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I ran across a tidbit that 70% of Chevrolet's sales last year were Pickups and SUVs. Presumably, Ford's percentage might be even higher. People want what they want. I wonder how self-driving cars will handle rough gravel roads and unmapped narrow forest roads.

Spock wrote:I ran across a tidbit that 70% of Chevrolet's sales last year were Pickups and SUVs. Presumably, Ford's percentage might be even higher. People want what they want. I wonder how self-driving cars will handle rough gravel roads and unmapped narrow forest roads.

Just fine as there will always need to be an override setting.

triviawayne wrote:

Spock wrote:I ran across a tidbit that 70% of Chevrolet's sales last year were Pickups and SUVs. Presumably, Ford's percentage might be even higher. People want what they want. I wonder how self-driving cars will handle rough gravel roads and unmapped narrow forest roads.

Just fine as there will always need to be an override setting.

Great, if there is always the override, but the little I have read is that there are test models with no steering or controls. Speculation is that (maybe sooner than we think) the ability to override may be taken from us.

A thought just struck me that if future drivers have spent very little time actually driving that it might not be a good thing for an inexperienced driver to take over in snowy or other dangerous conditions.

I want a self driving car




For my 85th birthday,

themanintheseersuckersuit wrote:I want a self driving car




For my 85th birthday,

That's funny, because I had much the same kind of thought for the same birthday (my own 85th, not yours.) Now, this may not bode well for the future of driving if the roads become cluttered with elderly not-exactly-drivers who can't see so well, can't hear so much, and have the reflexes of three-toed tree sloths.

Beware, youngsters.

Spock wrote:

triviawayne wrote:

Spock wrote:I ran across a tidbit that 70% of Chevrolet's sales last year were Pickups and SUVs. Presumably, Ford's percentage might be even higher. People want what they want. I wonder how self-driving cars will handle rough gravel roads and unmapped narrow forest roads.

Just fine as there will always need to be an override setting.

Great, if there is always the override, but the little I have read is that there are test models with no steering or controls. Speculation is that (maybe sooner than we think) the ability to override may be taken from us.

A thought just struck me that if future drivers have spent very little time actually driving that it might not be a good thing for an inexperienced driver to take over in snowy or other dangerous conditions.

All self-driving cars will have to have steering, controls, and an override ability.

BobJ>>>All self-driving cars will have to have steering, controls, and an override ability.<<<

The agriculture industry is light years ahead on self-driving stuff. The last 3 springs, I have planted with an Autosteer tractor. I make the turns at the end, but it keeps going straight while following the row. We (the Spocks) are way behind many of our peers who have autosteer on other stuff.

Little Spock said at a recent farm show that he saw robotic farm machinery that will do the whole field with no operator aboard. Presumable, there is control off-site through the cloud.

silvercamaro wrote:

themanintheseersuckersuit wrote:I want a self driving car




For my 85th birthday,

That's funny, because I had much the same kind of thought for the same birthday (my own 85th, not yours.) Now, this may not bode well for the future of driving if the roads become cluttered with elderly not-exactly-drivers who can't see so well, can't hear so much, and have the reflexes of three-toed tree sloths.

Beware, youngsters.

I bet a self-driving car would never see a falling power pole coming.

This is a terrible idea. Even I would be afraid to drive myself...

silvercamaro wrote:

themanintheseersuckersuit wrote:I want a self driving car




For my 85th birthday,

That's funny, because I had much the same kind of thought for the same birthday (my own 85th, not yours.) Now, this may not bode well for the future of driving if the roads become cluttered with elderly not-exactly-drivers who can't see so well, can't hear so much, and have the reflexes of three-toed tree sloths.

Beware, youngsters.

It is my ernest hope that the software will solve the turn signal problem.

themanintheseersuckersuit wrote:

silvercamaro wrote:

themanintheseersuckersuit wrote:I want a self driving car




For my 85th birthday,

That's funny, because I had much the same kind of thought for the same birthday (my own 85th, not yours.) Now, this may not bode well for the future of driving if the roads become cluttered with elderly not-exactly-drivers who can't see so well, can't hear so much, and have the reflexes of three-toed tree sloths.

Beware, youngsters.

It is my ernest hope that the software will solve the turn signal problem.

My 1997 Grand Am had signals that would self cancel after a certain distance. I never found a place I was willing to test it.

From a recent issue of the Economist>>>"..Ford said it would launch a fully autonomous car, without steering wheel or pedals,...by 2021."

The way I read that-you won't be able to take control of that car.

Spock wrote:From a recent issue of the Economist>>>"..Ford said it would launch a fully autonomous car, without steering wheel or pedals,...by 2021."

The way I read that-you won't be able to take control of that car.

That would be insane.

