Four crashes out of 48 doesn't sound too bad. Best case scenario (one vehicle stationary, two being occupied and driven manually, the last one being hit while driving autonomously) one reported accident out of 48 vehicles being tested over the better part of a year sounds fantastic.
There are 253 million vehicles on our roads, there were 5,615,000 crashes in 2013.
I reckon crashes per mile driven is much higher for the general public than Google's cars.
If they are being honest when they say that all four of those accidents were caused by "minor fender benders" from other drivers rear ending them, then that's pretty amazing! I'd be willing to be that a road populated mostly, or entirely, by these vehicles would be astoundingly safe co pared to modern highways. In addition to the obvious sensors and cameras helping to detect threats on the roadway, the vehicles could communicate with nearby vehicles to broadcast when it will be turning, changing lanes, stopping, or accelerating so that they can begin reacting before it even initiates that action.
Incredible stuff. I can't wait for this tech to complete all its testing and start being rolled out for the public.
[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;47704582]If they are being honest when they say that all four of those accidents were caused by "minor fender benders" from other drivers rear ending them, then that's pretty amazing! I'd be willing to be that a road populated mostly, or entirely, by these vehicles would be astoundingly safe co pared to modern highways. In addition to the obvious sensors and cameras helping to detect threats on the roadway, the vehicles could communicate with nearby vehicles to broadcast when it will be turning, changing lanes, stopping, or accelerating so that they can begin reacting before it even initiates that action.
Incredible stuff. I can't wait for this tech to complete all its testing and start being rolled out for the public.[/QUOTE]
so essentially it's human error, which won't really be removed until we fully switch to these cars. that's pretty great
i like the concept of self driving cars as much as the next person but i think people get carried away imagining a utopian fantasy where this isn't just a hypothetical toy for rich people, which is what it is
[QUOTE=Kommodore;47705818]i like the concept of self driving cars as much as the next person but i think people get carried away imagining a utopian fantasy where this isn't just a toy for rich people, which is what it is[/QUOTE]
at the moment
Before I accept self driving cars I'd want to have some private time driving my car around one to see how it'd react to the kind of scenarios I'm most afraid of.
48 cars isn't a large enough sample size in my opinion. If you interviewed 48 random drivers it's entirely likely you'd see 4 or less with accidents too.
[QUOTE=Trekintosh;47705860]Before I accept self driving cars I'd want to have some private time driving my car around one to see how it'd react to the kind of scenarios I'm most afraid of.
48 cars isn't a large enough sample size in my opinion. If you interviewed 48 random drivers it's entirely likely you'd see 4 or less with accidents too.[/QUOTE]
But at the same time, the cars has sensors all over the place. Not only are they gathering much more information about the environment around them than a human can ever do, they can process this information, calculate paths, and predict movements and dangers way faster an with much higher accuracy than any human driver.
The risk of them actually causing accidents is way smaller than for even the most experienced drivers. Plus I imagine they've run hundreds of tests and simulations to iron out bugs before putting them on the roads.
[QUOTE=Kommodore;47705818]i like the concept of self driving cars as much as the next person but i think people get carried away imagining a utopian fantasy where this isn't just a hypothetical toy for rich people, which is what it is[/QUOTE]
Meh, I think it's kinda neat but I don't really want one. I like driving a lot more than being a passenger.
And it's not like I'd be more productive either. I get sick in cars unless I keep my eyes focused on the road, so I can't use computers, phones or read books anyways.
Self-driving cars would basically be boredom and sickness machines for me.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.