3 ms·

There are tons of technical problems but the fundamental issue is our expectations. Driverless cars can’t just respond as well as a human would have - they hav

There are tons of technical problems but the fundamental issue is our expectations. Driverless cars can’t just respond as well as a human would have - they have to be better. They have to “know” the black ice was there. Or the pothole was there. Or the construction was there. And then they have to respond “reasonably”, which is tough because computers are fundamentally “reasonless” machines at the moment. If our expectations were driving during the day on a few defined streets in nice weather, perhaps going a bit slower and with the understanding that things may get a little jerky, I think we would be ok. In other words...we need to give self-driving cars permission to be like we once were: not amazing at driving. We need to give the cars a learners permit.

ec109685 8y ago
That’s why they are deploying driver assitent technology now and human co-pilots for any cars with autonomous driving capability. Unlike with humans, the learning is transferable with driverless cars.
- masonic 8y ago
  The drivers provide instruction in a form that will be retained by the software?
  - ec109685 8y ago
    Yes, via recording and labeling what the human does when it’s not engaged and during any take overs when it is engaged.
esturk 8y ago
People often say self driving cars have to be better than humans but they often neglect to ask "what % of the population does it have to be better than?". Today's self driving cars are already better than some drivers. You don't have to look farther than r/IdiotsInCars. I would say that if self driving cars are better than 50% of the population, that would be good enough. Removing most of the accident prone individuals would be greatly beneficial already.
mikhailt 8y ago
Yep, you are talking about experience; robots only need to learn once and it spreads to everyone instantly. That can’t be said about humans, everyone has to learn it at their own pace. Humans aren’t that good at driving either and most humans won’t know what to do with black ice either at first. I certainly didn’t, my driving school didn’t even talk about winter driving either. I had to learn on my own and it wasn’t “great”. Nothing like spinning out on ice to know never to do that again. I’d trust robots right now more than drunk or high drivers though. Tesla has a massive fleet gathering data on every mile driven by humans and they are using that data to build their neural networks. The AI is getting better every second.

ec109685 8y ago

That’s why they are deploying driver assitent technology now and human co-pilots for any cars with autonomous driving capability. Unlike with humans, the learning is transferable with driverless cars.

masonic 8y ago
The drivers provide instruction in a form that will be retained by the software?
- ec109685 8y ago
  Yes, via recording and labeling what the human does when it’s not engaged and during any take overs when it is engaged.

esturk 8y ago

People often say self driving cars have to be better than humans but they often neglect to ask "what % of the population does it have to be better than?". Today's self driving cars are already better than some drivers. You don't have to look farther than r/IdiotsInCars. I would say that if self driving cars are better than 50% of the population, that would be good enough. Removing most of the accident prone individuals would be greatly beneficial already.

mikhailt 8y ago

Yep, you are talking about experience; robots only need to learn once and it spreads to everyone instantly. That can’t be said about humans, everyone has to learn it at their own pace. Humans aren’t that good at driving either and most humans won’t know what to do with black ice either at first. I certainly didn’t, my driving school didn’t even talk about winter driving either. I had to learn on my own and it wasn’t “great”. Nothing like spinning out on ice to know never to do that again. I’d trust robots right now more than drunk or high drivers though. Tesla has a massive fleet gathering data on every mile driven by humans and they are using that data to build their neural networks. The AI is getting better every second.