- In a blog post, Chris Urmson, the head of Google's self-driving car program, writes that the self-driving Google Lexus was stopped at an intersection near the company's Mountain View, Calif., headquarters on July 1. The light was green but the traffic congestion meant that the Google car, and the two in front of it, could not make it through the intersection without blocking it, he wrote. But the driver of a fourth car didn't notice the stopped traffic, only the green light, and plowed into the back of the Google car at 17 mph, without braking.
- The Google car suffered only scrapes on its rear bumper. The car that hit the Google vehicle had its bumper fall off.
Haha.
It's not really much of a surprise to me that people want to demonize automation, whether consciously or not. If your skill set consists of "Well, I can drive a car/truck...", then I think it's time to diversify.
The younger generations will ask, "But you controlled the car?". It will blow their minds.
Why, yes, I do want the model with a built in console, thank you for reminding me.
Google tends to have rather higher code quality than most, though, and presumably even more care is put in for safety-critical things.
Why? And how do you feel about air travel?The thought of being in a self driving car still terrifies me.
This is a fair point but one I think wed only have to address for a few years. Self.driving cars as they are need to constantly compensate for alterations in the environment once they are ubiquitous and regulated I cannot see why we should be any more concerned than we are with our microwave ovens.
I don't trust CNN to tell me who's fault anything is, or even to give me the unbiased information to make the decision myself. They're referring to the event where Google and Delphi's cars avoided each other safely, exactly as designed. I think I've made my point.A pair of self-driving cars from Google (GOOGL, Tech30) and auto parts maker Delphi (DLPH) reported having a near miss on a street near Google's headquarters late last month, but both cars managed to avoid each other at the last moment.
Here's the accident: http://i.imgur.com/fBvWdVS.gifv
Google is very obviously not to blame. I will say though, my mom taught me to always check the rearview mirror when I stop and if it looks like the guy behind me is coming in hot, to inch forward a bit. Google did everything right here, but I wonder if they will use this to adapt their algorithms somewhat.
Same here. The route I took from my house to the office had one bad stretch of road where 4 lanes cut to two lanes with two lanes onto the freeway (east = left lane, west = right lane.) The amount of side swipes and rear ends I've seen there is insane. I pay so much attention to the cars to the sides of me as well. I'm so paranoid. I try not to drive directly next to and especially not in between two cars. Try to give myself some room to escape in case someone decides to merge without looking, which is so common it's terrifying.
Perhaps they just need to get a big red sign saying STOP RIGHT THERE to pop up when someone is coming up too close behind them.Google did everything right here, but I wonder if they will use this to adapt their algorithms somewhat.
Driving down the freeway I see signs that say Humans caused 400+ deaths this year alone. I welcome our human saving self driving cars. I welcome the idea that elderly can be mobile and safe. I welcome the idea that ambulances will be a thing of the past and that emergencies can be dealt with in the greatest of urgency. I welcome no more drunk driving or texting. I welcome no more sharp curves for teenagers driving ability. I welcome less road rage. I welcome automatted home delivery of medication. I welcome a cheaper way to maintain roads. I welcome never having to worry about daughters or sons being lost. I welcome no more car jackings. I welcome never having to park. I welcome never being late because of traffic. I welcome people with diabetes not having to worry if they will kill someone on the way home. The world is already a scary place. Robotic and automation scares only serve those who profit from death and pain. There is a textbook on automation I am reading (although it focuses on manufacturing) and it seems to me with every iteration of automation, we have done more for that safety of humanity than any medical text book could have achecived.
My state displays updated statistics on many of its roadways that say "XXXX drivers killed this year on your state's roadways. Drive safe, drive smart, drive sober." This amuses me because some fraction of those deaths are attributable to the terrible infrastructure design and conditions maintained by the same department displaying the statistics. Now that's just not true. I'm with you 100% on everything else but that statement. Some people are just plain scared of entrusting their lives to a network of computers. And when the potential to abuse and/or hack such a network is always a possibility, that fear has plenty of validity. On the whole, though? Hell yeah, gimme moar bots.Robotic and automation scares only serve those who profit from death and pain.
Oh I'm sorry if it came off like I was blaming the people who are scared. No. I am definitely not blaming any individual for not wanting to trust their lives to a computer. I meant specifically articles like these and the mirad of other "AI Will Destroy us in the future" scares. I was trying to convey the message that CNN et al have an invested interest in selling page views and fear of the future makes it easy yo do that.
Can't wait for self-driving cars when humans can fuck up something as simple as driving around a circular track.
Well, tunnel vision can be the result of situations that cause adrenaline to be released into our body, such as a fight or road rage. Even then though, sometimes when we're so intent on a single object, we stop paying attention to everything else. I can imagine for people who have problems like ADD and the like, driving can be a challenge.
People with ADHD have a 45% or higher risk associated with driving http://www.m.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/news/20140129/drivers-with-adhd-may-be-at-higher-risk-for-serious-crashesI personally I have been in at least 5 accidents though not all of them took the form of me hitting someone else, a lot of them could have been avoided had I been able to be more aware. Edit: I should also note this from the article This is why if you are an adult and you suspect you have ADHD you should at least talk to a doctor about it don't ignore it!Breaking down the numbers further, the researchers estimated that between 41 percent and 49 percent of the car accidents involving men with ADHD could have been avoided if they had been taking their medication as prescribed.
