»The future of automated cars«

The following came into my mind:

You know that cars get more and more automated. They will warn you if your seatbelt isn't fastened. They will warn you if you sleep.

But about the following? They notice when you drive faster than allowed, call the police ("Police! Get this man"), drive to the sideway, lock all doors and wait until the police comes to fetch your driver's licence.

Is such future near?

posted by knn

in-my-opinion.org -> Technology, Computers, Science, Internet -> Cars and Machines -> The future of automated cars

Re: The sad future of automated cars

knn:

The following came into my mind:

You know that cars get more and more automated. They will warn you if your seatbelt isn't fastened. They will warn you if you sleep.

But about the following? The notice when you drive faster than allowed, call the police ("Police! Get this man"), drive to the sideway, lock all doors and wait until the police comes to fetch your driver's licence.

Is such future near?

i've heard of installing breatholizers in cars so if your BAC is too high the car won't let you start it...which would be a good idea i think...except having to "blow" your car everytime to start it! White laugh

about the police question, I've always wondered why cars are allowed to be manufactured to go beyond the legal speed limit in the first place...and the only thing or time I can think of that you need to go faster is if your injured on the way to the hospital or taking someone who is in labor...other than that why not have limitations on car speed?

posted by The ONEder Man

I know where you live. I will send a rape commando -- knn

Your own garden

The ONEder Man:

other than that why not have limitations on car speed?

How would a car know whether you push the pedal to get out of mud or whether you go 300+ mph in your own huge garden? Evil evil

posted by knn

Re: The sad future of automated cars

The ONEder Man:

yeah, those exist. and the way people get around it is to have someone else blow into the breathalizer who isnt intoxicated so that the car will start.

The ONEder Man:

i have always wondered this, if people claim that speed kills and people who speed endanger all around them, why do they make cars that can travel at 200mph? the highest i have ever seen the speed limit in my state is 70mph, and that is only during daytime, at night its 65mph. (they define daytime as 30 minutes befroe dawn to 30 minutes after dusk...or something like that)

so why have a car that can go over 70mph? (just giving 70mph for example) they can install engine governers to stop your vehicle from accelerating any further and so on. i guess people will just remove them and figure out a way to go faster no matter what. in that case, why not make it harder for people to do so in the first place?

im only saying all this because i have heard soo many times from soo many people that speed is such a big problem. personally i think that people should take tests to be able to drive certain cars. i mean, if a teenager who just turned 16 and just learned how to drive and just got his license gets a brand new corvette...that's just asking for trouble. why not have licenses that restrict what type/kind/speed of car you are allowed to drive. if you want to be allowed to drive a faster car, take a test and proove that you can handle it.

posted by allone

all you really need is 88mph. that's when the flux compacitor starts to work.

A statement tweak

knn:

But about the following? The notice when you drive faster than allowed, call the police ("Police! Get this man"), drive to the sideway, lock all doors and wait until the police comes to fetch your driver's licence.

Is such future near?

Why go through all that when you can easily(in theory/principle) just automate the driving as well? People as a group have shown again and again that they don't really know how to drive well. Look at traffic causes/patterns. One person going to slow, one person going fast weaving in an out of lanes, all kinds of people looking at an accident, someone go from fast lane on highway to the offramp causing everyone in all 3 lanes+ to slow down, people getting onto the highway, etc etc.

I mainly state this for the highway system since this will be "easiest" to setup for automation. I think Minority Report and I, Robot demonstrated well the concept of automated driving. Basically the road system has some set of magnetic/light/whatever markers and the car's sensing/tracking system follows those markers. You already have cars now that can be driven entirely by computer by following the yellow/white lines and observing other cars.

Once the technology gets alot of testing, the real hurdle is getting the system set up on all the highways and getting systems installed in cars. This is why is most likely can't happen for another 30-50+ yrs, perhaps more.

Automating cars on the highway would be vastly more efficient, quicker, safer, and all around better when compared to how humans drive.

posted by volonteshiva

Set to manual

volonteshiva:

Why go through all that when you can easily(in theory/principle) just automate the driving as well?

The driving WILL be automated. But just in case someone switches to "MANUAL" and drives faster than allowed.

posted by knn

pondering

volonteshiva:

Once the technology gets alot of testing, the real hurdle is getting the system set up on all the highways and getting systems installed in cars. This is why is most likely can't happen for another 30-50+ yrs, perhaps more.

i think the big problem of emplimenting this is cost. Whether you apply lasers, magnets etc. to cars or the roads, that's a lot of changes that must occur and a lot of money to do so...you know how many miles of road there are in the US alone?

then you have the dilemma of the dirt roads and such, how do you use the new technology there?

posted by The ONEder Man

Re: pondering

The ONEder Man:

volonteshiva:

Highways: total: 6,348,227 km

en.wikipedia.org…

Indeed, I can comprehend the cost. In the high billions likely. And it would be a long term project. Starting in cities and other rich areas. 20-50yrs before any of this gets going. 50-80++ before it's a nationwide system if it even happens. I and much of the rest of the US would want to see money spent for health care and other more important things first. Using the crazy amount of military funds is one solution.

It's hard to see, but having safe, efficient, automated highways would like save $$ in a lot of ways. Not billions but likely many millions nationwide. Another huge cost for roads is maintenance. 10-20 yrs or less before sections of road need to be replaced is ridiculous nowadays. Clearly a new synthetic material needs to replace tarmac/blacktop/etc. Or develop hovercars finally, that would save alot right there. Wink

The ONEder Man:

then you have the dilemma of the dirt roads and such, how do you use the new technology there?

