Google fully functional self-driving car unveiled

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Google unveils fully functional self-driving car

Google unveiled its first “fully functional” self-driving car Monday, the company said.

“Today we’re unwrapping the best holiday gift we could’ve imagined: the first real build of our self-driving vehicle prototype,” the statement on the company’s Google Plus social media site said.
 
Cute but it would never work in South Africa in it's current form.
Firstly our taxi drivers wouldn't be able to stop where ever the hell they please which means some mass demonstration if something like this was ever pitched their way.
Secondly we require high speeds to cover large distances for daily commuting. 40km/h isn't going to cut it - even in town.
Thirdly we have too many people who enjoy driving like Formula 1 drivers just for the thrill so you're going to have to wrestle the steering wheels from them.
 
Great article about this car.

"When discussing self-driving cars, people tend to ask a lot of superficial questions: how much will these cars cost? Is this supposed to replace my car at home? Is this supposed to replace taxis or Uber? What if I need to use a drive-thru?

They ignore the smarter questions. They ignore the fact that 45% of disabled people in the US still work. (Source: page 20) They ignore the fact that 95% of a car's lifetime is spent parked.(Source) They ignore how this technology could transform the lives of the elderly, or eradicate the need for parking lots or garages or gas stations. They dismiss the entire concept because they don't think a computer could ever be as good at merging on the freeway as they are. "
 
This could replace Taxi's but this is South Africa and the taxi drivers would start a RIOT (Strike) and then Zuma will ban these due to some research he never read and say its for job creation. Jobs is more important than safe roads. :erm:

On a serious note this will eventually replace Taxi drivers and Truck drivers which will be great but I just cannot see those jobs being recreated by something else.
 
That car looks so cute with his little nose and stuff
 
Paul_S said:
Cute but it would never work in South Africa in it's current form.
Firstly our taxi drivers wouldn't be able to stop where ever the hell they please which means some mass demonstration if something like this was ever pitched their way.
Secondly we require high speeds to cover large distances for daily commuting. 40km/h isn't going to cut it - even in town.
Thirdly we have too many people who enjoy driving like Formula 1 drivers just for the thrill so you're going to have to wrestle the steering wheels from them.
Click to expand...

Please, in central JB 40km/h is fine, same goes for CT. Remember you can be productive during this time, you are not driving.

This in no way competes with the minibus taxis, so no real threat there.

I can attest that everyone in my office would love to use them.

Last point, considering I have a friend who was recently kidnapped by a taxi driver when she took one home from a club I am sure most people would much rather take a self-driving car than have to trust an unknown person from any taxi company. If the taxi companies are clever they will invest in these cars.
 
Self driving cars would make the roads immensely safer. The only issue is when something does go wrong then they'll always look for somebody to blame.
 
Paul_S said:
Secondly we require high speeds to cover large distances for daily commuting. 40km/h isn't going to cut it - even in town. Thirdly we have too many people who enjoy driving like Formula 1 drivers just for the thrill so you're going to have to wrestle the steering wheels from them.
Click to expand...

Don't know why people keep bringing up the slow speed of self driving cars. The only reason they are so slow is because it's still early days. When the software is fully developed and you have an area with 100% self driving cars that communicate with each other average speed will probably go up. Think about it, the real reason we have speed limits is because of human error.

In an environment with only self-driving cars stop signs/traffic signals etc. effectively become obsolete. You'll have cars whizzing past each other in an intersection without stopping from all directions, cars can pull 200km/h+ on long stretches of road with perfect safety. You'd get an immense improvement in CBDs because the traffic flow can adjust itself to make sure that as many people as possible are always moving. In the end those "Formula 1" drivers would be the ones holding up traffic.

The only restrictions placed on the cars really would be maneuvers that could scare people but after a while people would trust them with the sort of driving that is now considered reckless.
 
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Knyro said:
Don't know why people keep bringing up the slow speed of self driving cars. The only reason they are so slow is because it's still early days.
Click to expand...

Hence my opening statement of "in it's current form".

