Self-driving cars--seriously?

[Mel Fulks]

Rick, that is some seriously mature ...and hilarious thinking!

[Dan Friedrichs]

Who will be responsible when a there are mechanical or electrical problems that cause an accident? It won't be the owner, or the insurance company that's for sure. If the car manufacturer is responsible can you imagine how much the price of a new car will be. Maybe this is part of the plan to make personal transportation to expensive for the middle class.

I'm more optimistic. It's conceivable that the total cost of car ownership goes down significantly, as they'll crash MUCH less often. Insurance will cost almost nothing.

Also, think of how the "sharing" economy impacts this. Most cars are very poorly "utilized" - they spend most of the day in a garage or parking lot, being used for brief trips between. Garages and parking lots take up a LOT of room. What if you could just "summon" a car using a phone app, have it arrive, drive you to where you want to go, and then head off to pick up its next passenger? Suddenly, that car is maximally utilized, parking spaces are re-developed for more productive uses, and no one actually needs to spend the capital to buy a car, since one can just be "rented" for the trips you want.

Need a truck to pick up some plywood? Summon one. No need to have that "beater" in the driveway going unused 364 days a year. Need a large van for a family vacation? No problem.

To me, that seems like a way to make transportation much cheaper for everyone, not more expensive...

[Kev Williams]

I saw a trivia note the other day, that car ownership will plummet by 2030 as large segments of the population switch to ride sharing and autonomous car services to meet their routine needs.

I have a Readers Digest book "How In The World" that's all about modern technology, and how it all works. Like, underwater buried phone lines-- oh yeah, this book was written in 1991, and is actually pretty hilarious at times!

-- like the flat-out statement: "By the year 2020 the world's know oil reserves are due to run out." Here it is 2-1/2 years away and the world has more oil than it knows what to do with

--so much for 'future trivia'...

What happens when a solar flare interrupts the GPS connection and your riding along at 60 MPH?

Anyone who hasn't had a computer problem in the past 2 years, post up! And exactly, what IF an autonomous car loses its ability to function at 60mph? What's the "on-error then-" plan? Shoot out warning flares? Pull over? How can it pull over if it doesn't know how to drive? Just stop? That's about the only actual thing the car could do, slowly stop. And that plan will work just dandy at 60mph in traffic...

Someone mentioned driving in Chicago in Winter- How about in Utah at ANY time? There's 3 people in Utah that actually DON'T speed up to block a would-be lane-changer with his turn signal on. (I'm one of them ) How do you train an autonomous car for aggressive driving?

Self driving cars will NOT save lives, they'll only make a few people more rich....

[Edwin Santos]

Reminds me of the horseless carriage debates.

Based on your avatar, you look great for your age Matt.

[Dan Friedrichs]

Anyone who hasn't had a computer problem in the past 2 years, post up! And exactly, what IF an autonomous car loses its ability to function at 60mph? What's the "on-error then-" plan? Shoot out warning flares? Pull over? How can it pull over if it doesn't know how to drive? Just stop? That's about the only actual thing the car could do, slowly stop. And that plan will work just dandy at 60mph in traffic...

In all seriousness: do you think you're the first person to consider those issues? Do you think the thousands of highly-trained engineers at Tesla, Google, and Apple haven't considered those problems and decided that they can be solved?

[Malcolm McLeod]

... And exactly, what IF an autonomous car loses its ability to function at 60mph? ....

So we have solar flares and viruses identified as root-causes of this 'autonomous loss of ability'. That's 2, and we'll multiply x3 to account for the unknowns...?? Then divide by 4 for redundant processors. So, 1.5 failure modes per 100,000 miles.

Compare that to the teenager down the street: phone, facebook, twitter, snapchat, texts from 137 people, ipod, radio, rain, THAT song on the radio, eek - snow, bump in the road, a passing car, adjust the mirror, check out self in mirror, wonder if I can drive for Uber, a passing hottie, a billboard, wonder if I can be a model, a squirrel, look - up in the sky, a bird, a plane, no - gotta check my makeup, cool tree. OK, now for the next mile of road...

...Odd stance on technology, from someone who's signature indicates you clearly embrace technology.

Just thought of this: In my formative years, I lusted after a '55 Mercedes Gullwing; it would meet ALL of my transportation needs! My sons are currently at the same approximate ages as I was, and they too lust after something that will meet ALL of their transportation needs - - the Uber app on their mobile phone. ....Guess which of us has fulfilled our transportation fantasy.

[Sam Murdoch]

* Redundancies * Redundancies * Redundancies * No matter, this will happen with or without our approval but in 20 or 30 years rather than 5 or 10 (though in the short term there will be some of this action on our highways). Wait for it ...

