4 ms·

Humans can get better at driving. Instructional campaigns, assistive technology, art, these things can all make ya better.

adrianN 9y ago
Sure, but when you fix a bug in the driving software you deploy it to all cars simultaneously. It's harder to teach all humans about a corner case you encountered only a couple of times.
- ocdtrekkie 9y ago
  Similarly, all your cars can decide slamming into a wall at full speed is a good idea; they all run the same software.
- erikpukinskis 9y ago
  In 2018 it is still easier to teach the humans as a point of fact.
gboudrias 9y ago
Ok but, isn't it fair to assume we're already doing everything we can in that regard? There's only so much energy we as a society can invest in making better drivers. AI seems to have no limit to speak of.
TeMPOraL 9y ago
Ridiculously expensive for only a marginal improvement, and then people still have their hard wetware limits of concentration and reaction time. Machines have orders of magnitude better reaction time, are always 100% focused, and on aggregate, are much cheaper to teach.
- joe_the_user 9y ago
  If society makes driving safety a priority, it can be made really, really safe. For example, school buses are the safest mode of transportation of any kind whatsoever in the US. Millions of kids ride naturally millions of miles per week and fatalities per year are usually in the single or double digits. Professional drivers, professionally maintained equipment and set procedures really are enough. Most accidents happen as some combination of people in bad mental states, equipment in bad conditions and bad stuff like weather. Remove that and driving is something people are pretty reliable at doing - especially, people don't really need faster reaction time 99% if they drive sensibly. http://www.nsc.org/learn/safety-knowledge/Pages/news-and-resources-school-bus-safety-rules.aspx http://www.nsc.org/learn/safety-knowledge/Pages/news-and-res...
  - ocdtrekkie 9y ago
    School buses are also more or less a long tank. They are built like rolling fortresses, they weigh a lot, and they are going to "win" any collision with anything less than a train most of the time. (You do not need the kids to wear seatbelts because, again... really nothing is going to stop that bus.) I saw an the remnants of an accident between a car and a school bus once. The car was smashed to bits. The bus did not look like it had been hit. This, of course, doesn't scale. If everyone drove buses then buses would not be as safe. And let's not even talk about gas mileage...
    - TeMPOraL 9y ago
      I don't think GP's point is really about buses. To quote: > Professional drivers, professionally maintained equipment and set procedures really are enough. There is something to that. We let people drive cars after close to zero training (something I personally find to be completely ridiculous, but the world is what it is...), and then we let them drive without any direct consequences of not paying attention (penalties for breaking traffic laws are absurdly low, and enforcement way too lenient). For the other extreme, compare with professional pilots. That said, I feel that getting all cars self-driving will be much easier to achieve than restructuring society around professional driving only, or training every driver properly and giving them appropriate incentives.
- YeGoblynQueenne 9y ago
  Reaction times is not all you need to drive safely though. You also need situational awareness, which means an understanding of your environment. Which machines can clearly not do at all, yet. Until AI can develop an understanding of the world that is on par with that of humans, it will remain unable to tackle the breadth and variety of situations that humans can.

adrianN 9y ago

Sure, but when you fix a bug in the driving software you deploy it to all cars simultaneously. It's harder to teach all humans about a corner case you encountered only a couple of times.

ocdtrekkie 9y ago
Similarly, all your cars can decide slamming into a wall at full speed is a good idea; they all run the same software.
erikpukinskis 9y ago
In 2018 it is still easier to teach the humans as a point of fact.

gboudrias 9y ago

Ok but, isn't it fair to assume we're already doing everything we can in that regard? There's only so much energy we as a society can invest in making better drivers. AI seems to have no limit to speak of.

TeMPOraL 9y ago

Ridiculously expensive for only a marginal improvement, and then people still have their hard wetware limits of concentration and reaction time. Machines have orders of magnitude better reaction time, are always 100% focused, and on aggregate, are much cheaper to teach.

joe_the_user 9y ago
If society makes driving safety a priority, it can be made really, really safe. For example, school buses are the safest mode of transportation of any kind whatsoever in the US. Millions of kids ride naturally millions of miles per week and fatalities per year are usually in the single or double digits. Professional drivers, professionally maintained equipment and set procedures really are enough. Most accidents happen as some combination of people in bad mental states, equipment in bad conditions and bad stuff like weather. Remove that and driving is something people are pretty reliable at doing - especially, people don't really need faster reaction time 99% if they drive sensibly. http://www.nsc.org/learn/safety-knowledge/Pages/news-and-resources-school-bus-safety-rules.aspx http://www.nsc.org/learn/safety-knowledge/Pages/news-and-res...
- ocdtrekkie 9y ago
  School buses are also more or less a long tank. They are built like rolling fortresses, they weigh a lot, and they are going to "win" any collision with anything less than a train most of the time. (You do not need the kids to wear seatbelts because, again... really nothing is going to stop that bus.) I saw an the remnants of an accident between a car and a school bus once. The car was smashed to bits. The bus did not look like it had been hit. This, of course, doesn't scale. If everyone drove buses then buses would not be as safe. And let's not even talk about gas mileage...
  - TeMPOraL 9y ago
    I don't think GP's point is really about buses. To quote: > Professional drivers, professionally maintained equipment and set procedures really are enough. There is something to that. We let people drive cars after close to zero training (something I personally find to be completely ridiculous, but the world is what it is...), and then we let them drive without any direct consequences of not paying attention (penalties for breaking traffic laws are absurdly low, and enforcement way too lenient). For the other extreme, compare with professional pilots. That said, I feel that getting all cars self-driving will be much easier to achieve than restructuring society around professional driving only, or training every driver properly and giving them appropriate incentives.
YeGoblynQueenne 9y ago
Reaction times is not all you need to drive safely though. You also need situational awareness, which means an understanding of your environment. Which machines can clearly not do at all, yet. Until AI can develop an understanding of the world that is on par with that of humans, it will remain unable to tackle the breadth and variety of situations that humans can.