6MT vs DSG.. well..

[madmadS4]

No I'm not going there. But this is really depressing:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/science/10google.html

[zerinA4]

Times are changing my friend...

[StratJohn]

People are so up in arms over this. I see it like this:

1. You're an enthusiast. You probably like driving your car. Therefore you take interest in doing it well. You, sir, certainly do not want the future of cars to be self-driving, for you are a purist.
2. You are not the above definition. You take pride in doing a good job, and play by the rules. You are leery of computers doing all the work, because machines can fail.
3. You are neither of the above. You hate driving. Cars are just things for moving other things around in. You talk on the phone while driving. Eat. Make up. Multitask. You love that new fords have facebook and twitter built in. You, are not driving your car, but merely pointing it poorly towards your final destination and hoping for the best along the way.

Driverless car technology will one day, solve for #3. That being said, #3 is the demographic most responsible for accidents and damage to other vehicles. A vehicle that removes a shitty driver from the equation is safer in my mind.

People say, "there is no way a computer can react better than a human".
True I agree.

However, it will react predictably, and quickly.
Which is worse:
You're driving in front of a driverless car- in the rain, at night- You panic stop for an animal, and the computer car recognizes this and applies the brakes at maximum capacity. A crash is imminent- your car can stop faster. The computer car calculates that due to traffic density, there is no option to change lanes. It tightens seatbelts, preps to deploy airbags as the radar confirms that at its current deceleration, it will impact the car in .048 seconds.

You are lightly rear ended at 11mph. No one is hurt, but emergency is dispatched by default. Your car has slight damage. Traditional insurance rules apply. The computer car automatically sends information to its insurance company. A claims officer is dispatched. Within 20 minutes, things are handled.


or-

You're driving in front of a car driven by a 19yr old driver, at night, in the rain. You panic stop for an animal- the car behind you has one of the following:

Driver sees brakes, there is a slight delay as the brain registers this, but due to inexperience, driver stops the brakes full tilt, swerves, clips your car at an angle, and sends you into oncoming traffic. 4 cars are involved now. you've also been rear ended and involved in a head-on collision!

Or worse, Driver is texting, does not see brakes, piles into your ass at 50mph. Her vehicle is totalled, yours is totalled, you require medical care. Other driver is unconscious. You find your phone and make the emergency call.. you can figure the rest.


I think that is much more the statement FOR driverless cars, so long as I always have the option to drive. Failsafes and backups and whatever else will surely be in place.
Remember when you were a kid and like, the future was AWESOME? It still is, we just got old and crotchety about "back in the day" and whatnot. haha.

What is everyones take on it?

[NWS4Guy]

See also: I Robot, The Minority Report

Both have automated highways, but at least in I Robot, you can take over control and drive yourself (not to mention Will Smith has a kickass looking future Audi he drives in it). Let be honest, I think (in 50+ years) this will become more the norm. Right now freeways are clogged in large cities with people driving who do not communicate with each other, even using proper signals when changing lanes or turning.

In a future with at least partially robotic cars, or even "smart highways" you use your Nav to input your destination much like a pilot files a flight plan. From there your car will talk to the grid and computers will pre-map your entire route. As people upload their driving plans, the computer knows how many cars will be on what stretches of roads at what time, able to divert some to side streets to speed flow on the mainlines, the computers can synch stoplights accordingly to make sure all traffic flows at maximum efficiency (not to mention with less time stuck in gridlock and idling at lights where no one is coming the other way, much less fuel will be used by the same cars). A smart system like this could also easily help identify carpool buddies for you in order to lower the number of cars on the road by increasing up people per vehicle, who might not be going to the same destination, but are close enough that it doesn't matter, or perhaps even dropping someone off on the way.

There are other boons, like no longer needed divided highways, all lanes could be interchangable for direction depending on the traffic demand, imagine an 8 lane road where in morning rush hour, 6 lanes move from the burbs into the city, 2 lanes leaving the city - no center dividers are used, so that in the evening it swaps to allow 6 lanes OUT of the city and 2 in, depending on load demands. The same for large events like football games on a weekend, the lanes will be changed as needed for demand. Gone are the days of being stuck in gridlock on one side of the Jersey barrier watching almost no traffic using all those lanes going the other direction.

There will be some good times ahead overall, but I will definintely miss the independance of driving. I see it happening in city cores mainly at first, smaller towns and areas of open road between cities not much at all, those will be the last bastions of independent driving.

