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Volvo's Self Driving Pilot in Hands of Customers

108 points by Lind5 10y ago

Animats 10y ago
"When Volvo does sell a self-driving car, it will accept full legal responsibility for any accidents that may come. And that is reasonable, because we told the customer he could do something else while the car drives itself.” Yes.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- Hortinstein 10y ago
  does this mean you can be drunk in the car?
  - throwaway7767 10y ago
    I wouldn't call a car self-driving if the occupant needs to be involved. Unfortunately marketing has figured out that "self-driving car" is the next cool thing, so they're rebranding driving assist technologies as "self-driving". (I am aware of the definition of different "levels" of self-driving cars; from my perspective, that's marketing. Either the car drives itself, or it does not.)
  - squeaky-clean 10y ago
    It's fine to get on a bus or get in a taxi while drunk, I don't see any reason a 100% autonomous car should be any different... in theory. The dilemma here is can the person take control of the vehicle? Being able to get hammered, and then pass out in the back seat of your car while it drives you home is the dream. But in the slim chance it does get into an accident, there needs to be a way to prove you really were blacked out in the backseat, and the car crashed on its own. And not that you drunkenly grabbed the wheel and tried to do a u-turn to McDonald's.
protomyth 10y ago
> Take the company’s latest active safety feature, an emergency steering system in the 2017 S90 that senses if the car’s about to leave the road and takes control. I wonder what happens if I am actually stearing for the ditch?
- semi-extrinsic 10y ago
  This is a great point. Imagine if you're driving manually going 20 on slippery ice, and a child slips and falls off the pavement into the road in front of you. The car, for whatever reason, does not "see" the child. You decide you don't have enough stopping distance, so your response is to steer the car off the road or into another car. But then some "safety feature" decides to stop you from doing that, and hits the child instead. The fallout would probably result in a multi-decade setback for (semi-)autonomous cars.
  - Johnny555 10y ago
    Of course, the chances of such a clear-cut moral dilemma are likely worse than the chances of winning the lottery. Besides, if the ice is so slippery that you can't stop, it's likely too slippery to steer off the road. There are very few legitimate reasons for someone to purposely steer off the road at highway speeds, but many reasons for the car to prevent it.
    - nitrogen 10y ago
      Besides, if the ice is so slippery that you can't stop, it's likely too slippery to steer off the road. Have you driven on a slippery road? It's much easier to steer than to stop. That is why cars have ABS, for example.
    - harperlee 10y ago
      Well, lottery is won several times per week :) it doesn't have to affect you directly to cause a general population concern, multimillion dollar suits, and a setback in the autonomous driving industry.
  - 10y ago
throwaway6497 10y ago
It is really fascinating to see the self-driving car space. I have been assuming that Google is way ahead of everyone else, and that other tech companies literally didn't stand a chance including Apple. If traditional car companies are not too far behind Google, and are able to confidently compete in this space, then Apple definitely has a chance to compete in this space.
- kuzmin 10y ago
  It's actually quite amazing how much the self-driving car hype is focused around Google and Tesla. This thread has been up for four hours and only has 6 comments, meanwhile the submission about Tesla has over 200 comments (!)
  - aluhut 10y ago
    To be fair, the Tesla submission covers an recent rare event while this here is more of general information about things that will happen in the future. Just this is enough to cover for the amount of comments. There is a lot to discuss.
  - jaimex2 10y ago
    Because the Tesla one isn't just words. I read up till "They plan to..."
    - dosshell 10y ago
      "Plan to" as in they will do it if nothing very strange happens. The cars are currently driving around here in Gothenburg with Volvo employees behind the wheels. The cars will however only work for some well tested roads, eg. the big transit roads around the city.
- sien 10y ago
  When self-driving cars become a reality over the next 10 years it's probably going to reduce the number of cars sold massively. Many or most adults in the developed world currently own a car. If you can share them even between, say 3 people the number of cars required will plummet. There are credible predictions around as well that even say up to 10 people might be able to share a car. There is already over capacity in car production globally. Self-driving cars are likely to drive that even further. It's not a good market for a company that isn't in the game to be going in to. Google are different because they seem to be selling the technology to enable other manufacturers to sell self-driving cars.
d99kris 10y ago
I'm really impressed of what the team has achieved. I worked with Erik back in 2006-2007 and he's a very smart guy. Back then the team working on "active safety" was quite small, and the company (under Ford) was not given a lot of R&D budget, so I did not expect them reaching this point within 10 years. But many things have happened since.
dosshell 10y ago
This is Volvo's official information page (including a promotion video): http://www.volvocars.com/au/about/innovations/intellisafe/autopilot http://www.volvocars.com/au/about/innovations/intellisafe/au...

