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I would love nothing more than for Bay Area congestion to be solved by self-driving cars, but I take this announcement with a grain of salt because it lacks any
by primitivesuave 10y ago
I would love nothing more than for Bay Area congestion to be solved by self-driving cars, but I take this announcement with a grain of salt because it lacks any mention of liabilities and regulatory hurdles. Unless the management can answer the difficult questions, unforeseen difficulties likely await anyone who installs this device in their car. Insurance companies may refuse to cover accidents caused by the device, and automakers may even void the warranty if there is any demonstrable link between self-driving and increased engine wear & tear.
I am fairly confident that self-driving will proliferate a feature offered by the automaker at the time of purchase, just as adaptive cruise control and lane assist is becoming commonplace right now. It may be difficult to convince an average consumer to rig up a device in their car that isn't supported by their automaker.
- uxcn 10y agoAutonomous driving isn't really regulated though. Google's Chauffeur is the only autonomous software I'm aware has even passed a state driving test.
- primitivesuave 10y agoThat's a good point, although what I'm more concerned with is industry pushback against third-party self-driving upgrades, similar to how ECU tampering voids the warranty of most cars.
- uxcn 10y agoAutonomous software is a lot more complex than the software the ECU uses (which is still complex), so there may be a genuine argument against allowing people to modify cars not designed for autonomous driving. It definitely raises a really serious liability question. Even with those systems working exactly as designed, there are some serious liability questions I don't think anyone has really answered yet.
- mikeash 10y agoIt's a driver assistance feature, meant to be roughly on par with Tesla's Autopilot. There are no regulatory hurdles to clear here, as the tens of thousands of Teslas on the road can attest. Certainly there are huge regulatory and liability issues to address before full autonomy, but that's not what this is about.
- gambiting 10y ago>>I would love nothing more than for Bay Area congestion to be solved by self-driving cars How would it do that though? I'm still going to take my car to work, except that it will do all the driving. Unless you are talking about theoretical, far off in the future idea that we will remove all traffic lights and speed limits because autonomous cars will handle intersections and speeds much better than humans?
- thescriptkiddie 10y agoI don't think self driving cars will solve congestion. If anything, they will increase congestion by making driving less inconvenient.