4 ms·

Why is the self driving ecosystem trying to solve every driving challenge, which is very hard, rather than focussing on highway driving, ideally reserved lanes,

Why is the self driving ecosystem trying to solve every driving challenge, which is very hard, rather than focussing on highway driving, ideally reserved lanes, high speed and close cars. And progressively expand those areas "reserved to self driving card" over time. It feels like it would bring a lot of value while reducing complexity a lot. If this is a silly question, please let me know why.

foreigner 6y ago
I've wondered this too. Also start with commercial vehicles instead of consumers.
- ljlolel 6y ago
  The hard problem with commercial vehicles is that they are even safer than the random consumers (teenagers, drunks, etc), so the bar is even higher (1 in a billion miles? 10 billion?) and has very quantifiable business metrics and insurance liabilities!!
  - mcguire 6y ago
    Is your proposal that we should take the most dangerous classes of drivers and make them more dangerous by giving them imperfect autonomous technology in order to improve the technology?
    - loopz 6y ago
      No need to put words and strawmen in mouth.
  - rhacker 6y ago
    I would like to see a computed stat, but I don't know, I see a lot of overturned semis often at these very specific places (elevation drop + turn) - always knocking them over. It's the wind or the speed the driver was going. Maybe iteration 1 of all this should be detectors that help drivers do better: 1. Unsafe driving speed alarms (given conditions) 2. Notification of areas that are historically unsafe 3. Baby in the back-seat! 4. Alcohol in the driver's seat detection (even if you don't have an existing DUI/setup) Any 1 of those implemented en-masse would likely reduce accidents/deaths world more than Full self driving AI (in its current form), and if that was truly the goal, I don't understand why these aren't the top little buggers to fix and release in 2021.
Frost1x 6y ago
Been a bit mind boggling to me as well. There seems to be an obsession with the most challenging problems (which is fine), but it seems like there are much lower hanging fruit that is easier to grab like long distance travel. I would love to have vehicles that took care of long distance/interstate driving situations. One of the few rationales I can summon is that when you look at driving and travel as a whole, the total time/mileage that falls in the distribution of long distance may be significantly lower than that of the total time/miles spent in the more difficult inner city driving situations. Moreover, since we're looking at businesses not trying to do humanity a favor but pursing a profit motive, the driving spent in inner city travel is deemed more profitable than the longer haul travel, likely because you have to compete with rail systems, air transit, and so forth. That's all guesswork though, curious if data exists on this.
- ghaff 6y ago
  >I would love to have vehicles that took care of long distance/interstate driving situations. I'm the same way. Sure, I'll take full self-driving if it's on offer. But TBH, if you can handle the 2-4 hour parts of a typical weekend drive to the mountains, that's a big win for me. Ditto for handling most of the 70 minute or so drive to the nearest major city. It's not as exciting and doesn't open up the shared vehicle use cases and so forth. But full autonomy under most conditions on limited access highways still seems like a great feature a lot of people would love to pay for. But the driving around my neighborhood and environs actually isn't something I generally find to be a particular burden,

foreigner 6y ago

I've wondered this too. Also start with commercial vehicles instead of consumers.

ljlolel 6y ago
The hard problem with commercial vehicles is that they are even safer than the random consumers (teenagers, drunks, etc), so the bar is even higher (1 in a billion miles? 10 billion?) and has very quantifiable business metrics and insurance liabilities!!
- mcguire 6y ago
  Is your proposal that we should take the most dangerous classes of drivers and make them more dangerous by giving them imperfect autonomous technology in order to improve the technology?
  - loopz 6y ago
    No need to put words and strawmen in mouth.
- rhacker 6y ago
  I would like to see a computed stat, but I don't know, I see a lot of overturned semis often at these very specific places (elevation drop + turn) - always knocking them over. It's the wind or the speed the driver was going. Maybe iteration 1 of all this should be detectors that help drivers do better: 1. Unsafe driving speed alarms (given conditions) 2. Notification of areas that are historically unsafe 3. Baby in the back-seat! 4. Alcohol in the driver's seat detection (even if you don't have an existing DUI/setup) Any 1 of those implemented en-masse would likely reduce accidents/deaths world more than Full self driving AI (in its current form), and if that was truly the goal, I don't understand why these aren't the top little buggers to fix and release in 2021.

Frost1x 6y ago

Been a bit mind boggling to me as well. There seems to be an obsession with the most challenging problems (which is fine), but it seems like there are much lower hanging fruit that is easier to grab like long distance travel. I would love to have vehicles that took care of long distance/interstate driving situations. One of the few rationales I can summon is that when you look at driving and travel as a whole, the total time/mileage that falls in the distribution of long distance may be significantly lower than that of the total time/miles spent in the more difficult inner city driving situations. Moreover, since we're looking at businesses not trying to do humanity a favor but pursing a profit motive, the driving spent in inner city travel is deemed more profitable than the longer haul travel, likely because you have to compete with rail systems, air transit, and so forth. That's all guesswork though, curious if data exists on this.

ghaff 6y ago
>I would love to have vehicles that took care of long distance/interstate driving situations. I'm the same way. Sure, I'll take full self-driving if it's on offer. But TBH, if you can handle the 2-4 hour parts of a typical weekend drive to the mountains, that's a big win for me. Ditto for handling most of the 70 minute or so drive to the nearest major city. It's not as exciting and doesn't open up the shared vehicle use cases and so forth. But full autonomy under most conditions on limited access highways still seems like a great feature a lot of people would love to pay for. But the driving around my neighborhood and environs actually isn't something I generally find to be a particular burden,