108 points by Lind5 10y ago

"When Volvo does sell a self-driving car, it will accept full legal responsibility for any accidents that may come. And that is reasonable, because we told the customer he could do something else while the car drives itself.” Yes.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
Hortinstein 10y ago
does this mean you can be drunk in the car?
- throwaway7767 10y ago
  I wouldn't call a car self-driving if the occupant needs to be involved. Unfortunately marketing has figured out that "self-driving car" is the next cool thing, so they're rebranding driving assist technologies as "self-driving". (I am aware of the definition of different "levels" of self-driving cars; from my perspective, that's marketing. Either the car drives itself, or it does not.)
- squeaky-clean 10y ago
  It's fine to get on a bus or get in a taxi while drunk, I don't see any reason a 100% autonomous car should be any different... in theory. The dilemma here is can the person take control of the vehicle? Being able to get hammered, and then pass out in the back seat of your car while it drives you home is the dream. But in the slim chance it does get into an accident, there needs to be a way to prove you really were blacked out in the backseat, and the car crashed on its own. And not that you drunkenly grabbed the wheel and tried to do a u-turn to McDonald's.

protomyth 10y ago

> Take the company’s latest active safety feature, an emergency steering system in the 2017 S90 that senses if the car’s about to leave the road and takes control. I wonder what happens if I am actually stearing for the ditch?

semi-extrinsic 10y ago
This is a great point. Imagine if you're driving manually going 20 on slippery ice, and a child slips and falls off the pavement into the road in front of you. The car, for whatever reason, does not "see" the child. You decide you don't have enough stopping distance, so your response is to steer the car off the road or into another car. But then some "safety feature" decides to stop you from doing that, and hits the child instead. The fallout would probably result in a multi-decade setback for (semi-)autonomous cars.
- Johnny555 10y ago
  Of course, the chances of such a clear-cut moral dilemma are likely worse than the chances of winning the lottery. Besides, if the ice is so slippery that you can't stop, it's likely too slippery to steer off the road. There are very few legitimate reasons for someone to purposely steer off the road at highway speeds, but many reasons for the car to prevent it.
  - nitrogen 10y ago
    Besides, if the ice is so slippery that you can't stop, it's likely too slippery to steer off the road. Have you driven on a slippery road? It's much easier to steer than to stop. That is why cars have ABS, for example.
  - harperlee 10y ago
    Well, lottery is won several times per week :) it doesn't have to affect you directly to cause a general population concern, multimillion dollar suits, and a setback in the autonomous driving industry.
- 10y ago

throwaway6497 10y ago

It is really fascinating to see the self-driving car space. I have been assuming that Google is way ahead of everyone else, and that other tech companies literally didn't stand a chance including Apple. If traditional car companies are not too far behind Google, and are able to confidently compete in this space, then Apple definitely has a chance to compete in this space.

kuzmin 10y ago
It's actually quite amazing how much the self-driving car hype is focused around Google and Tesla. This thread has been up for four hours and only has 6 comments, meanwhile the submission about Tesla has over 200 comments (!)
- aluhut 10y ago
  To be fair, the Tesla submission covers an recent rare event while this here is more of general information about things that will happen in the future. Just this is enough to cover for the amount of comments. There is a lot to discuss.
- jaimex2 10y ago
  Because the Tesla one isn't just words. I read up till "They plan to..."
  - dosshell 10y ago
    "Plan to" as in they will do it if nothing very strange happens. The cars are currently driving around here in Gothenburg with Volvo employees behind the wheels. The cars will however only work for some well tested roads, eg. the big transit roads around the city.
sien 10y ago
When self-driving cars become a reality over the next 10 years it's probably going to reduce the number of cars sold massively. Many or most adults in the developed world currently own a car. If you can share them even between, say 3 people the number of cars required will plummet. There are credible predictions around as well that even say up to 10 people might be able to share a car. There is already over capacity in car production globally. Self-driving cars are likely to drive that even further. It's not a good market for a company that isn't in the game to be going in to. Google are different because they seem to be selling the technology to enable other manufacturers to sell self-driving cars.

d99kris 10y ago

I'm really impressed of what the team has achieved. I worked with Erik back in 2006-2007 and he's a very smart guy. Back then the team working on "active safety" was quite small, and the company (under Ford) was not given a lot of R&D budget, so I did not expect them reaching this point within 10 years. But many things have happened since.

dosshell 10y ago

This is Volvo's official information page (including a promotion video): http://www.volvocars.com/au/about/innovations/intellisafe/autopilot http://www.volvocars.com/au/about/innovations/intellisafe/au...