Nevada Prepares Itself for the Imminent Rise of Driverless Cars

WAHOO! "Invisible drivers immediately hailed the decision as a watershed victory..."

Hey,

Isn't that the woman who disappeared on us, when she was supposed to be working?

"Isn't that the woman who disappeared on us, when she was supposed to be working?"

Now that you mention it, it is an uncanny resemblance.

We should be able to find her in Nevada, I guess. She would have been easier to find if the state did not allow these 'Driverless Cars'.

Aww, crap!

Coming next.. government without politicians?

If only.

<....Invisible drivers immediately hailed the decision as a watershed victory in their ongoing struggle for civil rights....>

Not a whole lot different from Dade County, Florida, really. Having a 90 year old sitting in the driver's seat is just about the same as a driverless car.

I have witnessed many cell phone and computer users that happened to be seated behind the wheel of a moving driverless car.

On the serious side I suspect the technology that is controlling drone aircraft over Afghanistan is being watched by trucking company executives. I80 from Fernley to Wendover would be an ideal place to try it out when the time comes to go mainstream. Until then Nevada has some good back roads to do advanced testing. Maybe they can have a driverless car class for the Silver State Classic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_State_Classic_Challenge

Ed Weldon

I doubt that driver-less technology will ever work in high density traffic areas.

A few years ago.. I would have doubted that GPS and computer vision alone would be able to take partial/full control of a vehicle.

Time has passed and improvements are being made. Besides DARPA, Google and others are doing amazing things in this market.

The first driverless cars may have difficulty pulling out into heavy traffic and might need to be taken over manually.

While a human can make the decision to punch the pedal and lurch safely (more or less) over three lanes of traffic to make a difficult left hand turn out of a parking lot into heavy traffic.. A smart car might tell you..

"I don't want to scare you.. Please put down your coffee and get you head out of your e-book. Please take the wheel long enough to make this left hand turn for me.. (cough cough) The road is crowded and It's considered a liability by the insurance company to allow me to drive right now.. <... even though I could probably do a better job of it than you..>"

I think that in 20 years or so we might rather see the young and old able to travel in the inherent safety provided by driverless vehicles. In them doing so, a safer roadway will be provided for those who either don't want to use a driverless vehicle, or can't afford the technology. To generalize.. A young may want to speed and zig-zag down the road.. A computer just follows it's program. An elderly driver might be rolling in a parking lot and mash the gas instead of the brake. Does not compute..

We are already starting to monitor vehicles with black boxes of sorts. When the 'fun' is taken out of driving.. Fewer people will care about the 'thrill' of driving.

As far as being able to navigate heavy traffic?.. I'd say it's only a matter of time before we are able to trust the programmers to get us there safely more than it's a technological hurdle to overcome. Think about the way airport ground traffic is handled.. There is very much a protocol that keeps planes moving safely in rather crowded and busy conditions. Pilots are watched every moment on the ground and in the air every mistake they make becomes a huge issue for them and their company, so mistakes are hopefully few and far between.

No doubt shipping companies will pay.. er... pave the way.. It will have trickle down benefits for all. Jobs that are lost will be created elsewhere as well as transfer to lower cost of goods and shipments... Right on time..

Being picked up and dropped off autonomously in the middle of nowhere has more than just recreational value.. How awesome would it be to have your car or a rented car pick you up 20 miles downstream or on the other side of a mountain/desert/forest?

It would be required to operate safely.. Obviously a car should stop if being approached by kids on bikes going the wrong way up a narrow street.. it happens.. Things like this are simple to overcome.. it's just a matter of time, technology and programing.. Will we program the car to lay on the horn? I wouldn't.. but maybe short chirps for safety at the right times and to warn pedestrians who are out of bounds and causing you to stop..

I don't want to mandate it's use.. I just want it to be available.

.. How awesome would it be to have your car or a rented car pick you up 20 miles downstream or on the other side of a mountain/desert/forest?
Great point, we'd also need fewer 2 car households, I can be driven to work, the car can then run back to Mrs Cat if she needs it.
In fact do we need to own cars? if they were smart enough they could hangout on street corners and just drive us as and when needed (ok I realise this is bonkers, as we all want to use 'em at the same time, rush hour, but if more of us worked from home...I'll quit while I'm behind)
Del