15 ms·

Well as someone who uses the motorway to go to and fro from work everyday; I welcome these 'driverless' lorries, as the human lorry drivers really do not know w

Well as someone who uses the motorway to go to and fro from work everyday; I welcome these 'driverless' lorries, as the human lorry drivers really do not know what they are doing most of the time and I have to constantly watch out for them.

mathnode 11y ago
Hopefully driverless lorries wont overtake each other on dual-carriage ways.
viraptor 11y ago
Is that really the case they don't know what they're doing, or more that they drive it all the time, so they know the limitations under normal conditions. (which of course can be fatal if anything unexpected happens, so an accident by definition) People do it all the time in all kind of jobs. They also do it with their own cars. (think how big the parking space had to be the first time you drove a car compared to space after a few years) Either way, automated lorries will be better. Unless the designers + lawmakers say: hey they don't get into accidents see, now we can improve throughput by letting them go faster...
- mvid 11y ago
  What's wrong with that?
  - viraptor 11y ago
    What's wrong with increasing the speed? I'd rather the speed stayed constant and accidents went down than see speed going up and accidents staying constant.
    - aianus 11y ago
      > I'd rather the speed stayed constant and accidents went down than see speed going up and accidents staying constant. By that logic we should all be driving cars around at horse speeds.
      - PhasmaFelis 11y ago
        Considering that car accidents are at least close to the #1 cause of preventable death in the western world...hell, maybe we should. There are lots of ways to handle reasonably high-speed, long-distance transit without giving every individual human or small handful of humans their own high-speed rolling projectile.
    - brbsix 11y ago
      It's important to consider whether increased speed does in fact cause accidents. Let's use data to determine an acceptable speed rather than arbitrarily decree "speed kills".
      - viraptor 11y ago
        Are you implying that there is a scenario where higher speeds could result in fewer accidents? How could that work at current driving speeds? All the data we have right now about people driving shows that speed indeed kills. You have to consider both automated truck crashing into and being crashed by somebody - and that's usually going to be a human driver.
        JupiterMoon 11y ago
        From my observations a major source of traffic clustering on 2 lane UK A and M roads is lorries overtaking each other. This seems to happen because some lorries drive at 50 mph and others at 60 mph. If all lorries were to drive at precisely the same speed they would rarely have cause to leave the slow lane and clustering of cars would be reduced.
- TheSpiceIsLife 11y ago
  They could go slower. For long haul routes the truck could drive 24hrs straight, or longer, so driving slower could result in huge fuel savings while still getting to the destination on time. A car cruising on a highway at 50 mph (80 km/h) may require only 10 horsepower (7.5 kW) to overcome air drag, but that same car at 100 mph (160 km/h) requires 80 hp (60 kW).[1] 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_(physics)#Drag_at_high_velocity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_(physics)#Drag_at_high_ve...
  - eru 11y ago
    If you run them close together, you lower drag.
elcct 11y ago
But they are helping drivers not to fall asleep. At least thanks to them there is some action going on.
ascorbic 11y ago
Hopefully they can be programmed to not attempt to overtake another lorry on a hill, with a relative speed of less than 1 mph.
lmm 11y ago
As a cyclist using a main road I feel a lot safer around lorries than around cars. Their drivers tend to know what they're doing and give you plenty of room. For one incident that was entirely my fault the lorry driver slammed the brakes, got out of the cab, checked I was ok and gave me a cheery "don't do that mate, you'll die". Contrast that with car drivers who will speed off even after hitting you.
- IshKebab 11y ago
  Yeah it is different on the motorway though. It's much more boring driving and lorry drivers get tired, do other things, etc. I see them swerving a lot more than cars.
- JupiterMoon 11y ago
  This may be because their livelihood depends upon their driving licence.
the_ancient 11y ago
>and I have to constantly watch out for them. That is called defensive driving, and you should be doing that.....

mathnode 11y ago

Hopefully driverless lorries wont overtake each other on dual-carriage ways.

viraptor 11y ago

Is that really the case they don't know what they're doing, or more that they drive it all the time, so they know the limitations under normal conditions. (which of course can be fatal if anything unexpected happens, so an accident by definition) People do it all the time in all kind of jobs. They also do it with their own cars. (think how big the parking space had to be the first time you drove a car compared to space after a few years) Either way, automated lorries will be better. Unless the designers + lawmakers say: hey they don't get into accidents see, now we can improve throughput by letting them go faster...

mvid 11y ago
What's wrong with that?
- viraptor 11y ago
  What's wrong with increasing the speed? I'd rather the speed stayed constant and accidents went down than see speed going up and accidents staying constant.
  - aianus 11y ago
    > I'd rather the speed stayed constant and accidents went down than see speed going up and accidents staying constant. By that logic we should all be driving cars around at horse speeds.
    - PhasmaFelis 11y ago
      Considering that car accidents are at least close to the #1 cause of preventable death in the western world...hell, maybe we should. There are lots of ways to handle reasonably high-speed, long-distance transit without giving every individual human or small handful of humans their own high-speed rolling projectile.
  - brbsix 11y ago
    It's important to consider whether increased speed does in fact cause accidents. Let's use data to determine an acceptable speed rather than arbitrarily decree "speed kills".
    - viraptor 11y ago
      Are you implying that there is a scenario where higher speeds could result in fewer accidents? How could that work at current driving speeds? All the data we have right now about people driving shows that speed indeed kills. You have to consider both automated truck crashing into and being crashed by somebody - and that's usually going to be a human driver.
      - JupiterMoon 11y ago
        From my observations a major source of traffic clustering on 2 lane UK A and M roads is lorries overtaking each other. This seems to happen because some lorries drive at 50 mph and others at 60 mph. If all lorries were to drive at precisely the same speed they would rarely have cause to leave the slow lane and clustering of cars would be reduced.
TheSpiceIsLife 11y ago
They could go slower. For long haul routes the truck could drive 24hrs straight, or longer, so driving slower could result in huge fuel savings while still getting to the destination on time. A car cruising on a highway at 50 mph (80 km/h) may require only 10 horsepower (7.5 kW) to overcome air drag, but that same car at 100 mph (160 km/h) requires 80 hp (60 kW).[1] 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_(physics)#Drag_at_high_velocity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_(physics)#Drag_at_high_ve...
- eru 11y ago
  If you run them close together, you lower drag.

elcct 11y ago

But they are helping drivers not to fall asleep. At least thanks to them there is some action going on.

ascorbic 11y ago

Hopefully they can be programmed to not attempt to overtake another lorry on a hill, with a relative speed of less than 1 mph.

lmm 11y ago

As a cyclist using a main road I feel a lot safer around lorries than around cars. Their drivers tend to know what they're doing and give you plenty of room. For one incident that was entirely my fault the lorry driver slammed the brakes, got out of the cab, checked I was ok and gave me a cheery "don't do that mate, you'll die". Contrast that with car drivers who will speed off even after hitting you.

IshKebab 11y ago
Yeah it is different on the motorway though. It's much more boring driving and lorry drivers get tired, do other things, etc. I see them swerving a lot more than cars.
JupiterMoon 11y ago
This may be because their livelihood depends upon their driving licence.

the_ancient 11y ago

>and I have to constantly watch out for them. That is called defensive driving, and you should be doing that.....