What a Tesla sees
 

Multiple camera views of what a Tesla sees while self driving.
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What a prototype self-driving Tesla 'sees' on public roads
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The original apparently can't see a tractor trailer.
Not all prototype features make it to production.

This is a newer version which relies on cameras more than radar. It still didn't see the dog though. I hate the thought of self driving cars. The scifi expectation is way beyond reality.

The sci-fi expectation is CURRENTLY way beyond reality. Often, reality exceeds the sci-fi expectation and we quickly take it for granted. Self-driving cars will be no exception.

Star Trek self opening and closing doors - Every major retail store has them.
Star Trek communicator - Cell phones do that and a whole lot more.
Star Trek computers you can talk to - Siri, Google, etc.
Star Trek touch-screens - Most every cell phone and laptop now.
Self-flying drones.

I'm always wrong about technology. I remember a kid in highschool telling me he was setting up a home network, which I replied "why would you want that when you have floppy disks to transfer files?". Now everyone has wifi.

When internet was available on cell phones, I figured it was a pointless technology since most everyone had internet at home. Now that feature is usually more valuable than home internet service.

Early implimentations of any technology usually have problems, go through many design revisions, develop standards, and finally become ubiquitious.

Flying cars won't be a reality for a long time, if ever, but self-driving cars will be among the biggest game changers of my lifetime. There are many big players investing in the technology, which indicates it isn't going away.

Of course they are the guinea pigs. We all are the guinea pigs for the things we purchase.

At least it is a voluntary group of guinea pigs, and you could do a lot worse than a Tesla as a test subject.

It makes sense that the person in command of something is the responsible party, and not the software aids. The car is subject to the human's will, which by definition places both the authority and responsibility on that person. Responsibility would only shift to the software if it has graduated to that task, with the occupants primary role as a passenger.

In commercial aviation, the pilots primary responsibility is to fly the plane, with or without flying aids. A malfunctioning automated system is no excuse for an accident. We'll start blaming autopilot for accidents when the "pilot" seat moves to the rear of the plane, and they are tasked with saying "Hey Siri, take us to Heathrow" and then they recline their chairs.

I thought self driving cars were going be quickly become better than our worse drivers on the road.
Guess that's not going to happen as quickly as we would like to see.

I worry that vehicle to vehicle communication and and autonomous cooperation will become a requirement for road use. We are demanding too many complicated and expensive safety systems in our personal transportation already.

If the government tried to implement such a requirement for road use, I think public outcry would be swift and vehement. As yet, safety requirements are implemented only for new vehicles. You can't sell a car without ABS, but you can drive one without it. You can't sell a car without traction control, but you can drive one built before it was required in 2012. In fact, most (all?) state laws allow operation of cars without seatbelts provided they were built before 1969 (or whenever seatbelts were required by federal law, I think it was that year). Huge swaths of the car-owning population, enthusiasts and non-enthusiasts alike, would be massively inconvenienced and outraged if we reach a point where the government allows only self-driving cars to operate on public roads.

have you seen human drivers lately???
 

The self driving cars only have to beat the humans.

How many times have you seen distracted drivers lately?

Yacking on the cell phone...

Texting... (4 times more likely to have an accident than a drunk driver.)

Eating a hamburger...

Drunk...

Stoned...

Feeding the kid in the back seat...

Poorly trained...


etc, etc, etc.

Statistically, the google fleet has done pretty well compared to humans.

Google's Self-Driving Cars Are Ridiculously Safe | Big Think

That happened day one.

Depending on how you define the words "reality", or "cars", you might be wrong yet again, because several high-end, low scale production flying cars already exist. Like This One



This too has already begun to happen. GE has been leading the Industrial Internet revolution for some time now, and it has made huge leaps over the last couple of years doing exactly what you are talking about... That is, designing what is known as "The Internet of Things" via a software platform called PREDIX.

I'm sure others will follow, and although it may not become a requirement per-say, it will become the norm - which in turn makes it a social requirement, and I don't think there will be any public outcry over that... Check it out, (this technology is currently in use by the way)

Statistically speaking, the Tesla is less safe than:

Record 9 Models Have Zero Highway Deaths, IIHS Says

Google cars are being carefully monitored by their drivers, so it's more like having a redundant co-pilot.