The most revolutionary thing about self-driving cars is distributed computing

Re:The most revolutionary thing about self-driving cars is d... by Shivetya on Tuesday June 20, 2017 @03:16PM (#14597584)

No, the most revolutionary thing is the freedom from police harassment it will lead to. Self driving cars will obey all local traffic laws to reach certification and deny the police a power the abuse which is the right to use a traffic stop pretextually. As in, stop you for speeding or running a light to regardless if that was his real intent.

See https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/201... for a better explanation than I can ever make. Think about it, the abuse that can happen to minorities and poorer elements of society will be much more difficult to execute. Even stealing from people under forfeiture laws will be much more difficult if the officer cannot find a valid reason to stop you for his otherwise invalid purpose

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Re:The most revolutionary thing about self-driving cars is d... by Animats on Tuesday June 20, 2017 @04:31PM (#14598332)

"(Cops) can follow self-driving cars all day but won’t be able to pull them over."

Yes, that's going to be interesting. I'm waiting for an event when some small-town sheriff pulls over a Waymo self-driving car without justification, and Waymo shows up in court with lawyers, full imagery, LIDAR scans, GPS info, a complete video reconstruction of the event, and the browsing history of the sheriff.

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Re:The most revolutionary thing about self-driving cars is d... by jacquesm on Tuesday June 20, 2017 @05:06PM (#14598608)

For now they still have trouble staying in their lane, I don't see any lack of reasons to pull them over, in fact I'd love to see them taken off the roads entirely until such bugs have been ironed out. Public roads are not the place to beta test software.

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Re:The most revolutionary thing about self-driving cars is d... by Animats on Tuesday June 20, 2017 @05:41PM (#14598870)

Tesla's system is quite good at lane-keeping where there are clear lane lines. Their problem is ramming into stationary obstacles in lane.

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Re:The most revolutionary thing about self-driving cars is d... by jacquesm on Tuesday June 20, 2017 @06:39PM (#14599193)

Yes, but 'where there are clear lane lines' is exactly the problem. I know plenty of places where there are no clear lane lines. If every one of those is an accident waiting to happen then we first should invest in some kind of minimal level road markings. And even then you'll have plenty of exceptions.

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Re:The most revolutionary thing about self-driving cars is d... by sharemywin on Tuesday June 20, 2017 @03:37PM (#14597810)

So, the cars aren't going to do Face ID checks before they start? Especially if it's a service.

Warrant no transportation.

Late on Child support can use the car until you pay.

Your had sex with a minor when you were 18. sorry you the car won't drive within 100 ft of a school.

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Re:The most revolutionary thing about self-driving cars is d... by jacquesm on Tuesday June 20, 2017 @05:07PM (#14598616)

> sorry you the car won't drive within 100 ft of a school.

That's not a very high barrier, that's less than the distance from a parking spot to most destinations. A few km would be more effective.

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Re:The most revolutionary thing about self-driving cars is d... by elihu on Tuesday June 20, 2017 @04:38PM (#14598399)

> Self driving cars will obey all local traffic laws

I doubt it. I don't think consumers would tolerate a car that always obeyed the speed limit. And if a self-driving car did, it could be pulled over for impeding traffic.

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Re:The most revolutionary thing about self-driving cars is d... by mrtron on Tuesday June 20, 2017 @04:49PM (#14598485)

Do you hate trains that obey speed limits?

Speed limits can be changed to something more reasonable, and humans won't worry about the speed it goes but the time and cost.

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