4 ms·

Those sound like terrible way of solving it. I would rather the car attempt to keep driving to my destination than stop in the middle of a busy road or stop hol

Those sound like terrible way of solving it. I would rather the car attempt to keep driving to my destination than stop in the middle of a busy road or stop holding the wheel mid turn and send the car to the guardrail/sidewalk

Aeolun 2y ago
Yeah, stopping on a highway sounds like a terrible idea. Having the car make more and more insistent annoying noises when there’s no response, and then signal the police sounds like a better one.
- saalweachter 2y ago
  "How to bail out of any situation" should really be self-driving step 0. If your car can't figure out how to pull off onto the shoulder it shouldn't be driving down the highway. Now, how that applies to cruise control or lane centering, damned if I know.
  - galangalalgol 2y ago
    It absolutely could do that, but that would likely transfer legal liability once it deviated from operator inputs. The lawsuits around automatic braking and traction control are still about how the operators commands were interpreted, and they were bad enough. This would be explicitly deviating from operator commands. These are silly problems from an engineering standpoint, but there are other constraints.
- worldsayshi 2y ago
  Stopping on the highway (and alerting the passenger and engaging the warning lights) sounds way better than whatever would've happened if the car wasn't able to act at all.
  - throwaway11460 2y ago
    What??? No! Driving straight is much safer. A potential collision of two cars at roughly the same speed is much less dangerous than a nearly guaranteed collision of a stopped car and a car at 120 km/h (75 mph). BTW Sweden has a low speed limit - it's 140 km/h (85 mph) where I live, but people regularly drive 160-180 km/h (~110 mph). It must go behind the highway border line if it's going to stop (and keep going if it's not possible!), but it'd be much better to pull out of the highway at the first opportunity. Definitely never just stop in the middle of a highway. Not sure if this is some kind of a US thing but here in Europe people don't expect you will stop in the middle of a highway. That's really extremely dangerous.
    - alkonaut 2y ago
      It's also dangerous to drive on the shoulder. Perhaps the safest thing is to keep going while it's obviusly just highway, perhaps a bit under the speed limit (low enough to get the attention of other drivers but high enough to not cause collisions). It could navigate to the slowest possible road and just park. Maybe drive with one wheel on the shoulder at 80km/h road on a 90km/h road, with warning lights and headlights blinking, car horn sounding etc. Worst case if the car approaches the end of the highway and there is a shoulder maybe it could stop there. After all, it's what any driver would have to do with a flat tire anyway (the self driving car can't run out and place a warning triangle 100m behind the car though).
    - worldsayshi 2y ago
      What are you even comparing (and what are you even implying that my point is)? Sounds like you're comparing an automatic stop system to an ideal autonomous driving system. I was comparing stopping in a controlled way to what would happen if you don't have a system that control the car when you fall asleep at all. Obviously driving the vehicle like a human being would be the best option...
      - throwaway11460 2y ago
        The car is evidently fully capable of just going straight, so that's what it should do, never ever should it just stop in the middle of a highway lane. It would be great if it tried to pull to a gas station/rest point or, after a long time of very loud sound and vibration of the driver seat etc, and only if no other option is available, turn to the emergency stop lane and slowly come to stop there - but if these are not an option (the emergency lane is not wide enough, for example), it should just keep driving straight ahead at 80 km/h (minimal allowed highway speed in EU). If my car doesn't have autopilot and can't keep driving straight, I'd prefer a light crash to the right side to just stopping in the middle of a highway lane which is a nearly sure death sentence - and not just for myself.
  - jorvi 2y ago
    Highways are the least accident prone exactly because everyone is behaving mostly the same: driving at the maximum speed (left lane), near maximum speed (right lane) or on/off-ramping. Self-driving cars should either off-ramp and find parking space, or at the very worst park in an emergency lane with hazard lights on. Stopping in the middle of the highway is insanity.
    - worldsayshi 2y ago
      I'm not saying what self-driving cars should do I'm just saying that a dumbed-down self driving system is safer than not having one.

Aeolun 2y ago

Yeah, stopping on a highway sounds like a terrible idea. Having the car make more and more insistent annoying noises when there’s no response, and then signal the police sounds like a better one.

saalweachter 2y ago
"How to bail out of any situation" should really be self-driving step 0. If your car can't figure out how to pull off onto the shoulder it shouldn't be driving down the highway. Now, how that applies to cruise control or lane centering, damned if I know.
- galangalalgol 2y ago
  It absolutely could do that, but that would likely transfer legal liability once it deviated from operator inputs. The lawsuits around automatic braking and traction control are still about how the operators commands were interpreted, and they were bad enough. This would be explicitly deviating from operator commands. These are silly problems from an engineering standpoint, but there are other constraints.
worldsayshi 2y ago
Stopping on the highway (and alerting the passenger and engaging the warning lights) sounds way better than whatever would've happened if the car wasn't able to act at all.
- throwaway11460 2y ago
  What??? No! Driving straight is much safer. A potential collision of two cars at roughly the same speed is much less dangerous than a nearly guaranteed collision of a stopped car and a car at 120 km/h (75 mph). BTW Sweden has a low speed limit - it's 140 km/h (85 mph) where I live, but people regularly drive 160-180 km/h (~110 mph). It must go behind the highway border line if it's going to stop (and keep going if it's not possible!), but it'd be much better to pull out of the highway at the first opportunity. Definitely never just stop in the middle of a highway. Not sure if this is some kind of a US thing but here in Europe people don't expect you will stop in the middle of a highway. That's really extremely dangerous.
  - alkonaut 2y ago
    It's also dangerous to drive on the shoulder. Perhaps the safest thing is to keep going while it's obviusly just highway, perhaps a bit under the speed limit (low enough to get the attention of other drivers but high enough to not cause collisions). It could navigate to the slowest possible road and just park. Maybe drive with one wheel on the shoulder at 80km/h road on a 90km/h road, with warning lights and headlights blinking, car horn sounding etc. Worst case if the car approaches the end of the highway and there is a shoulder maybe it could stop there. After all, it's what any driver would have to do with a flat tire anyway (the self driving car can't run out and place a warning triangle 100m behind the car though).
  - worldsayshi 2y ago
    What are you even comparing (and what are you even implying that my point is)? Sounds like you're comparing an automatic stop system to an ideal autonomous driving system. I was comparing stopping in a controlled way to what would happen if you don't have a system that control the car when you fall asleep at all. Obviously driving the vehicle like a human being would be the best option...
    - throwaway11460 2y ago
      The car is evidently fully capable of just going straight, so that's what it should do, never ever should it just stop in the middle of a highway lane. It would be great if it tried to pull to a gas station/rest point or, after a long time of very loud sound and vibration of the driver seat etc, and only if no other option is available, turn to the emergency stop lane and slowly come to stop there - but if these are not an option (the emergency lane is not wide enough, for example), it should just keep driving straight ahead at 80 km/h (minimal allowed highway speed in EU). If my car doesn't have autopilot and can't keep driving straight, I'd prefer a light crash to the right side to just stopping in the middle of a highway lane which is a nearly sure death sentence - and not just for myself.
- jorvi 2y ago
  Highways are the least accident prone exactly because everyone is behaving mostly the same: driving at the maximum speed (left lane), near maximum speed (right lane) or on/off-ramping. Self-driving cars should either off-ramp and find parking space, or at the very worst park in an emergency lane with hazard lights on. Stopping in the middle of the highway is insanity.
  - worldsayshi 2y ago
    I'm not saying what self-driving cars should do I'm just saying that a dumbed-down self driving system is safer than not having one.