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Ask HN: Why aren't remote human drivers a thing?
I saw an article today where Steve Wozniak said he didn't think autonomous cars would come to fruition during his lifetime. However, I have not read very much about any sort of innovation around a system that uses human drivers to control vehicles remotely. Why isn't this idea being explored more?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- TheEndless 7y agoMaybe because it still requires a human to be occupied during the task, and they also don't have physical safety stake in the activity. I don't think I'd feel quite at ease if a driver over the Internet had my fate in their hands. Also that brings up the fact that latency and failure of wireless communications could mean death.
- udayrddy 7y agoI do not see any use case with it. If I have to remote control it, I would rather control directly. Isn't the whole purpose to make use of your time on other works instead of driving?
- jolmg 7y agoMaybe the idea is that as soon as you're detected to be sleep, a driver from some company gets alerted and takes over your driving until you wake up.
- thecrumb 7y agoTunnels? Overpasses? Trees. Thinking about how many times my satellite radio fades out.
- wingerlang 7y agoImagine driving a car over Skype
- raztogt21 7y agono skin in the game for the remote driver
- icedchai 7y agoConnectivity in general. You need a 100% reliable, low latency, high bandwidth connection. Milliseconds matter in an emergency.
- MS90 7y agoThe USAF is able to deal with latency issues when controlling and targeting drones on the opposite side of the planet, though I do believe they use local people with line of sight connections to handle takeoffs and landings. I don't see why something like their systems couldn't be applied here. Well, other than the fact that you'd need the resources (see: cash and massive satellite network) that the USAF has...
- convolvatron 7y agousaf importantly doesn’t have any liability in the case of accidental death
- shoo 7y agoReaction time requirements are probably much more forgiving for drones -- don't need to suddenly brake or change course due to the movements of other tightly packed drones around you during the daily commute
- abhinuvpitale 7y agoThere is also the question of trust, one of the biggest non-technical challenge to overcome would be to convince general public to get into a car which doesn't have a driver. It would be similar to getting into a rollercoaster. No control whatsoever of what might happen next despite every bit of your trip being pre-planned to the dot.
- gshdg 7y agoUSAF has billions to throw at the problem.
- tdeck 7y agoThey are a thing. This company is doing it with trucks: https://www.starsky.io/ https://www.starsky.io/