traffic

[wgc]

I was stuck in traffic this morning and thought, "Gee, I can't wait for everyone to have self driving cars." 

It would be so great to be able to use the time I sat doing nothing for something constructive instead.  Like another tube screamer layout. 

And no more aggressive drivers. I just think "but why did they do that?" They must watch nascar or something. 
Its like, "No way is some MF going to cut in front of me to get to their exit. I've got a line on an original Klon in a rumage sale."

Instead of, "I'll give this lady a break and let her in; she's probably not used to expressway driving and might be on her way to visit someone in the hospital or buy cat treats." I try, maybe someone else will PIF too.

We'd actually not even need to own a car, it could be like a netflix subscription instead. No parking lots, no maintenance costs, no drunk drivers, no gas/charging station visits, etc. Possibly even less cars on the road, just more efficient use of resources already in existence. Uber.

All these self driving cars talking to each other on the IOT, planning the most efficient route for each car to get to where they are going.

It'd be truly enlightened! I had a split second of giddy hope.

Then, sadness. The future of driving will be autoroute.

And I briefly held out hope for self-driving flying cars, because 3D brings more opportunity for efficient routing.  Like multilayers and buried vias. No more roads, construction delays, etc!  And I could ride my flying bike for fun, short trips.

But easy to see that's temporary too. Hope you all like taking the scenic route.  Here there and everywhere.

Then I was optimistic for VR or even the transporter in Star Trek. Because its coming too. Beam me up!

But eventually, sooner than you think- same issue, only at the atomic level. Maybe we'll be complaining about the extra millisecond delay it will take to get from Mars to Titan via autoroute.

Autoroute rules all. I sure hope the AI computers borg come up with better algorithms than we can. I have a layout to finish, at home.

[culturejam]

I think the self-driving cars* will be the first real harbinger of the rise of formidable AI. And it's coming very soon.


* Surely, we'll come up with a better name than "self-driving cars" for these new vehicles. Sort of like how we did with "horseless carriage".

[m-Kresol]

well, I hate to say this, but since I was driving in the western US, I have to say you are all quite mad over there
Not so much about the driving style itself, there will always be some people that will cut you or do some other BS in front of you. I'm more talking about the style of cars (lots of fuel consumption), the low gasoline price (1.something $/gallon vs. 1.3 €/L; 1 gallon=3.81L), and the fact that basically everyone aged 16+ has their own car. Factor all that in and you've got: Traffic. Who would have thought. It's conventient, cheap and with limitations basically. I won't get started on the ecological downsides.
I get that there's often no alternative. Eg, there's no real public transportation system in LA. That place has about 17 million people living and working there. Why the heck is there no subway?! No wonder you need 7-9 lanes in each direction it still isn't enough.

I don't mean to step on anyone's toe here and I know this might be a contradictory topic (we might as well talk about gun laws. crazy! ), but over here it's soo different, I can't imagine how you guys can't have a similar system.
eg. If I want to go to my parents who live about 600 km away, I don't drive their. I take the train, which will be cheaper, not stuck in traffic and assuming there wouldn't be traffic, it's still only 30 min longer. I have to admit, I don't have a car, but I wouldn't need it in Vienna anyways. In the US, you would take the car. Or maybe Greyhound bus services, but that is often not really confortable for various reasons.

Returning to the initial thought of wgc, I agree! Doing more constructive things during that time would be great. Maybe I'm watching to much TV, but I'm not trusting all that AI stuff too much. That reminds me: watch "Ex Machina". It's a great movie about AIs.

[wgc]

So weird, I normally don't post stuff like this, but this group of people is probably the only one who would have the slightest idea of what I'm talking about.

Totally agree that we're mad with the transport systems here.  Love it or hate it, the subway in NYC is amazing to me, wish I could do it instead for my daily commute.  But I don't live in NYC anymore. The train systems stateside are mostly pretty nice but underutilized and undeveloped in terms of what they could be.  The train I took from the airport in Hong Kong remains the high bar for me, but little to compare it to.  Hyperloop, even if it fails, should help people start thinking of what could be. 

The bike lanes in Copenhagen are a great inspiration, as is the number of people who commute by bike in Pittsburgh, year round.

I think Uber or some other brand name will take the place of self-driving cars, which I agree is a lame term.  Automobile seems oddly appropriate.