I have grown up with ADD and dealt with it all my life and I have never had anything near that happen to me. Tunnel vision happens to us all from time to time but to complete ignore potentially dozens of cars? Then again I think ADD is a cop-out that people use to explain they own shortcomings. That's just me though.
I was really incredibly hyper as a kid. I was not taught coping mechanisms. Pills were thrown at me. Our idea of how to fix hyper children potent patience and learning, is been throw pills at them until something works. One day, when I was 14, I tired of the pills and started learning to control myself. It took some time but eventually I learned how to calm myself. I was on 60 milligrams time release of adderol. From what my doctor said, even he thought it was too much but my mother insisted because I was "unmanageable". Mine isn't as bad as others? I'm sure there are some out there that are worse and have a legitimate problem but ADD and ADHD are often over-diagnosed. There were even a bunch of news articles in the 90's about it. Yes I think it's a cop-out. Yes I think people need to learn self-control. No I don't think As many people have ADD and ADHD as claim it or are diagnosed with it. It was one of those things that doctors diagnosed like they were giving out candy much like other fad diagnoses. I, for one, feel much better and less dragged down by big pharma.
Did you know that there are specific tests to determine if someone has ADHD and that many doctors require an ADHD coach in conjunction with medication here in the United States? Many of these coaches teach coping mechanisms like ways to stay organized or eat properly or get to bed on time. My brain and my works don't work the same as your brain and your works, but I still have to live in a society where my mind is different. I understand the feeling of wanting to classify mental illnesses as something that can be fixed with hard work and determination, also that you have had a bad experience with this topic in particular. However I believe it is an unhealthy attitude to dismiss medical and scientific research based on our personal experience. Allow me to convey this: I have known many people who take and do not take medication. I am extremely impressed by those who no longer take medication. The amount of discipline they have would drive them to conquer entire continents, if they didn't have to focus so much on having ADHD. For those on the medications, they are working very hard already. Mental illnesses have a huge stigma please try and stop building these stigmas. Even if you are against children taking medication, which is a fine (and different) position to take, I urge you to remember that people are people that's all they can be.
You are right. People are people. And whether it is being human or society teaching us to, we very often make excuses for ourselves so we don't have to deal with our own issues. I get what is like to have trouble paying attention. My childhood was riddled with behavioral issues. But I overcame it. Part of the problem isn't the people with the illness either, it's society. Children aren't meant to spend 8 hours a day in a class room being force fed information and be expected to retain it. Adults aren't meant to sit in offices and crunch numbers all day. It's not healthy and their pent up energy has nowhere to go. But we learn to deal with it as best we can. So... Those studies and scientific findings.. You wanna prove to me that big pharma didn't do the research or have a third party do them? Because without that is useless. Can't tell if it's biased without knowing the source. Stigma stigma stigma. Regardless of stigma ADD and ADHD are no excuse for causing harm to others. End of story.
On second thought, this isn't really the place for this conversation. If you want to continue this discussion please mail me. We have detracted from the original post.
Well, I was just using ADD as an example. I understand though that for some people, it can be very easy to get distracted or focus elsewhere. That's why they have anti-texting and driving laws in many states. I'm not saying that this is what necessarily happened to the driver in question, but that's it's not by any means implausible.
I can certainly agree with you there. Just putting in my 2 cents on ADD. Some people legitimately have difficulties focusing. I just feel it's over used as an excuse and its something we as people need to over come not embrace. Your point still remains valid regardless. And I meant not to insult it demean you in any way.
You can take my words and twist them to the extreme all you want. Those are not the same thing. They are not even similar. I have glasses and I don't have the best hearing. People with glasses or those hard of hearing still need to learn to deal with those issues. You can't get into a car crash and blame your sight. Guess what happens when you do (or at least what should happen)? You don't get to drive anymore. If you can't see, you shouldn't be behind a wheel of a vehicle capable of easily killing people. Same with not being able to concentrate. If you can't control your car and make informed decisions while driving you don't get to drive. If you nod off at the wheel on a regular basis, regardless of whether it's a medical issue you shouldn't drive. Public safety. Nuff said.
I actually agree! People with ADHD should have special training for driving a vehicle. As I noted above a person who has ADHD has a 45% higher risk of getting into a car accident than someone without. It can be very hard to distinguish such things using humans at the DMV though, which is another reason I'd like to see automatic vehicles in widespread use. We should remove the trust from the roads, rage aholics, drunks, and emotionally unstable people are currently out on our freeways. With the automatic vehicles we could be safer with a very small economic cost.
I'm right with you there. It works be so nice to take that daily stress out of ask of our lives. Honestly sometimes i'm in a great mood, leave for work, by the time I'm there my day is shot and I now spend a couple hours getting myself in a better mood. All because some people have no common sense or decency. Automation would ease me blood pressure for sure! Also. Glad that though we disagree on some fundamentals we can agree on the greater picture. I love you Hubsky!