HAL-9000 flips an Uber Volvo SUV

[jimmy57]

Get a motorcycle...no autopilots here
[/quote]

Motorcycles will be a LOT safer once we have accident avoidance in large percentage of cars.

Side Note: A BIG issue with semi trucks owned by company pools is the auto-braking. Large pool carriers get cheaper insurance with auto-braking option fitted. When a car does that quick lane change over in front of a slower truck they just passed (most of these carrier pool trucks also have speed limits set a good bit below the expressway speed limits) it triggers auto-brake. If you look at the lower front bumper and see a spherical black gizmo you likely are looking at a truck with auto braking feature. Give those guys a bit more space. Some states have passed laws pushed by trucking industry to make it illegal to change lanes without enough clearance. This is a good idea anyway.
I noticed warning signs on roadways in Georgia a few weeks back when I was there for biz.

[matthew1]

Jimmy, you are correct. Human-driven car is at fault. http://autoweek.com/article/autonomous- ... zona-crash

[matthew1]

I can appreciate the prospect of fully autonomous vehicles. It will never be 'perfect'. But at the point human drivers can (by the numbers) be shown to be dramatically worse at instigating collisions then it's gold. I suspect the AI may already be there, if not, it will be soon. I have trouble genuinely appreciating/comprehending the raw computing power they're fitting on a 4"x8"x1" board (Nvidia P100) or uatx size server board (Intel Xeon Phi) which in 5-10 years will scale to a functional product size/price to a couple hundred dollars and probably about the size of a smart phone (10-20 Teraflops of computing power easily incorporated into onboard vehicle systems at no higher cost than current systems). The day when your insurance company objects to your wanting to 'drive yourself' is coming....

I think at that time the bottleneck will be in sensor distribution and type. We'll have this computer that's capable of making a trillion calculations a second, but not enough input (data points) to use it all. The data from a few dozen sensors will be child's play for that thing.

Networking vehicles together is where this sensor deficit will be overcome. If you can have every of the 1000 cars within 1km of you tell your car what they see, then things will be good. Until then, I don't trust autopilots run off of the input of a handful of visual and radar sensors. See the Tesla decapitation story for evidence of my distrust.

[mrbrian200]

The data from a few dozen sensors will be child's play for that thing.

For simple drivetrain management, sure - The current gen Bosch drivetrain management boxes built around the Infineon Tricore/Aurix microcontrollers probably don't begin to use the full capability of the controller which appears to spec around 0.6 Gflops (based on 2flops/cycle at 300MHZ clock speed). But these 12 or so data points are known. It's not trying to sort unknown data: it knows this is MAF, that is RPM etc. But try to differentiate and assign a 'threat level' between a deer, road sign, or a semi trailer spanned in front with a very limited amount of time to figure it out and determine the most appropriate course of action while accounting for varying conditions just may be pushing the envelope for a HPC/low end supercomputer.

Networking vehicles together is where this sensor deficit will be overcome. If you can have every of the 1000 cars within 1km of you tell your car what they see, then things will be good. Until then, I don't trust autopilots run off of the input of a handful of visual and radar sensors.

The auto and tech sectors will need to work with regulators to establish common compatible technology standards like was done with OBDII. Assuming at some point in the future these vehicles will also connect to some sort of public traffic infrastructure AI none of it is really feasible if we have varying incompatible technologies between makes/models/states/regions/countries.

[93Regina]

Side Note: A BIG issue with semi trucks owned by company pools is the auto-braking.

Big MaMa says, Automatic Emergency Braking for Trucks Not Ready for Prime Time

She suggests her setup is not in sync with ABS, as in trailer was jack-knifing.
======================================================

In any event, I'm not opposed to a safety feature like auto-brake, but I would like to have an on/off switch. This AM, I was driving in a foggy condition before sun came up, where deer are about...having auto-brake would have allowed a faster speed; and yes, that's how people will use it, for the speed. Just like air-bags, people were driving faster...

Mandatory autopilot, not in my lifetime. I've got a low mileage 1975-244 I'm going to restore for a daily driver, with either SU carbs, or EFI that I install.

[93Regina]

...I don't trust autopilots run off of the input of a handful of visual and radar sensors. See the Tesla decapitation story for evidence of my distrust.

"Despite the worries of skeptics, there have yet to be any serious accidents caused by self-driving vehicles (some people will probably reference the Tesla Autopilot fatality that we reported on last year, but that tech was more of an advanced cruise control [only 1 camera, etc] than a fully autonomous self-driving system, and thus not comparable)."
================================

Reuters provides more: “A human-driven vehicle ‘failed to yield’ to an Uber vehicle while making a turn, said Josie Montenegro, a spokeswoman for Tempe’s police department. The Uber car was in self-driving mode at the time of the crash. ‘The vehicles collided, causing the autonomous vehicle to roll onto its side,’ Montenegro said in an email. ‘There were no serious injuries.’