Well, at first for many years you would clearly have the car switch to manual mode.

posted by volonteshiva

A few years

The ONEder Man:

i think the big problem of emplimenting this is cost. Whether you apply lasers, magnets etc. to cars or the roads

I don't think you need to change roads a lot. All you need is cars with a camera and some satellite aided guidiance.

However, what is MUCH more likely to happen in 50+ years is the following: Everyone gets a flying car, so that roads can be abolished. I'd rather invest my money in new copter technology than in upgrading streets

posted by knn

ebooks-download.com

Re: A few years

knn:

However, what is MUCH more likely to happen in 50+ years is the following: Everyone gets a flying car, so that roads can be abolished. I'd rather invest my money in new copter technology than in upgrading streets

i have thought about this before and i don't think it would be as easy.

think of all the cars that would be flying around...there would need to be some type of "roads" put in place in the sky, some type of way to regulate where you can and cannot fly, think of all the traffic that would be up there...you would now have to worry about three dimensions of traffic, cars in every direction (above, below, left, right, 360 degrees all around you heading in all different directions), and high speed planes on top of that. what about driving in a large city with skyscrapers?

you would have to learn to fly/drive one of those things and get a new license.

what if you ran out of gas? i have a friend that does that monthly!

the fuel prices would probably be very high for a vehicle like that, and people already complain about them.

i don't think the roads will be totally abolished. it would be easier to just drive down a road on the ground to the grocery store (or any other short distance destination, where i live everything in town is 5 minutes away) than to have to fly there, especially if its only a couple blocks/minutes/miles away.

the thrust power to get one off the ground would probably damage your driveway, or whatever parking lot you go to.

i always thought that IF this were to happen, it would be regulated soo much and soo expensive that not a lot of people will do it and only a few will be able to use it (those with lots of money, but they can pretty much fly anywhere already)...that is until it becomes much safer and less expensive.

it would be really cool though! i just don't think that i will ever see it in my lifetime, maybe the start of it...but by that time i will be so old that they wont let me drive anymore...but then again, they let a lot of old people drive who shouldnt...hmm...

-just my thoughts on the flying car thing...

posted by allone

Autoflying

allone:

you would have to learn to fly/drive one of those things and get a new license.

Everything will be automated. Just as in »Fifth Element«. There are only certain levels (= heights) you can fly and only certain zones where you can descend/ascend.

allone:

the fuel prices would probably be very high for a vehicle like that, and people already complain about them.

Nah. Your "look into the future" reminds me of the fear (aroun 1900) that the need for horses will rise so much that whole cities will be drowned in horse apples.

All it takes is a new battery/accumulator technology. That's all.

allone:

i always thought that IF this were to happen, it would be regulated soo much and soo expensive that not a lot of people will do it and only a few will be able to use it

That reminds me of the what an IBM boss said: Only 10 computers are needed world wide.

Come on it's not bad like that.

posted by knn

Re: Autoflying

knn:

Everything will be automated. Just as in »Fifth Element«. There are only certain levels (= heights) you can fly and only certain zones where you can descend/ascend.

i don't think it would be totally automated, what if the auto pilot malfuctioned...you wouldnt know how to handle the vehicle. you would still need to know how to fly/drive it just incase something happens and you needed to control it.

imagine the time when these things are commonplace. there are more and more people in the world, more and more cars on the road. imagine all the cars that are on the roads now...now put them all in the sky, flying around all over the place, speeding, driving like maniacs...what if you got in a wreck? would you be sent falling towards the ground only to die? maybe there will be newer technology to save lives in this situation by that time...

but then again, why get in the vehicle in the first place, its totally automated...if we can have a car that's totally automated, then im sure we can also have automated robots to do our errands for us...just have the totally automated housemaid robot take the totally automated car to pick up the kids from totally automated soccer practice. White laugh

personally, i would like to control it myself. i love driving! its fun! i would not even like an automated car, that would take the fun and skill out of it.

knn:

All it takes is a new battery/accumulator technology. That's all.

yeah, youre right, im basing all of my guesses on current technology. i know it can and will change with time. the people in 1900 werent really used to the advancing technology that we are...maybe that's why the older people have a much harder time with computers/tv's/DVD players/microwaves/cell phones/toasters/shoes and so on.

that's why i also said that i doubt i will ever see it in my lifetime. to have that new technology and to have it fairly cheap/accessable to everyone would take a pretty long time. maybe im wrong, who knows? technology seems to advance faster and faster.

knn:

allone:

i always thought that IF this were to happen, it would be regulated soo much and soo expensive that not a lot of people will do it and only a few will be able to use it

That reminds me of the what an IBM boss said: Only 10 computers are needed world wide.

huh? (at one time it may have been possible to only need 10 computers in the world, times change...there was a time when there were no computers in the world at all)

what i meant is, if this were to be introduced as real and usable at whatever time, then its going to be 1.very expensive and 2.not soo safe and therefore have soo many regulations on it that even some people that can afford it wont really care to go though the process of being able to pilot these things.

computers were like that, when they were first introduced very few people used them because they were expensive and confusing (not because of regulations). with a vehicle, its not the same, its going to be highly expensive and on top of that the government now gets to step in and regulate its use, put restrictions, limits, and so on.

i imagine a lot of people will just not care, say things like "i have a car, what do i need that for? everywhere i need to go i can get there in my car, im not going to pay for that! its not worth it..."

don't get me wrong, it would be really cool! i just don't think that i will get to see it, and if i do, i will see the start of it all. i will maybe tell my grandkids that when i was a boy we used cars that travel on the GROUND! and we had to use our hands and feet! to which they will reply, you mean like a babies toy? Very Happy