Re:Nevada passes law authorizing driverless cars
by maxwell on Thursday June 23, 2011 @06:52PM
(#2690256)
> now something like only 3% of the population are still employed as farmers.
That's about exactly accurate: it was 2.8%, as of 1998, and is projected to dip down to 2.4% by 2018. [1] I happened to be looking at this just a few minutes ago, linked from http://zamfi.net/blog/one-day-we-will-all-be-programmers
Re:Nevada passes law authorizing driverless cars
by rdouble on Thursday June 23, 2011 @07:00PM
(#2690279)
Where do farmers use driverless equipment? I live in a farming community and nobody uses driverless equipment.
Re:Nevada passes law authorizing driverless cars
by randomdata on Thursday June 23, 2011 @07:15PM
(#2690317)
When I say driverless, I'm not precluding the presence of an operator.
John Deere's iTEC Pro, for example, is capable of controlling the tractor, but still requires an operator to be in the cab, just in case. Although here's a fun video of someone who disabled the safety sensors: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU4liQvrcm4
I don't know of any large operator that isn't using at least autosteer, which, for things like cultivating essentially is driverless. For what it is worth, I come from an area of grain farmers.
Interestingly, farming has been moving to driverless equipment out in the fields for the last couple of decades. At first it was not well received. Who would want to give up control of their machines? But in the last couple of years, the technology has really exploded. People are starting to see the benefits to their business.
I expect driverless cars will be the same. It is going to be a long time before it is accepted by the masses, even when the long list of benefits are present. Hopefully we don't outlaw them before they really come into their own.