[PsYkHoTiK]

If it'll save me from getting ran off of the road by a sweet little old grandma, I'm all up for it... :)

[alexverve]

how about computer driven car (running Windows 7) decides to "reboot" or shut down due to glitch (say forced by hitting a giant pothole on BQE) sending a car into "unexpected acceleration" while the driver - 25 year old blonde who has not physicaly driven the car since she took driver test 7 years ago (who needs to drive since car can do it itself), was doing a make-up and texting, has no clue what to do (7 years u know...). car becomes a speeding train (cause it has to be a big SUV) and use your imagination to see the end result. :-)

[NWS4Guy]

how about computer driven car (running Windows 7) decides to "reboot" or shut down due to glitch (say forced by hitting a giant pothole on BQE) sending a car into "unexpected acceleration" while the driver - 25 year old blonde who has not physicaly driven the car since she took driver test 7 years ago (who needs to drive since car can do it itself), was doing a make-up and texting, has no clue what to do (7 years u know...). car becomes a speeding train (cause it has to be a big SUV) and use your imagination to see the end result. :-)

It's trading dangers really. You are adding dangers from losing control and removing the dangers of intoxicated, inattentive, bad, stupid drivers - which is the least dangerous versus the cost of implementation? Once a computer controller (or at least assisted at first) car becomes less cost prohibitive and is proven to be safer overall, it will start happening.

[zerinA4]

I suppose none of you have ever flown on a modern jetliner... it's almost ALL automated ;)

[CBRmatt600]

See also: I Robot, The Minority Report

Both have automated highways, but at least in I Robot, you can take over control and drive yourself (not to mention Will Smith has a kickass looking future Audi he drives in it). Let be honest, I think (in 50+ years) this will become more the norm. Right now freeways are clogged in large cities with people driving who do not communicate with each other, even using proper signals when changing lanes or turning.

In a future with at least partially robotic cars, or even "smart highways" you use your Nav to input your destination much like a pilot files a flight plan. From there your car will talk to the grid and computers will pre-map your entire route. As people upload their driving plans, the computer knows how many cars will be on what stretches of roads at what time, able to divert some to side streets to speed flow on the mainlines, the computers can synch stoplights accordingly to make sure all traffic flows at maximum efficiency (not to mention with less time stuck in gridlock and idling at lights where no one is coming the other way, much less fuel will be used by the same cars). A smart system like this could also easily help identify carpool buddies for you in order to lower the number of cars on the road by increasing up people per vehicle, who might not be going to the same destination, but are close enough that it doesn't matter, or perhaps even dropping someone off on the way.

There are other boons, like no longer needed divided highways, all lanes could be interchangable for direction depending on the traffic demand, imagine an 8 lane road where in morning rush hour, 6 lanes move from the burbs into the city, 2 lanes leaving the city - no center dividers are used, so that in the evening it swaps to allow 6 lanes OUT of the city and 2 in, depending on load demands. The same for large events like football games on a weekend, the lanes will be changed as needed for demand. Gone are the days of being stuck in gridlock on one side of the Jersey barrier watching almost no traffic using all those lanes going the other direction.

There will be some good times ahead overall, but I will definintely miss the independance of driving. I see it happening in city cores mainly at first, smaller towns and areas of open road between cities not much at all, those will be the last bastions of independent driving.

And then SkyNet becomes self-aware.....

[NWS4Guy]

Hence where a lot of my idea comes from - replace computer with air traffic control and it's the same idea (I even talked about filing a flight plan for driving) [;)]

[NWS4Guy]

And then SkyNet becomes self-aware.....

Yea, and crashes all our cars at once to enjoy global domination!

[CBRmatt600]

Yea, and crashes all our cars at once to enjoy global domination!

Honestly that would be a legitimate concern of mine (not the Terminator part obviously). I feel like the hacking opportunities would be plentiful, and the outcome disastrous. Imagine if someone got into the system linked to your car and decided to run you right off a bridge?

[madmadS4]

They can pry my steering wheel outta my cold dead hands

[StratJohn]

Imagine if someone got into the system linked to your car and decided to run you right off a bridge?...



...
They can pry my steering wheel outta my cold dead hands

I won't give it up. The masses, however.. have already.

[Chestlock]

They can pry my steering wheel outta my cold dead hands

Attaboy, let's start the NDA!

[madmadS4]

yeah I thought I ripped off that line from somewhere....

[AwdOwns]

Just another form of control thats marketed as a convenience.

Like we really need another thing to Depend on that will fail.

Next up is a toilet that wipes your ass for you.

Lazy ass americans.

[NWS4Guy]

Excatly. In fact, why are you using a computer instead of just a stone tablet? Or a car instead of a horse? Wait that would be a convenience too, better walk to be safe.