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I really wonder how all this unspoken communication is going to change with self-driving cars. On the German Autobahn, the amount of observing and consideratio
by kaybe 9y ago
I really wonder how all this unspoken communication is going to change with self-driving cars.
On the German Autobahn, the amount of observing and consideration is very high, and if people are new it can be very stressful. You basically have to keep in mind everyone around you, their respective speeds, potential moves and how a move from you will change their options and responses.
One common situation is when you come up behind a slow car on your lane, but the lane to the left (where you need to go to keep your current speed and overtake) has somebody coming up fast from the back. If you move there, you might force that person to brake. Now, they obviously see your situation and might slow down a little or speed up, so you can adjust your speed (speed up and pull into the left lane or lay off the gas and delay switching just long enough to let them pass). If there is another left lane they might move over to that too if possible. In this case, the communication is mostly in those small changes in speed that tell you their intention.
Now how should I read an automatic car? It's going to be very chaotic before we figure it out.
- robotresearcher 9y agoOne option is that the cars explicitly communicate, and make a joint plan that minimizes acceleration, danger and unexpectedness. Of course a legacy non-robot car is a special case the robots have to think about carefully. The robots will give you similar signals to those given by human drivers now. These have been active areas of research for a while now.
- olivermarks 9y agoI worry that driving is the last continuous attention/frequently applied skill thing humans do, and that they will quickly deskill when they assume that a machine will automatically take them where they want to go.
- ghostbrainalpha 9y agoI worry about the transition as well. Hopefully it won't be as bad as you are thinking if all the car AI's make the same choices in every situation. That way you can get a much better feel for how those cars operate. In reality I think your concern, shared by others will result in cars that act a lot more like buses. Almost always in the slow lane. Going a very safe speed. Leaving the faster/passing lanes to more dangerous humans. The autonomous cars may soon be required to have visible markings so that they are easy to tell apart as well. Perhaps the color yellow could be reserved for them? These changes will still be an adjustment, but hopefully one that doesn't result in a major number of accidents.