I doubt self-driving cars would be marketed much in rural areas. They would be made for city driving, where roads are always predictable in texture and surface, and traffic can be easily regulated with a server that can connect to the city. Plus, cities are where the sorts of people who would buy self-driving cars tend to live. Not only would it be hard to have self-driving cars in the country, that's where there are the sorts of people who wouldn't want to give up driving, because to them, nothing beats open country roads.
It's just a guess, but it would make sense. When's the last time anyone saw a concept car designed for country driving? But cars designed for "the future of city transit!!!1" are shat out all the time. Car companies focus on cities, because that's where the biggest market for new cars is, so they design cars for cities. I imagine that autonomous cars will follow the trend and be a "city toy" like you said, and maybe having a grid that goes with all the major interstates that connect the cities. In the deep country, 90's pickup trucks would still rule the road long after cities are purged of human-operated cars.
Damn right, country boys with their trucks last longer than city folk and their new tech 22 MPG bubble car.
-Top mounted LiDAR makes radar detectors puke out false alarms. -A colored camera puts LiDAR map into color so the car can see traffic lights. -There are 20 cameras looking for windblown plastic bags and other reasons to nail the brakes unexpectedly. -Antennae on the roof rack let the car position itself via GPS whenever the signal is not blocked by buildings, tunnels, or any of the other reasons you cell phone randomly gets 0 bars. -LiDAR modules on the front, rear, and sides help annoy radar detector users even more. -A cooling system in the car makes sure everything runs without overheating, thus reducing the probability that a human driver will have to bother with actually driving the thing.
The thing about the 'driver override' stuff. If that's a system that is required in this technology, then whats the point. If this system isn't capable at driving safetly 100% of the time without a human ready to correct it's mistakes, then it isn't ready atall. Its meant to be self driving, not assisted driving. They can't expect people to be paying attention to if the system needs them to do anything, when most people don't pay attention when driving as it is. Just because the new EV systems in cars now allow for self driving vehicles, it doesn't mean we should make them. But that's just my opinion, so whatever really
Ive got nothing against stuff like adaptive cruise controll or lane assists as those are driver aids and arent decide to do the whole job for someone
I've got something against driving aids. New cars park by themselves, brake by themselves, keep in lane by themselves and keep distance by themselves, so all the driver has to do is stomp on the gas pedal. Even a gorilla could do that. Moral: take a driver who is used to these aids and hasn't driven a car without them for a long time, put him in an old car, and he'll drive as well as an average gorilla.
Someone will probably have this problem at some point, seeing as the same licence that can have you driving a 2017 car can have you driving a 1980's car. 2017 cars have all sorts of assists, where alot of 80's cars don't even have TCS or ABS. A person probably would be fine without having 100% attention in a new car, seeing as if they go slightly out of lane, it'll fix it. An old car won't do that, and will happily veer out of the lane if you don't pay attention to what you're doing
I don't want to live in a world full of self-driving cars, they are another way for society to be lazy, I prefer actually driving.
That's why I'm learning to drive in my Dad's 2002 Toyota Tundra, which he bought without any of the options save for a bedliner and AC. And sometimes on the Datsun Z, but not in a while since it's been on blocks while we redid the interior. Both manuals with no power steering. If you get good with hard cars to drive, modern shitboxes will feel like self-driving cars.
Ive drivven both types of cars and prefer the old ones but sometimes in daily driving alot of those assists can be nice to have but stuff like lane assist is permanently turned of on my car the same with adaptive cruise control as its an option i didnt want to have but my dad wanted it
I'd actually like to own an autonomous car as a daily driver. Face it - for most of us, 95% of roads in our vicinity are uninteresting. And for the other 5%, you can have something fun as a weekend ride. --- Post updated --- I don't know what's impractical, not fun or not useful in a car that takes the wheel when the road gets boring or you are drunk.
The terrorist who might take control of your car will make sure that this option is disabled and there's no way for you to go into manual mode as your car is speeding towards a Christmas market or anything else he is willing to destroy.
It doesn't have to be someone elses car. If this becomes the norm, everyone will be able to have an autonomus car. Including terrorists. But at the same time, there are people out there taking over computers and servers everyday. What's to say they won't do the same to a car?
