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Perhaps an easier and quicker fix (although extremely costly) is to outfit all roadways with aids for autonomous driving. Otherwise, we will have to wait decade

Perhaps an easier and quicker fix (although extremely costly) is to outfit all roadways with aids for autonomous driving. Otherwise, we will have to wait decades for the technology to be mature enough.

hrktb 8y ago
I wonder though if the roadway maintenance would be good enough to have that work reliably. The car would still have to react to misconfigured , misplaced or defective aids. Even if it’s not just negligeance, if an accident were to move the markers, would it cascade accidents until these markers are fixed ? In the end, it seems we’d still need cars way clever than what we have now for it to be trustworthy.
- bobthepanda 8y ago
  The fatal Tesla crash into a highway barrier a while back was because of faded highway markings. Many localities can barely keep the lines painted. Many more have all sorts of adverse weather conditions (e.g., snow and slush) that make road markings hard to see. The chances of this being a workable solution, at least in the US, is nil.
  - nikofeyn 8y ago
    that crash wasn’t because of the markings. saying so, although maybe accurate, softens the issue. it was because tesla has a poor autonomous system that couldn’t plainly see a road splitting and instead hit a barrier at full speed wit no braking. the markers were a contributor since all teslas seem to mainly do is stay between the lines they see.
nikofeyn 8y ago
yea, just like we’ve been able to outfit all roads properly for aiding human drivers. you mentioned it’s costly, but this just won’t or can’t happen. we don’t even properly maintain our roads.
sorenjan 8y ago
No tech that requires a special type of road will ever get successful, whether it's aids for autonomous driving aids, electric roads for on the go charging, or similar. The world already have countless of kilometers of roads, and all you need to drive a regular car is a relatively hard and flat piece of dirt. The cost and time required would be immense, and there will always be a need to use cars outside any built up road network. Sure, for commuting in large cities anything is possible, but then cars still need to be able to do both old an new navigation.
- jniedrauer 8y ago
  > No tech that requires a special type of road will ever get successful Except, y'know, those newfangled automobile things that they had to build special roads for.
- fullshark 8y ago
  What if China does it first and the western world sees it as another Sputnik moment?
- copperx 8y ago
  It doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing proposition. For example, just augmenting interstate highways to enable reliable autonomous driving would be a complete game changer for commerce, let alone personal use. Let the driver drive the car manually for the last mile of travel. Most of the problems of autonomous driving are on the last mile (pedestrians, unmarked roads, poor lighting, school crossings, train crossings, etc.). The last mile is the most expensive to outfit and maintain, too. I wouldn't be disappointed at all to find that in the future, cars drive by themselves 80% of the time, and humans take over for the tricky 20%. If the roadway isn't autonomous-ready the car shouldn't become a brick. You just drive it manually.
  - CaptainZapp 8y ago
    Who pays for that? You would either have to add massive taxes to road usage (not just gas), heavily tax automobile ownership or use general purpose taxes for such very expensive upgrades. As a non-owner of a car I would balk at the last option.
Diederich 8y ago
Just a random data point. I've used Tesla's autopilot on completely unmarked dirt roads in the past. The speed was low an I was monitoring the it very carefully, but it did somewhat work on some of the dirt roads I tried it on.

hrktb 8y ago

I wonder though if the roadway maintenance would be good enough to have that work reliably. The car would still have to react to misconfigured , misplaced or defective aids. Even if it’s not just negligeance, if an accident were to move the markers, would it cascade accidents until these markers are fixed ? In the end, it seems we’d still need cars way clever than what we have now for it to be trustworthy.

bobthepanda 8y ago
The fatal Tesla crash into a highway barrier a while back was because of faded highway markings. Many localities can barely keep the lines painted. Many more have all sorts of adverse weather conditions (e.g., snow and slush) that make road markings hard to see. The chances of this being a workable solution, at least in the US, is nil.
- nikofeyn 8y ago
  that crash wasn’t because of the markings. saying so, although maybe accurate, softens the issue. it was because tesla has a poor autonomous system that couldn’t plainly see a road splitting and instead hit a barrier at full speed wit no braking. the markers were a contributor since all teslas seem to mainly do is stay between the lines they see.

nikofeyn 8y ago

yea, just like we’ve been able to outfit all roads properly for aiding human drivers. you mentioned it’s costly, but this just won’t or can’t happen. we don’t even properly maintain our roads.

sorenjan 8y ago

No tech that requires a special type of road will ever get successful, whether it's aids for autonomous driving aids, electric roads for on the go charging, or similar. The world already have countless of kilometers of roads, and all you need to drive a regular car is a relatively hard and flat piece of dirt. The cost and time required would be immense, and there will always be a need to use cars outside any built up road network. Sure, for commuting in large cities anything is possible, but then cars still need to be able to do both old an new navigation.

jniedrauer 8y ago
> No tech that requires a special type of road will ever get successful Except, y'know, those newfangled automobile things that they had to build special roads for.
fullshark 8y ago
What if China does it first and the western world sees it as another Sputnik moment?
copperx 8y ago
It doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing proposition. For example, just augmenting interstate highways to enable reliable autonomous driving would be a complete game changer for commerce, let alone personal use. Let the driver drive the car manually for the last mile of travel. Most of the problems of autonomous driving are on the last mile (pedestrians, unmarked roads, poor lighting, school crossings, train crossings, etc.). The last mile is the most expensive to outfit and maintain, too. I wouldn't be disappointed at all to find that in the future, cars drive by themselves 80% of the time, and humans take over for the tricky 20%. If the roadway isn't autonomous-ready the car shouldn't become a brick. You just drive it manually.
- CaptainZapp 8y ago
  Who pays for that? You would either have to add massive taxes to road usage (not just gas), heavily tax automobile ownership or use general purpose taxes for such very expensive upgrades. As a non-owner of a car I would balk at the last option.

Diederich 8y ago

Just a random data point. I've used Tesla's autopilot on completely unmarked dirt roads in the past. The speed was low an I was monitoring the it very carefully, but it did somewhat work on some of the dirt roads I tried it on.