Mary Barra takes first ride in driverless car.

That's ridiculous. Dangerous. Stupid dangerous.
How can a remote operator see what is going on and react quickly? Put someone in the driver seat with their hands on the steering wheel.
Again, this is a stupid, irresponsible, dangerous publicity stunt.
Automated cars (true automated, not Tesla automated) have proven to be much safer per-mile than human drivers. Human drivers are terrible, I think a lot of them could be replaced with self driving cars and the roads would be a safer place. Just because you don't like the technology doesn't mean that it's a bad idea.
 
Automated cars (true automated, not Tesla automated) have proven to be much safer per-mile than human drivers. Human drivers are terrible, I think a lot of them could be replaced with self driving cars and the roads would be a safer place. Just because you don't like the technology doesn't mean that it's a bad idea.
I think you missed my point. I posted that about 98% of all accidents are caused ay least in part to human error. Automation can do better.
My point is, that car, or any car, is not ready for autonomous driving. Testing and learning is critical. But put a driver behind the wheel until the functionality is proven. Otherwise do it on a closed test track like Tesla and others do.

I am not sure I understand your Tesla comment. Tesla has the best driver assist functionality, by far. Tesla has billions of AP data collected by their fleet of cars on the road today. That's real world testing.
No car, Tesla or whatever, should be allowed on public roads without a driver in control. Period.
CEO Barra needs to be held responsible for this stupid publicity stunt.
 
I think you missed my point. I posted that about 98% of all accidents are caused ay least in part to human error. Automation can do better.
My point is, that car, or any car, is not ready for autonomous driving. Testing and learning is critical. But put a driver behind the wheel until the functionality is proven. Otherwise do it on a closed test track like Tesla and others do.

I am not sure I understand your Tesla comment. Tesla has the best driver assist functionality, by far. Tesla has billions of AP data collected by their fleet of cars on the road today. That's real world testing.
No car, Tesla or whatever, should be allowed on public roads without a driver in control. Period.
CEO Barra needs to be held responsible for this stupid publicity stunt.
Tesla's autopilot is demonstrably worse than competing solutions from Waymo, Uber, and more. By the way, some of those companies have been testing cars with no safety driver for a while. Waymo even offers a limited driverless taxi service in Phoenix iirc
 
I think you missed my point. I posted that about 98% of all accidents are caused ay least in part to human error. Automation can do better.
My point is, that car, or any car, is not ready for autonomous driving. Testing and learning is critical. But put a driver behind the wheel until the functionality is proven. Otherwise do it on a closed test track like Tesla and others do.

I am not sure I understand your Tesla comment. Tesla has the best driver assist functionality, by far. Tesla has billions of AP data collected by their fleet of cars on the road today. That's real world testing.
No car, Tesla or whatever, should be allowed on public roads without a driver in control. Period.
CEO Barra needs to be held responsible for this stupid publicity stunt.

I’m not sure I understand your criticism. GM/Cruise has been doing autonomous driving for about 6 years. The California DMV approved no-driver operations in October 2020 because they had proven functionality for about 5-years.

Mary Barra just did something engineers had already been doing since 2020. I wouldn’t call that a “stunt” at all.



Waymo has been doing driverless for even longer.

 
Even with humans ready to take over at a moment's notice it didn't stop the first pedestrian death from a self driving vehicle here in Arizona. And the human backup driver was looking at their phone too! This tech will NEVER EVER WORK. Not in 10 years or 100.
 
I think you missed my point. I posted that about 98% of all accidents are caused ay least in part to human error. Automation can do better.
My point is, that car, or any car, is not ready for autonomous driving. Testing and learning is critical. But put a driver behind the wheel until the functionality is proven. Otherwise do it on a closed test track like Tesla and others do.

I am not sure I understand your Tesla comment. Tesla has the best driver assist functionality, by far. Tesla has billions of AP data collected by their fleet of cars on the road today. That's real world testing.
No car, Tesla or whatever, should be allowed on public roads without a driver in control. Period.
CEO Barra needs to be held responsible for this stupid publicity stunt.
There is no doubt that autonomous vehicles are not as good as they will be tomorrow, next year, etc. Neither is a 16 y/o driver who just squeaked by on their road test and has a freshly printed licence in one hand, and a smart phone in the other. They too need learning and testing, which is not mandated from that point forward. Why is your expectation of autonomous vehicles so much higher than what is required of human drivers?
 
Even with humans ready to take over at a moment's notice it didn't stop the first pedestrian death from a self driving vehicle here in Arizona. And the human backup driver was looking at their phone too! This tech will NEVER EVER WORK. Not in 10 years or 100.
How many pedestrians did people kill in Arizona last year? More than one, I'll bet.

Self-driving vehicles will kill people. So do human drivers.
 
There is no doubt that autonomous vehicles are not as good as they will be tomorrow, next year, etc. Neither is a 16 y/o driver who just squeaked by on their road test and has a freshly printed licence in one hand, and a smart phone in the other. They too need learning and testing, which is not mandated from that point forward. Why is your expectation of autonomous vehicles so much higher than what is required of human drivers?
If you read my posts, I am not against autonomous driving cars. Human drivers are pretty bad. What I am against is driverless cars operating on public roadways without a driver to take over if necessary, until the cars are truly ready.
I own a Tesla Model 3 with AP; I am pretty familiar with the functionality.
 