A fully autonomous car without override -- now there's a bad idea. There will always be exigent circumstances, or even boring non-planned stuff. There's a little Subway over in Trinidad that SteelersFan and I go to, and how would we get there? Tell the car to find a Subway? I googled it just now, and it appears it's gone out of business as a Subway but is still open as a sub shop. How would the GPS system handle that? Plus the snow-covered roads that somebody else referred to -- that would take a very complicated and ingenious bit of programming.

SportsFan68 wrote:A fully autonomous car without override -- now there's a bad idea. There will always be exigent circumstances, or even boring non-planned stuff. There's a little Subway over in Trinidad that SteelersFan and I go to, and how would we get there? Tell the car to find a Subway? I googled it just now, and it appears it's gone out of business as a Subway but is still open as a sub shop. How would the GPS system handle that? Plus the snow-covered roads that somebody else referred to -- that would take a very complicated and ingenious bit of programming.

I use my GPS all the time because it gets real-time traffic updates. I usually have to enter the address of my destination; the name usually isn't in the database. One thing it can't handle is roads closed due to high water, not even the downtown underpasses that fully flood (and have since the 1920s). I can manually tell it to detour though.

Bob Juch wrote:

SportsFan68 wrote:A fully autonomous car without override -- now there's a bad idea. There will always be exigent circumstances, or even boring non-planned stuff. There's a little Subway over in Trinidad that SteelersFan and I go to, and how would we get there? Tell the car to find a Subway? I googled it just now, and it appears it's gone out of business as a Subway but is still open as a sub shop. How would the GPS system handle that? Plus the snow-covered roads that somebody else referred to -- that would take a very complicated and ingenious bit of programming.

I use my GPS all the time because it gets real-time traffic updates. I usually have to enter the address of my destination; the name usually isn't in the database. One thing it can't handle is roads closed due to high water, not even the downtown underpasses that fully flood (and have since the 1920s). I can manually tell it to detour though.

Yep, floods are a big problem for a GPS. I went to a friend's daughter's wedding in 2011 in Burlington, IA, we would come to a detour sign and head off north or south or whatever, and the GPS would yell at us and tell us to reverse, then it would finally recognize that we weren't reversing and plot a new course, sometimes contrary to the Detour route, which I have to assume was plotted by locals familiar with the best way to get around. Plus, they knew more about where the roads were flooded than the GPS did.

Well, if self-driving cars aren't your thing, how about a self-driving chair?

http://www.pcmag.com/news/348240/standi ... ing-chairs

Spock wrote:From a recent issue of the Economist>>>"..Ford said it would launch a fully autonomous car, without steering wheel or pedals,...by 2021."

The way I read that-you won't be able to take control of that car.

My guess is it would have a joystick for such emergencies, but still not something I like the idea of.

What I really want is a self-loading car. I like to drive, but I could use a vehicle that would load up the dogs for a trip to the vet or load up the bags of stuff at the grocery store and then unload them at home. A good self-cleaning kitchen ought to put all of the groceries away in the cupboards or fridge, too. This would be science I could use!

silvercamaro wrote:What I really want is a self-loading car. I like to drive, but I could use a vehicle that would load up the dogs for a trip to the vet or load up the bags of stuff at the grocery store and then unload them at home. A good self-cleaning kitchen ought to put all of the groceries away in the cupboards or fridge, too. This would be science I could use!

A robot that could do that ought to be able to drive your car also

silvercamaro wrote:What I really want is a self-loading car. I like to drive, but I could use a vehicle that would load up the dogs for a trip to the vet or load up the bags of stuff at the grocery store and then unload them at home. A good self-cleaning kitchen ought to put all of the groceries away in the cupboards or fridge, too. This would be science I could use!

Rec!

silvercamaro wrote:A good self-cleaning kitchen ought to put all of the groceries away in the cupboards or fridge, too. This would be science I could use!

I have that already. I have the '99 model Travis. It works pretty well. At times it sticks and needs to be whacked on the side, but for the most part it works.

We have a self-cleaning kitchen floor, too. The 2011 Piper. We've never had a problem with it not working.

BackInTex wrote:

silvercamaro wrote:A good self-cleaning kitchen ought to put all of the groceries away in the cupboards or fridge, too. This would be science I could use!

I have that already. I have the '99 model Travis. It works pretty well. At times it sticks and needs to be whacked on the side, but for the most part it works.

We have a self-cleaning kitchen floor, too. The 2011 Piper. We've never had a problem with it not working.

How about a recent photo of the 2011 Piper?

Spock wrote:From a recent issue of the Economist>>>"..Ford said it would launch a fully autonomous car, without steering wheel or pedals,...by 2021."

The way I read that-you won't be able to take control of that car.

The rise of the machines is almost here....

Another problem that never occurred to me:

Self-Driving Cars Will Make Organ Shortages Even Worse