• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Fully Autonomous (Level 4) Vehicles on Roads 2020, say multiple industry reps

Status
Not open for further replies.

C0unter

Member
2020 seems a bit optimistic but its still exciting times ahead. Pretty apprehensive as well through since there is no real plan on how humanity is going to deal with mass unemployment from increased automation and refugee crisis from global warming.
 
I think the truck industry in particular will have a slower transition than we think. Shipping companies are still going to want a human inside the vehicle to guard shipments, for example. However, this likely requires less skill and could lead to weaker bargaining power by the unions.
 

Oppo

Member
i also suspect several municipalities will freak out when they lose their parking ticket revenue.
 

Kinitari

Black Canada Mafia
So, here's a thinker:

How will autonomous cars deal with fast food drive throughs?

I think a lot of industries will mutate when self driving cars hit their apex. I don't think it would even happen this way, but try picturing an inversion of services here - imagine a fleet of McDonalds vehicles that can make foodstuff inside of themselves automatically, are electrically powered and you could order like you can an uber. There are actually a lot of popular food-delivery apps that have sprung up in the last year in my city, and more and more frequently people get food delivered or they'll at least order before going to pick it up.

As technology continues to progress over the next 10 years in a plethora of different fields, it will combine with advances in self driving vehicles to reshape many industries, and create entirely new ones.
 

Soapbox Killer

Grand Nagus
Good for some, not so much for me. Plus I don't want some retrofitted autodrive attached to my classic 1989 Pontiac Sunbird. (I know, I just like driving)
 
This cannot come fast enough! Family trips eight or ten hours away will be so much easier now. Work all day. Eat dinner and load van with family and luggage. Put the seats back and fall asleep. Wake up at destination in morning. Fuck the airlines and their tiny seats with no legroom, extra charges for everything.
 

ezrarh

Member
If we want to reduce car usage and issues with car dependency then land use policies need to change along with this technology. I think having an automobile dominated transportation system and our land use policies is already disadvantageous for the poor. Will be interested to see how this will cater to everybody rather than those that can just afford it.
 

davepoobond

you can't put a price on sparks
we dont have horses anymore becase we buy cars , not subscribe to a service that allows us to use one,

ever heard of a lease?


also, the story can easily change to "we dont buy cars anymore because we subscribe to a service that allows us to use one when we want to"


We can go anywhere freely on any open road or road we pay to travel on. Who will own the car and decide your travel when things become autonomous subscribe to drive?

who owns any mass transit vehicle now? have you heard of services where you can rent a bike for an afternoon and put it back?

there are private and public options for mass transit.

Will car" companies" pay for the roads since the avg "user" is just paying to use a vehicle as a service and owns nothing?

the average user doesn't "pay for the roads" anymore than they would otherwise. most infrastructure comes from gas tax and other highway trust funds funded through other means regardless of whether or not you use the road
 

Neo C.

Member
I think the truck industry in particular will have a slower transition than we think. Shipping companies are still going to want a human inside the vehicle to guard shipments, for example. However, this likely requires less skill and could lead to weaker bargaining power by the unions.

It's going to be downgraded to a student job.
 

N.Domixis

Banned
We went from animal to humans to computers
Saratoga%2Bcarriage.jpg

es_in_elwood_1_e.jpg

Toyota-Prius-Google-Autonomous.jpg

so awesome.

When you actualy think about it here is how cars have evolved and will evolve into.
humans/animals
humans
humans/computers
computers
computers/aliens
aliens
 
i also suspect several municipalities will freak out when they lose their parking ticket revenue.

I don't know if anyone has actually crunched the numbers yet, but the prevailing theory is revenue from tickets will be made up by not having to spend as much on enforcement and accident clean up.
 
i also suspect several municipalities will freak out when they lose their parking ticket revenue.

Not to mention police departments losing all their revenue from traffic violations, speeding, etc. All the automated photo radars will become useless. This is going to reshape society on such a large level.

Let's name all the people that will go out of a job once this happens:

- Professional drivers of all kinds (cabs, bus, trucks, etc.)
- Traffic officers.
- Parking officers.
- Car insurance companies. (They will have to severely downsize. They'll only have to cover theft, vandalism, etc.)
- Valets
- ...
 

Minus_Me

Member
I don't know if anyone has actually crunched the numbers yet, but the prevailing theory is revenue from tickets will be made up by not having to spend as much on enforcement and accident clean up.

Tons of that money just goes into the general public coffer. City budgets would feel that loss.
 

Soapbox Killer

Grand Nagus
I don't know if anyone has actually crunched the numbers yet, but the prevailing theory is revenue from tickets will be made up by not having to spend as much on enforcement and accident clean up.


Not in Philadelphia. Those bastards will find a way

"Your cars static IP address not registered with city. FINE $75"
 

N.Domixis

Banned
Not to mention police departments losing all their revenue from traffic violations, speeding, etc. This is going to reshape society on such a large level.

Let's name all the people that will go out of a job once this happens:

- Professional drivers of all kinds (cabs, bus, trucks, etc.)
- Traffic officers.
- Parking officers.
- Car insurance companies. (They will have to severely downsize. They'll only have to cover theft, vandalism, etc.)
- Valets
- ...

mail man vans
school buses
ambulances
ice cream trucks
milk man trucks
garbage trucks
Nascar

its going to be the next big change in our society.
 

davepoobond

you can't put a price on sparks
mail man vans
school buses
ambulances
ice cream trucks
milk man trucks
garbage trucks
Nascar

its going to be the next big change in our society.

i think you still need someone to deliver the mail.


but NASCAR would be funny. watching drones race.
 

