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So when will these self-driving cars be ready for mass consumption? Because they're starting to sound like flying cars at this point. Yes, technically doable an

So when will these self-driving cars be ready for mass consumption? Because they're starting to sound like flying cars at this point. Yes, technically doable and there are always some working prototypes, but no real market, and not seen as practical.

bufferoverflow 4y ago
We have flying cars.
- goatlover 4y ago
  Where can I purchase one to use on the road when I'm not flying (helicopters don't count as cars).
dsr_ 4y ago
Helicopters -- hold on -- and light general aviation are our best extant examples of flying cars. Here's what we should learn from them: - at current traffic levels, accidents are rare - but fatality rates are high (20% of helicopter accidents) - the commercial carriers have much better accident statistics than general aviation - commuter and on-demand flights are much worse than commercial scheduled flights - rather more than half of all accidents have a root incident near an airport - taxi-ing, departure, initial climb, approach, landing. My conclusion is that mass adoption of flying cars (as in, millions of people piloting small aircraft with varying levels of maintenance, safety inspections, training, and traffic control) would be a terrifyingly foreseeable disaster. On the other hand, I hold out real hope for fully autonomous vehicles being potentially safer than a distracted teenager on the road.
fragmede 4y ago
Soon? As a member of the general public I got opted into the Cruise beta. Took a ride from point A to point B. It had to be within a small service zone, and I have no idea how much mapping was needed to accomplish this, and thus have no idea how long it'll take for them to expand the service area, but it works! It cost $12 and I hailed it via the Cruise app. I dunno, I suppose GM could just fire the whole team and lose the code on a USB stick and just give up, but that hardly seems likely.
ghostbrainalpha 4y ago
I let Tesla FSD take over completely for driving my kids to school in the morning, which is approximately 90% of my driving. I might feel like intervening, 1 out of 10 times at this point. I might not be the typical driver, but I definitely feel like its ready for early adopters now. However, even though I'm a big fan, I don't see how these can easily transition to "mass consumption", because as we get into the uncanny valley where the auto drive is good enough to take over, the masses are going to completely check out of their responsibility to be a good backup driver. So I feel like we are going to be stuck in the current space for a long time, maybe 10 years. Until you Auto Drive is so good, you can ride one without getting a drivers license.

bufferoverflow 4y ago

We have flying cars.

goatlover 4y ago
Where can I purchase one to use on the road when I'm not flying (helicopters don't count as cars).

dsr_ 4y ago

Helicopters -- hold on -- and light general aviation are our best extant examples of flying cars. Here's what we should learn from them: - at current traffic levels, accidents are rare - but fatality rates are high (20% of helicopter accidents) - the commercial carriers have much better accident statistics than general aviation - commuter and on-demand flights are much worse than commercial scheduled flights - rather more than half of all accidents have a root incident near an airport - taxi-ing, departure, initial climb, approach, landing. My conclusion is that mass adoption of flying cars (as in, millions of people piloting small aircraft with varying levels of maintenance, safety inspections, training, and traffic control) would be a terrifyingly foreseeable disaster. On the other hand, I hold out real hope for fully autonomous vehicles being potentially safer than a distracted teenager on the road.

fragmede 4y ago

Soon? As a member of the general public I got opted into the Cruise beta. Took a ride from point A to point B. It had to be within a small service zone, and I have no idea how much mapping was needed to accomplish this, and thus have no idea how long it'll take for them to expand the service area, but it works! It cost $12 and I hailed it via the Cruise app. I dunno, I suppose GM could just fire the whole team and lose the code on a USB stick and just give up, but that hardly seems likely.

ghostbrainalpha 4y ago

I let Tesla FSD take over completely for driving my kids to school in the morning, which is approximately 90% of my driving. I might feel like intervening, 1 out of 10 times at this point. I might not be the typical driver, but I definitely feel like its ready for early adopters now. However, even though I'm a big fan, I don't see how these can easily transition to "mass consumption", because as we get into the uncanny valley where the auto drive is good enough to take over, the masses are going to completely check out of their responsibility to be a good backup driver. So I feel like we are going to be stuck in the current space for a long time, maybe 10 years. Until you Auto Drive is so good, you can ride one without getting a drivers license.