In an environment with only self-driving cars stop signs/traffic signals etc. effectively become obsolete. You'll have cars whizzing past each other in an intersection without stopping from all directions, cars can pull 200km/h+ on long stretches of road with perfect safety.
Click to expand...

That would be fun but we're not going to be doing 200km/h for two reasons:
1. We can't control animals and people walking/running across roads and that is unlikely to change.
2. Those speeds are extremely energy inefficient.
For example the Tesla Model S' is one of the most aerodynamic vehicles on the road and it's range at 90km/h is 482km with an 85kWh battery pack.
At 185km/h the range drops to around 240km.
http://insideevs.com/heres-how-speed-impacts-range-of-the-tesla-model-s/

Don't get me wrong, I think autonomous vehicles are cool and would revolutionize transport but I don't see it happening within the next 30 years in South Africa.
 
Paul_S said:
Hence my opening statement of "in it's current form".
Click to expand...

Yeah I saw that but

Secondly we require high speeds to cover large distances for daily commuting. 40km/h isn't going to cut it - even in town.
Click to expand...

You acknowledge it's early days but still judge it on current standards. It's quite unfair IMO hence my reply.

That would be fun but we're not going to be doing 200km/h for two reasons:
1. We can't control animals and people walking/running across roads and that is unlikely to change.
Click to expand...

Road conditions can be monitored with appropriate censors and cars sharing information with each other. That and the cars would have perfect reaction time and would safely avoid obstacles even at high speeds. Granted people would have to be educated and barriers would be erected but its not impossible to accomplish, even in SA

2. Those speeds are extremely energy inefficient.

For example the Tesla Model S' is one of the most aerodynamic vehicles on the road and it's range at 90km/h is 482km with an 85kWh battery pack.
At 185km/h the range drops to around 240km.
http://insideevs.com/heres-how-speed-impacts-range-of-the-tesla-model-s/
Click to expand...

That may be but when travelling long distances more people may value other things more like the time taken to get to their destination so cars would have to prioritise accordingly.



Don't get me wrong, I think autonomous vehicles are cool and would revolutionize transport but I don't see it happening within the next 30 years in South Africa.
Click to expand...

Sadly I agree with you here the way things are looking. It can be done, but it probably wont.
 
Knyro said:
Granted people would have to be educated and barriers would be erected but its not impossible to accomplish, even in SA
Click to expand...

This is simply not going to happen in SA IMO.
Every time someone erects barriers to stop people and animals crossing the road, the barriers are broken down by the community and ignored.
Even pedestrian bridges aren't used because people are too lazy to climb some stairs.
Diepsloot, Tembisa ...
 
Paul_S said:
This is simply not going to happen in SA IMO.
Every time someone erects barriers to stop people and animals crossing the road, the barriers are broken down by the community and ignored.
Even pedestrian bridges aren't used because people are too lazy to climb some stairs.
Diepsloot, Tembisa ...
Click to expand...

Actually people also get mugged on those bridges. If youre in a cage above a highway with thugs on boths sides youre pretty much screwed.
 
HeftyCrab said:
Actually people also get mugged on those bridges. If youre in a cage above a highway with thugs on boths sides youre pretty much screwed.
Click to expand...

I didn't think of that scenario. Neither did the local councils who wasted money building the bridges in the first place.
 
phillipvdn said:
Great article about this car.

"When discussing self-driving cars, people tend to ask a lot of superficial questions: how much will these cars cost? Is this supposed to replace my car at home? Is this supposed to replace taxis or Uber? What if I need to use a drive-thru?

They ignore the smarter questions. They ignore the fact that 45% of disabled people in the US still work. (Source: page 20) They ignore the fact that 95% of a car's lifetime is spent parked.(Source) They ignore how this technology could transform the lives of the elderly, or eradicate the need for parking lots or garages or gas stations. They dismiss the entire concept because they don't think a computer could ever be as good at merging on the freeway as they are. "
Click to expand...

I agree with you wholly. Very few people see the full potential of the technologies at play, or the developmental capacity in the background. As a person in networks and security (and tertiary level software understanding) I get exited by where I see thing going. There are a whole lot of spinoff benefits that are going to emerge as a result of these developments.
 
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