[Rick Potter]

Hi Matt,

Yup, I have a plug in car, matter of fact, my wife likes it so much I have two plug in cars now. Both Ford C-Max Energi's. They don't drive themselves though, but they can park themselves. They go about 20 miles on juice, then the motor turns on, and they operate like a Prius. Perfect for most short trips, and local driving like the wife's car, which has averaged 201MPG since new. Mine gets driven farther, and made a trip to Idaho last year and it has averaged 101 MPG since new. 37 MPG on gas during the Idaho trip.

[Ole Anderson]

I don't need a car to drive me from point A to point B. I need a car that just makes long distance highway driving easier. Auto braking, adaptive cruise control, auto steering to keep me in the lane I want to be in. To do everything needed to adapt to city driving, backing out onto my busy street, merging onto a freeway, finding a parking space at Piggly Wiggly requires so much more than just highway driving. Keep it simple to start. We are getting there with adaptive cruise, emergency braking and lane departure, just add the auto steering and we will be good to go. And keeping my 8'6" (not counting the mirrors) wide motor home between the concrete barriers and the semi next to me while in 11 foot narrow lanes in a construction zone chicane while raining at night would be nice...

Anyone care to venture what we will be seeing as far as technology in 100 years?

[Pete Simmons]

" By the way, anybody look in their engine bay lately. Still see a mechanical linkage from the steering wheel to the wheels?? ...Wonder what happened to it?"

Can any one name a car on the road today that goes NOT have some kind of mechanical steering linkage? I think there are a couple that are close but they still have a backup mech method.

Many cars today have electric assist. My RAV4 for one. My steering computer gave out but still had a somewhat heavy but workable mech system.

[Kev Williams]

oh, the irony-- I'm running down self driving cars and one of my customers from way-back walks in today. Needs a SS license plate frame engraved with the Spacex logo...
After a few pleasantries, I find out that for the past 5 years he's been working with Elon Musk as one of his electrical engineers...

go figure

[Kev Williams]

...Odd stance on technology, from someone who's signature indicates you clearly embrace technology.

Most of my machines are pushing 30 years old, 6 of my 8 computers are running XP, one is running 98SE... My "new" tech is all from China...

I may need technology to make a living, but I hardly EMBRACE it--- I simply endure it because I HAVE to-- why do you think I don't trust computers?

[Malcolm McLeod]

" By the way, anybody look in their engine bay lately. Still see a mechanical linkage from the steering wheel to the wheels?? ...Wonder what happened to it?"

Can any one name a car on the road today that goes NOT have some kind of mechanical steering linkage? I think there are a couple that are close but they still have a backup mech method.

Many cars today have electric assist. My RAV4 for one. My steering computer gave out but still had a somewhat heavy but workable mech system.

My questions were rhetorical (perhaps very soon to be literal). ....This was 2013 article, and it had 3 computers. If they have 30,000,000 miles without logging a need for the referenced fail-safe, when will the bean counters push the engies to 'just leave the mechanicals out, no one will care'...??

[Pat Barry]

I don't need a car to drive me from point A to point B. I need a car that just makes long distance highway driving easier. Auto braking, adaptive cruise control, auto steering to keep me in the lane I want to be in. To do everything needed to adapt to city driving, backing out onto my busy street, merging onto a freeway, finding a parking space at Piggly Wiggly requires so much more than just highway driving. Keep it simple to start. We are getting there with adaptive cruise, emergency braking and lane departure, just add the auto steering and we will be good to go. And keeping my 8'6" (not counting the mirrors) wide motor home between the concrete barriers and the semi next to me while in 11 foot narrow lanes in a construction zone chicane while raining at night would be nice...

Anyone care to venture what we will be seeing as far as technology in 100 years?

Sounds like you want to sleep while driving...autonomous vehicle

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

I drive a car. Everyday I have motorcycles cut me off, pull into an already small following distance in front of me, split lanes, drive on the shoulder, pass at double the speed limit, and ride wheelies while standing on the seat in the HOV lane. Where's the autonomous motorcycles?

They are getting closer. Check out all the bells and whistles Ducati has that improve rider safety (including traction and wheelie control, cornering lights)

I won't believe the driverless car hype until I see one drive in a Chicago winter.

They are getting closer. https://youtu.be/IY7O_-nWUbk

I recall reading years ago about testing sensors or markers buried in the snow in Canada or Alaska, but I can't find any reference to it on the internet.

What do you remember about those old timer?

Ha! Very good one!

To me, that seems like a way to make transportation much cheaper for everyone, not more expensive...

I agree with this concept, but I wouldn't be one that would want to use it. I wouldn't want to be the next person in the vehicle after a busy, exhausted adult and 4 active kids with sticky food and sticky fingers were in it.