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Ask HN: Would you want to own a self-driving car with remote driver(s)?
The remote driver(s) (whom you don't see or talk to) would be able to intervene at any time and take full responsibility for any accidents.
- emedchill 3y agoNo. Driving requires a fast reaction time and with remote having an inherent lag in the feed -- count me out.
- HenryBemis 3y ago+lack of sensors or sensory overload. One behaves differently when driving, and be mindful of 360 degrees, checking the mirrors every 5-10 seconds, etc. But if one has a wall of screens, perhaps in the long run they may be able to convert the 2d (wall of monitors) to the 3d (360/surroundings) and sense it accordingly. Lag/downtime/tunnels/etc. would kill, and should be flawless.
- dave4420 3y agoHow would this work in tunnels?
- amichail 3y agoDoesn't Waymo use a similar approach except that you don't own the car?
- dave4420 3y agoI dunno. Do they? How does it cope when there’s no reception?
- haltcatchfire 3y agoYou just have to get the wired version if you expect to go through tunnels.
- HenryBemis 3y agoThat will be a looooooooooooooong cable :) EDIT: (or a tether, kinda like the one skydivers have for when jumping off a plane with the rope being tied to them chutes, and deploys them as they exit from the back)
- hnthrowaway0328 3y agoHell no. They need to pay me for that to happen.
- nusl 3y agoAbsolutely not. Trusting my life to some random probably earning a bad wage in a call center for remote drivers? No. Also such a company would have massive liabilities. You can’t just wave away killing someone with a contract clause
- ipaddr 3y agoYou've never been in a cab or taken an uber?
- wara23arish 3y agoThe huge difference is that the cab driver has skin in the game aka his life is on the line while driving too. So he has every interest in avoiding accidents
- endisneigh 3y agoSeems impractical other than very specific situations - the latency is just cannot be overcome other than those specific scenarios.
- aynyc 3y ago100% I would. Basically taking a bus or Uber.
- bhag2066 3y agoNever. Either I drive, someone else in the car drives (aligned incentive), partially autonomous (with me taking over) or fully autonomous. I'd take all four of those options but never, ever remote drivers.
- mikewarot 3y agoNo...pay attention or die is not a spectator game. There is absolutely no way someone not at the risk of their life could pay attention well enough to drive for more than a few minutes. I don't want to be an NPC in someone's game of American Taxi Simulator. Not to mention, latency, communications failures, etc.
- meristohm 3y agoNope. It's okay to drive oneself (or walk, bike, take public transportation, or tax-funded transport for people with disabilities, etc), and it's important not to make burning fuel too easy. For too long we treat cars like an extension of our bodies, but it costs a lot more calories, and is far more polluting, to drive these heavy vehicles.
- nashashmi 3y agoOwn? No. But I would be ok with a taxi and a remote person operating the vehicle. If i own it, it should have better options.
- farseer 3y agoWould the remote driver be in India to save labor costs? That would raise your "ping" and make it unsafe.