Hands free driving

[Davidtav]

So apparently this is legal in certain roads in the UK. And Ford are releasing a car with the technology. Am I the only one a bit concerned about this?  Can this system adequately sense a motorcycle?  I don't know

 

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/ford/mustang-mach-e/359989/ford-bluecruise-uks-first-legal-hands-free-driving-tech-arrives

[Tiggie]

I am not going to talk about the safety issues etc as I haven't got the time/energy to look into it. What I did notice though is that it's a subscription service costing £17.99 a month!!

 

The world has gone subscription mad 

[KiwiBob]

Seeing as my satnav sometimes tries to send me down a road that doesn't exist I don't think I'll trust with a self driving car!

[manxie49]

Is this the same technology that was reportedly killing motorcyclists in the States, because the forward facing radar, or whatever it is, didn't recognise their presence till it was too late? 

[JRH]

2 hours ago, manxie49 said:

Is this the same technology that was reportedly killing motorcyclists in the States, because the forward facing radar, or whatever it is, didn't recognise their presence till it was too late? 

Hopefully not. In the States (think it was Tesla) they had forward facing radar for distance and camera to “see” the object. Then the radar was removed as a cost saving exercise. This then meant that though the camera could see the object it didn’t know how far away it was. This led it to think that a close motor bike with twin rear lights was a distant car. 
so the self driving car hits the bike and says “ sorry i didn’t see you”. 

[Davidtav]

2 hours ago, manxie49 said:

Is this the same technology that was reportedly killing motorcyclists in the States, because the forward facing radar, or whatever it is, didn't recognise their presence till it was too late? 

That is very much my concern. I don’t know anything about the technology so don’t know if it is safe or not. But I’m decidedly uneasy about its introduction to our heavily densely populated roads. 

[Guest]

I'm in two minds. Not sure how safe the tech is but am also aware there are many drivers I would happily see replaced by even the most basic self driving system. 

[Bender]

The standard of driving is now so bad by most humans I welcome it with open arms  

[dynax]

They should do the testing in Paris, a couple of weeks should do, and if it comes out with only a few fatalities  bring it on

 

#French lives matter

[keith1200rs]

2 hours ago, JRH said:

Hopefully not. In the States (think it was Tesla) they had forward facing radar for distance and camera to “see” the object. Then the radar was removed as a cost saving exercise. This then meant that though the camera could see the object it didn’t know how far away it was. This led it to think that a close motor bike with twin rear lights was a distant car. 
so the self driving car hits the bike and says “ sorry i didn’t see you”. 

Correct- Elon Musk thinks you don't need radar to judge distance  - cameras will do (NOT)

[Bender]

29 minutes ago, keith1200rs said:

Correct- Elon Musk thinks you don't need radar to judge distance  - cameras will do (NOT)

Why, we don't have radar,  technology is going to surpass us, it's not if its when. 

[keith1200rs]

1 hour ago, Bender said:

Why, we don't have radar,  technology is going to surpass us, it's not if its when. 

Our brains are far better at processing the information. One of the early deaths from a Tesla was when it didn't notice a truck side on. Radar would have helped and a brain without radar would have noticed it.

[Bender]

6 minutes ago, keith1200rs said:

Our brains are far better at processing the information. One of the early deaths from a Tesla was when it didn't notice a truck side on. Radar would have helped and a brain without radar would have noticed it.

They may be for now but they won't be in the future, you can't look forward, sideways and backwards at the same time  

 

Brains without radar hit things all the time. 

 

[Ronnie]

18 minutes ago, Bender said:

They may be for now but they won't be in the future, you can't look forward, sideways and backwards at the same time  

 

Brains without radar hit things all the time. 

 

I don't, and I don't have radar.

[Bender]

5 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

I don't, and I don't have radar.

But people do, driverless cars will also, it just needs to get to the point where they do it less than humans, which isn't a very high bar. 

 

Driverless cars won't drink and drive, won't txt and drive whilst not looking at the road, won't be shouting at kids, won't be putting makeup on etc etc etc

[Bender]

Another thing to remember with regards the tesla crashes that killed the bikers by rear ending them,  they all had a driver behind the wheel that is still supposed to be ready to take control of said vehicle same as over here. 

 

One of the drivers was described as driving whilst impaired. 

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

But will driverless cars still park across our drive every day on the school run? 

[Bender]

45 minutes ago, Mississippi Bullfrog said:

But will driverless cars still park across our drive every day on the school run? 

No they will be delivering amazon parcels on the side  

[Davidtav]

The thing is I’m sure there has been thousands of miles of testing taken place in all sorts of traffic scenarios. However, have they really included fast moving motorbikes flitting between rows of traffic?  Sometimes in an illegal fashion to be fair. But that is a real life situation. … don’t get me wrong. I agree it is the future. But I am worried there will be casualties of adopting early technology. And they might be motorcyclists … I would feel less uneasy if the results of testing programmes was publicly accessible. All I have seen are short articles saying it is happening. Probably one of the biggest changes ever in road usage. And I haven’t noticed much discussion about it at all, if any. 

[Bender]

13 hours ago, Davidtav said:

The thing is I’m sure there has been thousands of miles of testing taken place in all sorts of traffic scenarios. However, have they really included fast moving motorbikes flitting between rows of traffic?  Sometimes in an illegal fashion to be fair. But that is a real life situation. … don’t get me wrong. I agree it is the future. But I am worried there will be casualties of adopting early technology. And they might be motorcyclists … I would feel less uneasy if the results of testing programmes was publicly accessible. All I have seen are short articles saying it is happening. Probably one of the biggest changes ever in road usage. And I haven’t noticed much discussion about it at all, if any. 

Thing with tesla and hopefully other platforms, unlike humans, they learn collectively. 

[fredc]

They've figured out it's cheaper to pay for a few dead bodies than another year development

[Davidtav]

I know most folks think what I’m saying is a bit of a joke. But actually it isn’t. And it is a mystery to me

[Guest]

7 hours ago, Davidtav said:

I know most folks think what I’m saying is a bit of a joke. But actually it isn’t. And it is a mystery to me

There's already casualties in all these situations and to an extent we accept them. The question may become what level of casualties do we accept with self driving cars. The likelihood is it will be far fewer than with humans on the phone, drunk, high, tired, bored or distracted. 

[manxie49]

Here's another one to throw into the mix .... Although really, I can't see the fun in this 

 

[Davidtav]

4 hours ago, goat said:

There's already casualties in all these situations and to an extent we accept them. The question may become what level of casualties do we accept with self driving cars. The likelihood is it will be far fewer than with humans on the phone, drunk, high, tired, bored or distracted. 

I do get that point. And it may well be correct. But I think that we blithely accept this as fact. In my opinion there has been insufficient public scrutiny for such a major shift in road usage.