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I can think of half a dozen likely reasons. I'm not sure which one it is, or if all of them could alone be fatal to your idea. - Such vehicles would not be

I can think of half a dozen likely reasons. I'm not sure which one it is, or if all of them could alone be fatal to your idea. - Such vehicles would not be street legal. - They would not be safe for passengers. - They would be unable to carry the necessary payloads. - Most of the weight of a car is in the chassis anyway, not the body. Edit: at any rate, Google did do something like what you described at an earlier stage of testing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJnjuhBIhwc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJnjuhBIhwc They seem to be past that point, though.

ams6110 8y ago
In a modern car, the chassis and body are one and the same (unibody construction). Some cars do use plastic panels for non-structural parts. I would think another big reason though is that the handling and response of such a car would be very different from a real car. Stopping distances, acceleration, cornering, wind behavior, would all be different.
- jerf 8y ago
  I can easily believe in code that adjusts to the underlying vehicle's differences. It seems to me the real problem would be that A: You need the car to be on the real streets, so at a minimum, it must be street legal. B: You need it to be on all the streets, including highways and such, so we're at least up to a Smart car level of body. From there it really isn't that great a leap to a full sedan chassis. Would one of those little cars even have room for all the requisite sensors? Even if they did, sedans are just so much more useful. So it seems like the minimum practical car to test with is a sedan, and that's enough to kill people. Even the little Smart cars are plenty enough to kill people.
  - cimmanom 8y ago
    At least a smart car would be less likely to kill than an SUV.
alehul 8y ago
> Such vehicles would not be street legal. On slow roads, I've often seen them driven around summer communities. It would be silly for the government to not allow this. > They would not be safe for passengers. The above commenter pointed out "enough trust for 2 tons of metal and a passenger," so I'm assuming the idea is that they don't have a passenger in them at this stage. Additionally, regardless of whether an SUV is safer for the individual behind the wheel, shouldn't it be that individual accepting the risk and not a random pedestrian who didn't consent to this experiment? > They would be unable to carry the necessary payloads. Do they really carry payloads at this stage? Isn't the focus on building a safe autonomous system? > Most of the weight of a car is in the chassis anyway, not the body. The golf carts are 1/8th to 1/4th the weight of a crossover, for example. The substantial issue I'd guess would be the differences in all aspects of performance between a real car and a golf cart, but at this stage companies like Uber should clearly just be testing detection of pedestrians et al.
- sdhgaiojfsa 8y ago
  At any rate, Google did do something like what that person described for a few years. Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJnjuhBIhwc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJnjuhBIhwc That stage of testing is past, though.
  - alehul 8y ago
    Thanks for the link! It seems reasonable that there should be some regulation on "x miles per incident" before autonomous vehicle companies are allowed to move forward from carts to full-sized cars. Based on the stats that have been posted on HN, Google is very safe. Uber, on the other hand, is not.

ams6110 8y ago

In a modern car, the chassis and body are one and the same (unibody construction). Some cars do use plastic panels for non-structural parts. I would think another big reason though is that the handling and response of such a car would be very different from a real car. Stopping distances, acceleration, cornering, wind behavior, would all be different.

jerf 8y ago
I can easily believe in code that adjusts to the underlying vehicle's differences. It seems to me the real problem would be that A: You need the car to be on the real streets, so at a minimum, it must be street legal. B: You need it to be on all the streets, including highways and such, so we're at least up to a Smart car level of body. From there it really isn't that great a leap to a full sedan chassis. Would one of those little cars even have room for all the requisite sensors? Even if they did, sedans are just so much more useful. So it seems like the minimum practical car to test with is a sedan, and that's enough to kill people. Even the little Smart cars are plenty enough to kill people.
- cimmanom 8y ago
  At least a smart car would be less likely to kill than an SUV.

alehul 8y ago

> Such vehicles would not be street legal. On slow roads, I've often seen them driven around summer communities. It would be silly for the government to not allow this. > They would not be safe for passengers. The above commenter pointed out "enough trust for 2 tons of metal and a passenger," so I'm assuming the idea is that they don't have a passenger in them at this stage. Additionally, regardless of whether an SUV is safer for the individual behind the wheel, shouldn't it be that individual accepting the risk and not a random pedestrian who didn't consent to this experiment? > They would be unable to carry the necessary payloads. Do they really carry payloads at this stage? Isn't the focus on building a safe autonomous system? > Most of the weight of a car is in the chassis anyway, not the body. The golf carts are 1/8th to 1/4th the weight of a crossover, for example. The substantial issue I'd guess would be the differences in all aspects of performance between a real car and a golf cart, but at this stage companies like Uber should clearly just be testing detection of pedestrians et al.

sdhgaiojfsa 8y ago
At any rate, Google did do something like what that person described for a few years. Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJnjuhBIhwc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJnjuhBIhwc That stage of testing is past, though.
- alehul 8y ago
  Thanks for the link! It seems reasonable that there should be some regulation on "x miles per incident" before autonomous vehicle companies are allowed to move forward from carts to full-sized cars. Based on the stats that have been posted on HN, Google is very safe. Uber, on the other hand, is not.