Ex-machina is amazing.

I could go off on a whole other tangent with regard to hacker's roles in the future of transportation...

[m-Kresol]

I could go off on a whole other tangent with regard to hacker's roles in the future of transportation...

Wow, never thought about that. Now there's no way I'm gonna use those

[wgc]

I like to think they'd be a force for good. 

[Muadzin]

I could go off on a whole other tangent with regard to hacker's roles in the future of transportation...

Wow, never thought about that. Now there's no way I'm gonna use those

And if you think Western traffic is bad, try 3rd world traffic. I was in Iran in 2014 and the unofficial motto seems to be 'everything is forbidden, yet everything is possible. This applies particularly to traffic there. I'm amazed that people even bother to take the car there because all of Tehran is basically one giant traffic jam. The city is wedged in between the mountains trapping the pollution which you can both see and taste (it tastes metallic). There is no city planning, well, there is, but it can't keep pace at the rate at which the city is growing. And I really, really pity the poor sods who have to stand out on the streets regulating traffic. I hear they rarely reach their pension age.

How many people have hackers killed over the years? Can't recall a single case ever being mentioned. And there is already a lot of vulnerable IT infrastructure. Like power grids, traffic control grids, hospitals. How many people get killed in traffic accidents daily? So many they no longer even mention it. The equivalent of a whole military division every year in the US alone. More people dead per year then US military personnel that got killed in Iraq during the entire war. Plus the 1st Gulf War. Plus basically every war the US has been involved with since Vietnam.

So when it comes to chosing between human drivers vs. self driving cars with a risk of hackers, I'll pick the latter. Self driving cars may not be perfect, script kiddies playing god may be a possible danger, but 1 billion cars being driven by 1 billion human meatheads, just not a contest.

[galaxiex]

This may get me some hate.... (shrug)

over 7 BILLION people.....

population control....

[matmosphere]

The lack of willingness to invest in infrastructure in the states is a little worrisome. There has never really been viable options to travel by train here. I live in the DC area, we're well connected up to New York City and to a lesser degree Boston but if you were looking to go to Chicago by train it becomes a much trickier ordeal. When I've looked in the past traveling by train wasn't much less than flying.

I could probably rant about traffic issues public transportation, and fuel economy all night but instead I should probably just sleep.

I will say, I do see the appeal of self driving cars, but driving is something I find to be enjoyable and relaxing most of the time. A curvy country road on a Saturday afternoon, I'll miss those drives for sure. I wonder if it'll be like smoking (which I did for a few years in my youth), I sometimes remember enjoying the ritual of it, but ultimately I wish I had never done it at all in the first place.

[Leevibe]

Where I live, I could see having designated road stretches where the car takes over. Maybe getting on the freeway would be like hopping on the ferry or something. I don't want a computer driving me down the Washougal River Road though. It's beautifully twisty and recently repaved. I only wish they had repaved it before I sold my bike.

[Aleph Null]

Self driving cars will surely be more safe. The biggest issue is culpability; in an accident today, it's easy to determine fault. If a self-driving car is in a accident, who's at fault? The passenger, the manufacturer, the programmer? How will programmers decide what risks are acceptable and what kind of damage/injury is acceptable for passengers to avoid damaging other vehicles, or injuries to people outside the car? Human-driven cars are more deadly, but they don't present the same legal and ethical problems.

[thesmokingman]

self driving cars will take forever to happen in the U.S.
we have speed limits and fuel efficiency ratings yet we make 200mph street legal sports cars and people convert commercial trucks into oversized pickup trucks because 'merica. we have drunk driving laws and drive thru liquor stores. we text and drive .... hell the idiot that crashed his self driving tesla was watching a damn dvd player instead of keeping his eyes on the road in case the essentially beta-test feature missed something like the broad side of an 18 wheel trailer crossing the road.

[matmosphere]

I agree that self driving cars will probably be a hard sell to a lot of people in America. People will probably complain that all these foreign cars are taking away good american jobs.

[culturejam]

This may get me some hate.... (shrug)

over 7 BILLION people.....

population control....

I think we're due for a correction. Not sure how it will come about, but I think it will happen.

[EBRAddict]

This may get me some hate.... (shrug)

over 7 BILLION people.....

population control....

I think we're due for a correction. Not sure how it will come about, but I think it will happen.

The robots will enslave us.