Alphabet exec says self-driving cars 'have gone through a lot of hype'

Re:Alphabet exec says self-driving cars 'have gone through a... by riantogo on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @04:08PM (#21642707)

FWIW Here is my anecdotal experience. I have be driving a Tesla Model 3 for 1 year now. I don't have their Full Self Driving package but had added on Autopilot (adaptive cruise control plus lane keeping). 75% of my commute (and lot more on trips) is the car driving itself. I'm of course ready to take over any moment but with all the help from the sensors it is definitely much safer than depending on my senses alone. Over the months the self driving has become more natural, reliable and safer. Over the next several years it will only keep getting better. It has a huge positive impact on reducing driver fatigue.

I know that the topic at hand is about L5 fully autonomous, but wanted to share that though robotaxis are still some ways out, big benefits to personal driving is already here. From here things will rapidly evolve towards the ideal state.

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Re:Alphabet exec says self-driving cars 'have gone through a... by vl on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @04:26PM (#21642904)

People who haven’t used electric car with Autopilot just don’t realize how much easier and less fatiguing it is to drive. Especially at the end of the long trip the difference is very pronounced. The problem is that it’s hard to convey or demonstrate: you really need to try it for the few days do see for yourself. Single test-drive is not enough.

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Re:Alphabet exec says self-driving cars 'have gone through a... by scott_s on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @04:22PM (#21642857)

What do you still do manually?

An important concept pointed out in these conversations before is that human-in-the-loop driving is a moving target. That is, it's possible we may never get to the point of fully automated driving because we may discover that the safest method is humans doing some small fraction, and automated systems doing the rest. Since we have partial automation now, and will continue to in the future, we're not asking "When will automated systems replace human drivers?" but "When will fully automated systems replace humans using partially automated systems?" Because we're constantly improving the partially automated systems, we're constantly raising the bar that a fully automated system needs to meet.

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Re:Alphabet exec says self-driving cars 'have gone through a... by vl on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @04:30PM (#21642949)

> What do you still do manually?

If there is no car in front of you, stop and start at lights and intersections. Turn (while with FSD package it takes highway ramps automatically, it’s not reliable on any complex highway intersection). In heavy traffic, you have to change lanes manually, automatic system is not aggressive enough.

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Re:Alphabet exec says self-driving cars 'have gone through a... by gremlinsinc on Wednesday November 27, 2019 @08:53AM (#21647802)

Maybe we could convert cars to maglev, that go super fast floating above roads and pedestrians but cars follow 'tracks' and convert to normal street when nearing destinations. Truckers could have 'ports' that maglevs hook up to so trucking and commercial vehicles wouldn't need drivers to 'take over' in local environs.

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Re:Alphabet exec says self-driving cars 'have gone through a... by wobblegong on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @05:47PM (#21643531)

Agreed, I think that self-driving cars in the L5 sense are decades away, but let's be honest, how much of driving is simply following the car in front of you? That seems like a much easier problem to solve.

I'm personally most interested in the trucking example, where trucks can form a caravan with a single driver in the front.

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