4 ms·

There's a Swiss town which had autonomous shuttles running for 5 years (2015-2021) [1]. There's at least two companies (Waymo and Cruise) running autonomous ta

There's a Swiss town which had autonomous shuttles running for 5 years (2015-2021) [1]. There's at least two companies (Waymo and Cruise) running autonomous taxi services in US cities that you can ride today. There have been lots of incorrect promises in the world of self-driving trucks/cars/buses but companies have gotten there (under specific constraints) and will generalize over time. [1] https://www.saam.swiss/projects/smartshuttle/ https://www.saam.swiss/projects/smartshuttle/

haspok 3y ago
Those "autonomous" vehicles have as much to do with real autonomy as today's "AI" has in common with real self-conscious intelligence. You can only fake it so long, and it is an entirely different ballgame. I remember we had spam filters 20 years ago, and nobody called them "AI", just ML. Todays "AI" is ML, but on a larger scale. In a sense, a million monkeys typing on typewriters will eventually produce all the works of Shakespeare. Does this make them poets?
- amenghra 3y ago
  What's your gripe with calling a bus which successfully ran for 5 years without a driver not autonomous? As someone who used this specific bus occasionally, I was quite satisfied with the outcome: it safely drove me from A to B.
- selfhoster11 3y ago
  GPT-4 can generate coherent streams-of-consciousness, and can faithfully simulate a human emotional process, plus writing in a subjective human state of mind that leans in a certain direction. I find it hard to argue that current state of the art in AI is unable to simulate self-consciousness. I realise that this is more limited of a statement compared to "AI can be innately self-conscious", but in my mind it's functionally equivalent if the results are the same. Currently, the biggest obstacle to such experiments is OpenAI's reinforcement learning used to make the model believe it is incapable of such things, unless extensively prompted to get it in the right "state of mind" to do so.
cultureswitch 3y ago
It should be noted that the Waymo and Cruise experiments in their cities are laughably unprepared for actual chaotic traffic, often fail in completely unpredictable ways and are universally hated by locals. Autonomous buses and trams are much more successful because the problem is much easier too.
- amenghra 3y ago
  Agree. We could have all had some fine autonomous trams/subways/trains which run 24/7 at short intervals instead of spending money on self-driving cars and car infrastructure in general.
arolihas 3y ago
Didn't Cruise have people remotely controlling the vehicle making it semi-autonomous at best?

haspok 3y ago

Those "autonomous" vehicles have as much to do with real autonomy as today's "AI" has in common with real self-conscious intelligence. You can only fake it so long, and it is an entirely different ballgame. I remember we had spam filters 20 years ago, and nobody called them "AI", just ML. Todays "AI" is ML, but on a larger scale. In a sense, a million monkeys typing on typewriters will eventually produce all the works of Shakespeare. Does this make them poets?

amenghra 3y ago
What's your gripe with calling a bus which successfully ran for 5 years without a driver not autonomous? As someone who used this specific bus occasionally, I was quite satisfied with the outcome: it safely drove me from A to B.
selfhoster11 3y ago
GPT-4 can generate coherent streams-of-consciousness, and can faithfully simulate a human emotional process, plus writing in a subjective human state of mind that leans in a certain direction. I find it hard to argue that current state of the art in AI is unable to simulate self-consciousness. I realise that this is more limited of a statement compared to "AI can be innately self-conscious", but in my mind it's functionally equivalent if the results are the same. Currently, the biggest obstacle to such experiments is OpenAI's reinforcement learning used to make the model believe it is incapable of such things, unless extensively prompted to get it in the right "state of mind" to do so.

cultureswitch 3y ago

It should be noted that the Waymo and Cruise experiments in their cities are laughably unprepared for actual chaotic traffic, often fail in completely unpredictable ways and are universally hated by locals. Autonomous buses and trams are much more successful because the problem is much easier too.

amenghra 3y ago
Agree. We could have all had some fine autonomous trams/subways/trains which run 24/7 at short intervals instead of spending money on self-driving cars and car infrastructure in general.

arolihas 3y ago

Didn't Cruise have people remotely controlling the vehicle making it semi-autonomous at best?