Re:Self-Driving Cars Can Handle Neither Rain nor Sleet nor Snow
by make3 on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @12:58AM
(#18012570)
obstacle density is really extremely sparse in the skies compared to the ground
Re:Self-Driving Cars Can Handle Neither Rain nor Sleet nor Snow
by nradov on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @01:21AM
(#18012663)
Dealing with failures is far more complex for aircraft. When a car gets a flat tire or suffers an engine failure the driver can just pull over and stop. But an autonomous aircraft carrying passengers or flying over populated areas would have to cope with broken sensors, uncontained engine failures, loss of cabin pressure, stuck control surfaces, etc.
Re:Self-Driving Cars Can Handle Neither Rain nor Sleet nor Snow
by alkonaut on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @02:16AM
(#18012903)
Both autonomous cars and autonomous aircraft (likely) have manual backups. So the goal is to be 99% autonomous, or something like that.
That works for flying because the failures are probably more far between. The planes are very well maintained, the route is clear from other planes etc.
For a car, reaching 90, 95 and 99% is really difficult because of other drivers, bad weather, ice covered sensors, higher risk of mechanical failures.
I agree making a 100% autonomous plane that needs to land safely in an emergency is probably more difficult for the reason you mention.
Re:Self-Driving Cars Can Handle Neither Rain nor Sleet nor Snow
by ghaff on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @05:41AM
(#18013812)
>the driver can just pull over and stop
Yes, sometimes you can pull over and sometimes you just have to put the blinkers on, stop in the traffic lane, and hope for the best--even though it can be very dangerous. One challenge is that, with full autonomy, the vehicle needs to be able to very quickly deal with a once-in-10-years scenario in the least bad way--both for its occupants and for any other traffic on the road.
Re:Self-Driving Cars Can Handle Neither Rain nor Sleet nor Snow
by hef19898 on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @01:31AM
(#18012705)
Sure, thing is these issues are extremely rare (and not just over populated areas) And that is why you still have pilots, and redundant systems, so yes as a system an aircraft is a lot more complex. The traffic environment is not, the high level of control of air traffic and its standardization is making sure of that. And the latter is making i easier for aircraft because they have to deal with a lot less randomness.
So, I could imagine developers of self-driving cars could learn a thing or two from aerospace. But that is just my opinion.
It seems that developers for self driving cars are dealing with a very different, and in some ways more difficult, environment than aircraft auto-pilots. While cars only have to deal with two dimensions instead of three and cars are still less complex machines compared to planes there are a lot more challenges. Unregulated and not controlled environment, traffic ranging from cars to trucks to motorbikes to bikes to pedestrians to playing children. Less room for sensors in the car, changing road condiitions, animals, you name it. Not a simple problem to solve.
And with a near perfect track record of similar systems in the aerospace sector the bar for acceptance hangs pretty high. Add to that the fact that pilots are trained in the use of these systems while the average joe / jane in a car is not. And the car should be able to drive without driver in the end.