Tesseract

Banned
good, we need to destroy as many jobs as possible

bus drivers, taxis, so on all the way up to pilots

destroy it all
 

Mechazawa

Member
You can buy a cheap(ish) ford now that'll parallel park itself probably better than you can.

I guess the parking space thing isn't too much of a reach given that self driving cars are capable of detecting lanes.

But I still stand by my "how the hell do these things recognize what is a suitable entrance into a parking lot/garage is" question.
 

Kinitari

Black Canada Mafia
I guess the parking space thing isn't too much of a reach given that self driving cars are capable of detecting lanes.

But I still stand by my "how the hell do these things recognize what is a suitable entrance into a parking lot/garage is" question.

They generally make 3 dimensional maps of their environments, and can differentiate between buildings, ground, signs, people, different vehicle types - etc.

Here's a video from nvidia on how they did it with their machines/sensors (check out the accuracy of the sensors by the construction of a 3d dot matrix that represents the foliage of trees)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2rq_8yV0p8
 

rjinaz

Member
This cannot come fast enough! Family trips eight or ten hours away will be so much easier now. Work all day. Eat dinner and load van with family and luggage. Put the seats back and fall asleep. Wake up at destination in morning. Fuck the airlines and their tiny seats with no legroom, extra charges for everything.

This is actually amusing to think about. I bet overnight driving skyrockets. It will be the best time to travel for long trips across the country. It's when I'd travel.
 

Pagusas

Elden Member
This is actually amusing to think about. I bet overnight driving skyrockets. It will be the best time to travel for long trips across the country. It's when I'd travel.

That will depend on it being legal to sleep while behind the wheel of a self driving car. Didn't California just pass a law saying all self driving car drivers must keep their hands on the wheel and take full responsibility for any crashes?
 

Kinitari

Black Canada Mafia
That will depend on it being legal to sleep while behind the wheel of a self driving car. Didn't California just pass a law saying all self driving car drivers must keep their hands on the wheel and take full responsibility for any crashes?

Not exactly - California proposed some measures for their commercial legalization of self driving cars initiative - and it included that clause. However, they also basically said "this isn't a law or anything yet, we're want to discuss it with technical experts first".

The Obama administration is also in the process of creating a federal system, which would probably supercede any state law to this effect, as it seems to be gunning to federally legalize unmanned autonomous transport.
 

Falcs

Banned
It's too bad where I live (Australia) we'll probably be 7 years behind the rest of the world, and I highly doubt this will actually be the norm by 2020.
I would LOVE to be wrong. I cannot wait to have autonomous cars. But sadly, I've accepted that I'll have to put up with shit drivers my whole life.
 

Kinitari

Black Canada Mafia
Bit of a bump:

http://www.engadget.com/2016/01/19/gm-buys-sidecar/

They won't say it out loud, but car makers are secretly terrified about what Uber will do to their business. That's why GM is buying up the remains of one of its rivals, Sidecar, in a deal worth somewhere close to $30 million. Bloomberg is reporting that the auto outfit has picked up the knowledge and IP of the service that struggled against its wealthier rivals like Lyft and Uber, shutting down last December. Most of the employees will be moving over to GM, although co-founder Sunil Paul isn't one of them.

GM isn't the only company that's looking to develop credible alternatives to Uber, although it's probably spending more money than its rivals. The firm recently threw $500 million at Lyft to gain an ownership share, and has started a joint project to build autonomous vehicles specifically for ride sharing. Ford and (Mercedes owner) Daimler are both working on their own alternatives, with the former building a minibus shuttle and the latter buying RideScout and mytaxi back in 2014.

Basically, it looks like car companies are seeing the writing on the wall - that self driving cars + uber might eventually mean fewer car sales, as subscription vehicle models make more and more sense. That's why they're basically buying up all non-uber car subscription models.
 

Ether_Snake

安安安安安安安安安安安安安安安
Established car markers will try to stop this, it would massively reduce the number of vehicles produced by at least 90%, probably even more.

We're talking about a future where car ownership pretty much no longer exists, where cars are almost always serving clients 24/7 rather than idling 23h a day if not more and wasting valuable city space.

Thankfully there's no stop to this process, can't stop progress in a connected world.
 

Lothars

Member
I don't think it's a bad thing but they need to offer places for people that want to manually drive either tracks whatever.

I still want to be able to manually drive maybe not all the time but driving is one of my favorite things.
 

Ether_Snake

安安安安安安安安安安安安安安安
I don't think it's a bad thing but they need to offer places for people that want to manually drive either tracks whatever.

I still want to be able to manually drive maybe not all the time but driving is one of my favorite things.

Yeah closed-circuit race tracks will be real popular. New hobby.
 
I must be a dinosaur, I enjoy driving, even while in a Ford Transit. I may have to out my OTR aspirations on hold though.

I just have so very many questions about this. There are too many variables. Will I be stopped 10 feet from my house because of a wayward pigeon in the road? How will this technology handle part degradation and maintenance, and failing sensors? What politicians in California are going to support this when they more fixated on mass transit?
 
Crazy how resistant some people are to a change that will literally save thousands of lives a year. The "but driving is fun!" excuse is the worst.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom