# Driverless cars



## charlieivan (Apr 25, 2006)

Anyone in favour of these. Something to think about with them - if one was involved in an accident, who would be held responsible as there would be no-one driving it. How about insurance for them? Who would be the main driver?


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## TeamRienza (Sep 21, 2010)

I am waiting to see how many people get mugged by groups of yobs who can simply step in front of a car and bring it to a halt. I imagine the difficult part is identifying such vehicles, but I am sure that won’t take long.

I imagine progress could be slow in such a vehicle in cities as they would be programmed to avoid crashes. Not hard then for other vehicles to slow their progress to a crawl by forcing a ‘right’ of way. 

I have to say that I have little faith in the way governments are pushing the introduction. Encouraging diesel a few years ago and now vilifying them whilst pushing towards electric to the possible detriment of potential improvements in fossil fuels.

Band wagon and jumping come to mind.


Davy


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## dghr272 (Jun 14, 2012)

Was going to suggest a solution to the yobs would be a switch to make the body of the vehicle live, but I suppose like the F1 pit crews they'll all wear marigolds. 

Back to the drawing board for me. :-D

Terry


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## rayc (Jun 3, 2008)

charlieivan said:


> Anyone in favour of these. Something to think about with them - if one was involved in an accident, who would be held responsible as there would be no-one driving it. How about insurance for them? Who would be the main driver?


Good questions but do not expect answers from the authorities. During the budget the Chancellor made a joke that Jeremy Clarkson's doubt about self driving cars would be thwarted by Hammond and May. Him and Teresa of course.

Who would you trust in these matters a politician or Jeremy Clarkson?

http://www.actuarialpost.co.uk/article/driverless-cars:-how-will-insurers-be-affected-6725.htm


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## peribro (Sep 6, 2009)

I'm massively in favour of driverless cars and the benefits they will bring - although the benefits of driverless lorries will probably be even greater. I say that despite enjoying driving but there are some routes and some journeys where I will be more than happy for the car to drive itself.

I was reading (or hearing) something the other day about accident rates and the "at fault" accident rate for driverless cars is negligible compared to driven cars. What was interesting though was that the "not at fault" accident rate is quite a lot higher for driverless cars. The technology presently lacks the human intuition bit - you see someone driving erratically ahead so give them a wide berth or maybe pull back. A driverless car doesn't analyse like that - it will respond once an accident is likely but that can sometimes be too late when the other vehicle is being driven by an idiot.


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## patp (Apr 30, 2007)

We have long said that it will be a nightmare being in one because every other Tom, Dick or Harry will just pull out of side turnings, push in front of you at merger points etc etc. Nothing you can do about it.
Will a driverless car anticipate someone joining a motorway? At the moment, where possible, we move over or slow down to allow the traffic to join the motorway. What will happen with a driverless car? Will other drivers just drive straight on to the motorway knowing that the driverless car will stop, causing chaos behind it?
Was having a conversation with an acquaintance of ours the other day and they revealed that they thought it was the law that you just drive straight on to a major road from the slip road and that it was the other drivers responsibility to let you on by slowing down or moving over!


Judging by the number of drivers who reverse on to the highway from their driveways, each morning as we walk the dog, there are not many who read the Highway Code.


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## GMJ (Jun 24, 2014)

On the same note did anyone watch the Guy Martin thing at 9.00 on Channel 4 last night? 

All about AI and driverless cars. Quite interesting...

Graham :smile2:


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## dghr272 (Jun 14, 2012)

GMJ said:


> On the same note did anyone watch the Guy Martin thing at 9.00 on Channel 4 last night?
> 
> All about AI and driverless cars. Quite interesting...
> 
> Graham :smile2:


Yeah a good watch, whilst some problems have been solved it also highlighted well some of the basic difficulties to be overcome.

It also highlighted once again that the Brits were once well ahead of the game with an example fitted to a MK2 Ford Cortina, now that took me back to happy days. :surprise:

Terry


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

I'm a bit of a wreck as a passenger and often find I'm pressing the 'brake' pedal even when my wife's driving. 
I think we have full confidence in our own abilities but never quite in others. So would it be an ever more nerve racking experience in a driverless vehicle?

Apart from the 'yobs' trying to cause it problems, will it detect smaller objects like a broken bottle or bits that have fallen off another vehicle? How about lane discipline when cones or a breakdown blocks that lane.? So many questions as I see it.

I did consider the possibility of an electric vehicle for our next car but again so many difficulties like range, charging, price, battery replacement, etc. etc.

Ray.


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

IMHO never going to happen on anything like a large scale, the first obvious place to try out driverless, would be where there are few pedestrians, little or no oncoming traffic, clearly defined routes from A to B, but so far I've not heard of any driverless main line trains, just a few commuter ones a while ago, dunno if they still exist, despite that they "may" stop if anything bars their way, and they being ultra safe etc, if it doesn't have a driver, I'll be leaving it alone, unless I can drive it, it'll be as commonplace as flying cars, which is limited to the limited few who can build their own or afford to buy one.

People seem to think they will be like push bike hire in large cities, really, dream on.


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## dghr272 (Jun 14, 2012)

Other famous predictions here............. :-D

http://humanscience.wikia.com/wiki/Worst_Predictions

Terry


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

Do you have a comment of your own Terry


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

Yeah Terry. And mhf will survive.

Ray.


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## dghr272 (Jun 14, 2012)

Kev_n_Liz said:


> Do you have a comment of your own Terry


Did you miss post #8 ?

Terry


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

I did  :d did you miss my winks  

Just watching the Guy Martin AI programme now, I can see it perhaps working on Motorways, but how will it deal with a load of cow crap on a wet twisty country road with an oversize truck coming the other way and having to negotiate walkers and cyclists, especially those cyclists who tend to treat rules with the same abandon as they do their own lives, I'd love to see how many lines of code that would need, and would you trust anything from VAG knowing their rep for cheating in software.

All it will take is for a few kids to get killed and it'll all get shelved.


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## dghr272 (Jun 14, 2012)

Kev_n_Liz said:


> I did  :d did you miss my winks
> 
> Just watching the Guy Martin AI programme now, I can see it perhaps working on Motorways, but how will it deal with a load of cow crap on a wet twisty country road with an oversize truck coming the other way and having to negotiate walkers and cyclists, especially those cyclists who tend to treat rules with the same abandon as they do their own lives, I'd love to see how many lines of code that would need, and would you trust anything from VAG knowing their rep for cheating in software.
> 
> All it will take is for a few kids to get killed and it'll all get shelved.


The coding will cope, remember NASA moon landers managed touchdown with less computer power than a Sinclair Spectrum.

As a backstop all the unemployed drivers could take up a historic roll and go in front with a red flag, what happened those guys anyway ?

Oh yeah technology made them redundant.

Terry


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

dghr272 said:


> The coding will cope, remember NASA moon landers managed touchdown with less computer power than a Sinclair Spectrum.
> Terry


Ah, yes, but now then, there wasn't a lot of oncoming traffic was there, and it was a big target too > >


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