road like a normal driver would.

[QUOTE=Chryseus;52866698]I would not ride in one of those even if you paid me.[/QUOTE] Why not? Because it feels weird to trust a machine like that?

[QUOTE=Chryseus;52866698]I would not ride in one of those even if you paid me. You can't really guarantee that the system isn't going to fail and end up killing yourself or other people, even aircraft which have some of the most advanced computer systems that have been developed for decades still fail on occasion. If you can manually take control in an emergency then that's fine but I still think it's a bad idea, people riding it at are hardly going to be paying much attention to the road like a normal driver would.[/QUOTE] You also cant guarantee that the brakes on a car wont break, or if the motor goes out on the high way and causes a crash. In both these cases you could do very little if it ended up causing you harm.

[QUOTE=Robber;52866709]Why not? Because it feels weird to trust a machine like that?[/QUOTE] man wasn't meant to travel faster than 10mph I'd sooner die than get into one of that madman Ford's contraptions

[QUOTE=Chryseus;52866698]You can't really guarantee that the system isn't going to fail and end up killing yourself or other people[/QUOTE] This is one of the biggest problems with [b]human[/b] drivers.

[QUOTE=Chryseus;52866698]I would not ride in one of those even if you paid me. You can't really guarantee that the system isn't going to fail and end up killing yourself or other people, even aircraft which have some of the most advanced computer systems that have been developed for decades still fail on occasion. If you can manually take control in an emergency then that's fine but I still think it's a bad idea, people riding it at are hardly going to be paying much attention to the road like a normal driver would.[/QUOTE] [url]https://www.forbes.com/sites/chunkamui/2017/02/08/waymo-is-crushing-it/[/url] Waymo has the fewest manual interventions per mile driven among every company in the self-driving space.

[QUOTE=Valiantttt;52866718]You also cant guarantee that the brakes on a car wont break, or if the motor goes out on the high way and causes a crash. In both these cases you could do very little if it ended up causing you harm.[/QUOTE] There is quite a big difference between an electronic breaking system and a full self-driving system, the more complex something is the greater the chance of failure, also in that case the driver would already be concentrating on driving and would be able to rapidly take action to try prevent a crash, automation is all good and well but it's a well documented fact that in a sudden unexpected condition the driver can become become confused or slow to react as has caused several air crashes.

[QUOTE=Chryseus;52866754]... it's a well documented fact that in a sudden unexpected condition the driver can become become confused or slow to react as has caused several air crashes.[/QUOTE] Is this an argument for or against self-driving cars, I can't tell.

How does the car know the state of traffic lights? Are there some cameras in the front that could sense it or something?

[QUOTE=Makzu;52866773]How does the car know the state of traffic lights? Are there some cameras in the front that could sense it or something?[/QUOTE] They have a bunch of cameras for that, radar, and lidar.

[QUOTE=Harbie;52866767]Is this an argument for or against self-driving cars, I can't tell.[/QUOTE] I mean they become confused since either they are not paying close attention to what is going on and they get taken by surprise or the car is unable to provide a clear indication of what is wrong, the latter isn't such a big problem but my point is as far as I'm aware there is nothing in a self driving car that forces the passenger to pay close attention to the road so if something does fail catastrophically they're pretty much screwed. One could argue that human drivers are more prone to accidents and that is probably very true but they've not been proven reliable enough yet in my opinion, I dunno about you but if I'm going to have a car accident I'd rather it be my own fault than down to the computer shitting itself.

The only thing about self driving cars that interest me is hailing them to my position from a parking spot.

I'd trust a computer more than I'd trust a few people I've been in a car with, a computer isn't going to try driving with his knees while going 80mph and eating satay chicken sticks.

[QUOTE=squids_eye;52866854]I'd trust a computer more than I'd trust a few people I've been in a car with, a computer isn't going to try driving with his knees while going 80mph and eating satay chicken sticks.[/QUOTE] You don't know that. Who knows what foods computers will want to eat in ten years.

[QUOTE=Chryseus;52866820]I mean they become confused since either they are not paying close attention to what is going on and they get taken by surprise or the car is unable to provide a clear indication of what is wrong, the latter isn't such a big problem but my point is as far as I'm aware there is nothing in a self driving car that forces the passenger to pay close attention to the road so if something does fail catastrophically they're pretty much screwed. One could argue that human drivers are more prone to accidents and that is probably very true but they've not been proven reliable enough yet in my opinion, I dunno about you but if I'm going to have a car accident I'd rather it be my own fault than down to the computer shitting itself.[/QUOTE] In this specific scenario, that really isn't any different from a human taxi driver. In neither situation do the riders have any control of the vehicle and are at the "driver's" whim. And the passengers cannot be at fault as a result. This is also why systems like this have fail-safes. If it ever detects a situation where it cannot proceed safely, it will fail safely, not blindly move forward as if nothing is wrong. Which ironically is what humans tend to do. Worst case scenario, a self driving car is proven to be the cause of the accident. Its in the manufacturer's best interest to study that accident and find out why it's happened. The software is patched and they can reliably test and ensure it doesn't happen again on any of their vehicles. You can't possibly do that with a human where the same mistake is made literally hundreds of times a day, and there is nothing you can do about it.

I'll take the failure rate of computers over the failure rate of your average driver any day

[QUOTE=squids_eye;52866854]I'd trust a computer more than I'd trust a few people I've been in a car with, a computer isn't going to try driving with his knees while going 80mph and eating satay chicken sticks.[/QUOTE] Once had a friend drive me from Chula Vista to Escondido via freeway to see my mom. About a quarter of the way through, I check the time and realize I'm going to be late by quite a bit. My friend's response is to practically floor it. I don't remember exactly how fast he was going, but I remember that speedometer had no right having a needle go that far. That was the most terrifying car ride I've ever been in, but I made it on time.

[QUOTE=Demache;52866886]Worst case scenario, a self driving car is proven to be the cause of the accident. Its in the manufacturer's best interest to study that accident and find out why it's happened. The software is patched and they can reliably test and ensure it doesn't happen again on any of their vehicles. You can't possibly do that with a human.[/QUOTE] That is quite true, in time they will probably become very reliable but I feel it's perhaps a bit too soon to be putting passengers in them, but I guess we'll see how it turns out.

I wonder how these react with certain situations where there's a car tailing your ass, and the light turns yellow. In a normal circumstance you'd brake if you had clearance behind you, but if you do so the car behind you is likely to rear end you, so I always speed through the light if that's the case. How would the car react?