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Have they tested it in the rain? Have they tested it in the snow? Have they tested it driving on ice? Does it know when its fuel gets low? Can it tell when

by mcantor 16y ago

Have they tested it in the rain? Have they tested it in the snow? Have they tested it driving on ice? Does it know when its fuel gets low? Can it tell when a head gasket blows and the engine is overheating? Have they driven it on the highway? Have they driven it on the countryside? How does it treat cyclists? How does it treat pedestrians? How does it treat deer, squirrels, birds and other fauna on the road? How does it respond to aggressive drivers? Can it park? Can it parallel park? Does it know not to block the box? Does it know what to do when a traffic light is out? Does it know to pull over when emergency vehicles need to pass by? Does it know how to merge? Does it know how to avoid hanging out in other cars' blind spots? Does it know that eighteen-wheelers have large blind spots ("If you can't see me, I can't see you")? Does it know what to do when four cars come to a four-way stop intersection simultaneously? (Does anyone?) Can it find parking? Can it pick a parking spot that's far enough away from driveways and fire hydrants? How much of the logic is dependent on the car it's installed for? How much work is involved in installing it to a new car? What does it do if it gets boxed in by FBI agents on the highway? What does it do if debris knocks out the camera? What does it do the if car in front of it starts fish-tailing on ice?

sliverstorm 16y ago
> Can it tell when a head gasket blows and the engine is overheating? Sorry, how do YOU know when your head gasket has blown and the car is overheating? What's that, your first indicator is the electronic temperature sensor on your dashboard!? My, there certainly is no way a computer could detect that. If you are about to say, you detect it through loss of power, steam from the engine bay, coolant in the oil... I got news for you, you just detected it slower than a computer would have. A properly designed automatic driving system would monitor the vitals of the engine, and pull over in the event something goes critical, much the same way your PC shuts off when the CPU hits some predetermined temperature. Even better, if all cars were automatically driven, it would communicate this abnormality with the other cars on the road. It would be able to determine that this is unusual (it's not just a hot day), and it would also be able to co-operate with the other cars on the road to pull over safely as fast as possible. The things you list are not "this is why automatic driving is impossible". They are just "here's special cases we have to make sure to catch". In the case engineers miss a case, good feedback control systems can often cope for the unexpected event, and in the event they can't, there's always manual control. Hell, let's be honest here- most drivers would not detect a blown head gasket until the car simply stopped functioning, and the engine was completely destroyed anyway. There's tons of case where humans perform terribly, including some on your list. Accidents are caused all the time by people braking for squirrels when they shouldn't.
- mcantor 16y ago
  > The things you list are not "this is why automatic driving is impossible". They are just "here's special cases we have to make sure to catch". You are exactly correct; this is actually all I meant to express in my post. I suppose I should not be surprised that my comment was taken to be espousing one of the prevailing extremes! Sorry about that--I should have been a little less terse. > most drivers would not detect a blown head gasket until the car simply stopped functioning, and the engine was completely destroyed anyway. Ironically, this exact thing happened to me at the end of last year. That's actually why I included it in my list... not because I think it's un-doable, but because I really really hope it's an edge case they cover! :-)

by mcantor 16y ago

sliverstorm 16y ago

> Can it tell when a head gasket blows and the engine is overheating? Sorry, how do YOU know when your head gasket has blown and the car is overheating? What's that, your first indicator is the electronic temperature sensor on your dashboard!? My, there certainly is no way a computer could detect that. If you are about to say, you detect it through loss of power, steam from the engine bay, coolant in the oil... I got news for you, you just detected it slower than a computer would have. A properly designed automatic driving system would monitor the vitals of the engine, and pull over in the event something goes critical, much the same way your PC shuts off when the CPU hits some predetermined temperature. Even better, if all cars were automatically driven, it would communicate this abnormality with the other cars on the road. It would be able to determine that this is unusual (it's not just a hot day), and it would also be able to co-operate with the other cars on the road to pull over safely as fast as possible. The things you list are not "this is why automatic driving is impossible". They are just "here's special cases we have to make sure to catch". In the case engineers miss a case, good feedback control systems can often cope for the unexpected event, and in the event they can't, there's always manual control. Hell, let's be honest here- most drivers would not detect a blown head gasket until the car simply stopped functioning, and the engine was completely destroyed anyway. There's tons of case where humans perform terribly, including some on your list. Accidents are caused all the time by people braking for squirrels when they shouldn't.

mcantor 16y ago
> The things you list are not "this is why automatic driving is impossible". They are just "here's special cases we have to make sure to catch". You are exactly correct; this is actually all I meant to express in my post. I suppose I should not be surprised that my comment was taken to be espousing one of the prevailing extremes! Sorry about that--I should have been a little less terse. > most drivers would not detect a blown head gasket until the car simply stopped functioning, and the engine was completely destroyed anyway. Ironically, this exact thing happened to me at the end of last year. That's actually why I included it in my list... not because I think it's un-doable, but because I really really hope it's an edge case they cover! :-)