I am in the AGI camp, but have wondered and still wonder,
Why are efforts not focused primarily on interstate/highway travel, specifically, collaboration with DoT for mesh/distributed/coordinated long-term travel?
I don't need a self-driving taxi. I would pay 20K for a car which participated in a federally-regulated framework which let me let go of the wheel when I get on a highway and let teh emergent cloud determine how best to move my car and all the others on dedicated/reserved lanes in coordinated "trains" for hours.
The wins here seem like no-brainers. Sidestep all jurisdictional nonsense; optimize commerce and personal travel; automatically handle emergency vehicles and other unusual conditions; etc ad infinitum.
All my car needs to be able to do other than existing lower-tier self-driving/driver assist basics, is join the borg.
Coordination for traffic flow management seems like an unbelievable win.
But no, all we seem to be getting is cyclist-terminating taxis which cost $250K each and are, IMO, doomed in target-rich environments like SF to not forseeably adequately the last 8% of anomalous novel cases.
If you just want a car that drives itself on freeways, get a Tesla. Probably 80% of my car's 15,000 miles have been on autopilot. It automatically changes lanes to pass and automatically gets out of the passing lane afterwards. It takes offramps and interchanges. It automatically brakes for obstacles. It aborts lane changes if someone else gets in the way. It even works in rain and light snow.
Other car companies are a few years behind, but even something as simple as adaptive cruise control + lane centering is a huge help on freeways.
It has killed people letting it self drive on the freeways. It was a while ago and maybe it has gotten better since, but I don't think taking your eyes of the road is advisable.
The latest update has eye tracking and warns you if you take your eyes off the road for more than a second or two.
Nobody is saying that self-driving cars are perfectly safe. Considering how many Teslas are on the road and how many miles are driven on autopilot, it would be surprising if there weren't any deaths. As long as it's safer than unaided human drivers (which it is), it's a net win.
I agree. I think the problem has been the ride hailing companies shifting all the attention to being self driving taxis.
For 95% of people I think the value is in letting them do other stuff while driving long distances/times instead of stuck behind the wheel. This seems many orders of magnitude easier than trying to tackle inner city driving.
Why are efforts not focused primarily on interstate/highway travel, specifically, collaboration with DoT for mesh/distributed/coordinated long-term travel?
I don't need a self-driving taxi. I would pay 20K for a car which participated in a federally-regulated framework which let me let go of the wheel when I get on a highway and let teh emergent cloud determine how best to move my car and all the others on dedicated/reserved lanes in coordinated "trains" for hours.
The wins here seem like no-brainers. Sidestep all jurisdictional nonsense; optimize commerce and personal travel; automatically handle emergency vehicles and other unusual conditions; etc ad infinitum.
All my car needs to be able to do other than existing lower-tier self-driving/driver assist basics, is join the borg.
Coordination for traffic flow management seems like an unbelievable win.
But no, all we seem to be getting is cyclist-terminating taxis which cost $250K each and are, IMO, doomed in target-rich environments like SF to not forseeably adequately the last 8% of anomalous novel cases.
Just don't get it.