“A driver and an engineer were in the front seats of the Uber Volvo SUV at the time, a standard requirement for the self-driving cars. The back seat was unoccupied. A full police report on the crash is expected as early as the middle of this week, said Detective Lily Duran of the Tempe Police Department. She said the Uber vehicle was not at fault in the collision.”

[mrbrian200]

Mandatory autopilot, not in my lifetime. I've got a low mileage 1975-244 I'm going to restore for a daily driver, with either SU carbs, or EFI that I install.

Mandatory? Just to be on the road, not in our lifetimes, no. But I could fathom separate lanes like carpool and separated express lanes (like the express lanes on the Dan Ryan and Kennedy expressways in Chicago) running at faster speeds but governed by AI: autopilot enabled vehicles only or you can't be in there...in our lifetimes...quite possibly yes.

I could also fathom discounted insurance rates for equipped vehicles when they can show statistically lower accident rates compared to human control. At that point it will be considered a safety feature.

Current new vehicles equipped Autonomous Emergency Braking may already be making a difference. But as opposed to this accident which involved the UBER Volvo, these are collisions avoided. No police report. No injuries. People simply continue on their merry way. We're not going to hear about those... might be hundreds of rear end collisions negated per day already but we fixate on this 'one' caused by...ready for it...a human driver.

[93Regina]

Current new vehicles equipped Autonomous Emergency Braking may already be making a difference.

Yes, now you can text and drive, and talk while you drive...of course, banning cellphones, along with bigger traffic penalties could accomplish the same end.

13th May 2015 - Study Confirms High Effectiveness of Low Speed Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB)

The publication reported:

- that Low Speed AEB technology leads to a 38% reduction in real-world rear-end crashes;
- that there is no significant difference between urban and rural crash benefits;

Autonomous Emergency Braking is one of the more promising safety technologies that is becoming increasingly common on modern passenger cars. The low speed option normally consists of an automatic brake function that operates for speeds up to 30km/h or 50km/h. Previous studies have predicted significant expected benefits of AEB technology in low speed rear-end crashes but, so far, there has been little evidence that they really work.

The findings showed a 38 percent overall reduction in real-world, rear-end crashes for vehicles fitted with low speed AEB compared to a sample of equivalent vehicles with no AEB. There was no statistical difference found between urban (≤60km/h) and rural (>60km/h) speed zones.

[jimmy57]

I am a serious driver. I go when the light turns green. I drive in the right lane, move over to left and get back in right all with signals. I drive above posted speed any time I can. I do not find a car seat to be equal to being home on my couch enjoying family. My driving is done to get me to where I need to go and then get home again and spend the least amount of my life in transport. I also do all these things as safely as possible and do my best to anticipate what could happen.
I was and will always be a flat rate tech trying to find the way to get it done right and faster with fewest wasted motions and not get injured.
I fear the lost skills that all this technology will bring but I also see EVERY MINUTE I AM ON THE ROAD that few other drivers are as interested in driving as I am. They do not acknowledge that others are on the road. They do not have any idea of their vehicle capabilities and limitations. They NEVER purposely get their vehicle a bit out of control in order to know what that feels like and to be able to get it back in control. How many of you have children you have driver trained and have taken them to places where they get the vehicle out of control and then get it out of that skid? Do you have them slide on ice? Test for icy conditions by pushing brake to see if ABS activates to see if that roadway is glare ice?
I think the only salvation is technology because we have a pool of mediocre drivers and we have done nothing about it. I worry that age will decrease my skills and slow my response times. Pre-charged brakes and Emergency Brake Assist offsets that slow response. The vehicle applying brakes when I don't as I come up on a car that I have not noticed could save me from a wreck. I love old cars but when I get out of a 2017 XC90 and get into my older cars I can't help but to be aware of the advances made over time. BUT full autonomous is maybe taking it too far and likely will not be widespread for a LONG time. At least not usable in a high percentage of situations for long time.

[93Regina]

EVERY MINUTE I AM ON THE ROAD

On the flip side, I live in rural America, where one can drive for miles without seeing another vehicle. In fact, you could drive in opposing highway lane for miles, and not hit a vehicle, especially on a Sunday morning. Most accidents out here tend to be one vehicle accidents...one vehicle driving off the road...not uncommon for those who drink/drive.

I'm not opposed to auto-braking, or Interstate auto-pilots, but I want the option to flip on/off.


In higher density traffic, I'm fully aware of roadway jerks, and amateur drivers. But, US driving standards are relaxed when compared to German standards.

German drivers are especially good because of a strict licensing test system - To get a license in Germany, you are required to take tons of driving lessons, including several where you're taken on the actual Autobahn and put into real, high-speed traffic. Drivers must receive basic first-aid training, and on top of that, you still have an incredibly difficult multiple choice exam and the road test.

All of this can take up to six months to finish up, if it's all done successfully, and it could cost over $2000.