I’m not sure I understand your criticism. GM/Cruise has been doing autonomous driving for about 6 years. The California DMV approved no-driver operations in October 2020 because they had proven functionality for about 5-years.

Mary Barra just did something engineers had already been doing since 2020. I wouldn’t call that a “stunt” at all.



Waymo has been doing driverless for even longer.


I live in Silicon Valley and have seen many Waymo enabled cars, but never one without a driver.
I have never seen a Cruise, much less one without a driver. Can you buy one?
While I am against testing this driverless car testing without a driver at this point, I will check out the Cruise.
 
The only real purpose for self driving vehicles is to get you home from the bar.
Such bull****! I have a dear friend in her mid-nineties who has trouble driving. An autonomous car in her garage would be very helpful. It would allow her to go shopping, visit friends, stop at the bank, etc. It would allow her to maintain her independence a bit longer.

What about people with disabilities? Do they not deserve the same freedoms non-disabled people have? It might also be useful to safely take the kids to school or to various events as well.

A bit more than a year ago I had minor knee surgery and was on crutches for a few days. I was visiting a couple of friends in Nevada, and we went out to dinner. Their Tesla was parked way at the far end of the large parking lot. I sure appreciated the car being summoned to pick us up after dinner.

Of course, we want to be sure the technology functions well and safely, but relegating it to ferrying drunks home from the bar is a serious underutilization of its potential and shows a rather myopic perspective in regards to the usefulness and potential of the technology.
 
If you read my posts, I am not against autonomous driving cars. Human drivers are pretty bad. What I am against is driverless cars operating on public roadways without a driver to take over if necessary, until the cars are truly ready.
I own a Tesla Model 3 with AP; I am pretty familiar with the functionality.
I didn't suggest you were against them. I asked why your expectation of autonomous vehicles is higher than what is expected of human drivers by current regulations and licensing. There is no requirement that someone be in the car to take over from the worst driver in America (who holds a valid licence) when they screw up, so at what point do we accept that self-driving technology is good enough in certain situations and constantly improving? What is the measurable threshold?
 
Driverless will come one day, but I don't think for possibly in the next 10 years or so.

I mean true Level 5 driverless. Like park me at the country fair makeshift grass parking lot smart, not following lines in a road or getting confused by the sunset. Determining if a pedestrian is going to cross the street by their body language. If an accident is inevitable, which vehicle do you crash into or what are the "best" evasive maneuver?
 
I didn't suggest you were against them. I asked why your expectation of autonomous vehicles is higher than what is expected of human drivers by current regulations and licensing. There is no requirement that someone be in the car to take over from the worst driver in America (who holds a valid licence) when they screw up, so at what point do we accept that self-driving technology is good enough in certain situations and constantly improving? What is the measurable threshold?
That answer is above my paycheck. But we are not there yet. AFAIK there are zero privately owned Cruise cars on the streets.
Tesla has billions of miles of AP real world data by real owners, and they are not ready. Nor does Tesla condone driverless driving.

Regarding human drivers, don't get me wrong. They are pretty bad; they appear to be worse than ever. The stuff I see on the road, especially brake checking and tailgating, scares the you-know-what outta me.
 
Here is a interesting video showing a Tesla in self driving mode in snowy conditions. The first thing that shows up is the car is trying to find the lane lines but cannot so it is maneuvering back and forth. In sliding situations it asks the driver to take over. Speed seems a bit high for me.

These are the questions I continue to ask. Road conditions are not always perfect. Snow, ice, urban flooding will test the current technology.

With that said there are some promising things shown in this video.



 
Driverless will come one day, but I don't think for possibly in the next 10 years or so.

I mean true Level 5 driverless. Like park me at the country fair makeshift grass parking lot smart, not following lines in a road or getting confused by the sunset. Determining if a pedestrian is going to cross the street by their body language. If an accident is inevitable, which vehicle do you crash into or what are the "best" evasive maneuver?
The beauty of self driving cars is, they can operate on the same set of parameters. No more boneheaded moves.
 
What about people with disabilities? Do they not deserve the same freedoms non-disabled people have? It might also be useful to safely take the kids to school or to various events as well.


This is a good point. It will give everyone a chance to go somewhere. Mobility is the key word. Age, disability, it won’t matter.
 
Can Tesla just fire Musk and send him back to South Africa where he's from? Sounds harsh but nobody on this forum could break promises or make up stuff like Musk does and keep their job. I can bet a billion dollars that "Robo taxis" don't be come reality next year.
 
Can Tesla just fire Musk and send him back to South Africa where he's from? Sounds harsh but nobody on this forum could break promises or make up stuff like Musk does and keep their job. I can bet a billion dollars that "Robo taxis" don't be come reality next year.
The CEO's job is to maximiae the wealth of the shareholders. Musk has done a pretty job of that, wouldn't you say?
 
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