Regulation, not technology is holding back driverless cars

Re:Regulation, not technology is holding back driverless cars by weavejester on Sunday May 29, 2011 @06:15PM (#2597753)

Clearly that's not universally true, otherwise racing drivers would use automatic gearboxes. It may be true for everyday driving, but I'd need to see some citations for this claim.

Frankly, I'm a little dubious of automatic transmission. Perhaps I've just been driving the wrong cars, but I haven't found an automatic gearbox that can match a human being. For instance, if I'm descending a steep hill, I'll stick the car in a lower gear, but an automatic always chooses the higher gear.

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Re:Regulation, not technology is holding back driverless cars by ars on Sunday May 29, 2011 @07:25PM (#2597906)

Automatic transmissions avoid engine braking. If you want it, you need to choose it manually.

And personally I never do for the simple reason that brakes are a lot cheaper than transmissions. And I rarely descend a hill long enough and steep enough that brake heating is a serious problem. (And when I do I usually just slow down, and stay slow.)

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Re:Regulation, not technology is holding back driverless cars by stretchwithme on Sunday May 29, 2011 @07:52PM (#2597951)

I downshift on hills because that keeps more of my stopping power ready to use. Brakes heat up when you use them continuously, reducing their effectiveness.

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Re:Regulation, not technology is holding back driverless cars by danssig on Monday May 30, 2011 @08:11AM (#2599137)

>Clearly that's not universally true, otherwise racing drivers would use automatic gearboxes.

F1 drivers did until it got banned. In fact, if I'm not mistaken I believe our more advanced automatic transmissions came from F1.

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