Self-driving car discussion catch-all

We're actually getting a lot of action here in Michigan with autonomous vehicle testing grounds, and one of the big selling points for investors to focus here rather than somewhere like California is 1) our terrible roads and 2) our terrible weather. Nice way for the automotive companies to stay relevant with companies like Google moving so quickly as they keep a lot of their R&D quiet.

MoonDragon wrote:
bekkilyn wrote:

I was having a discussion with a friend about self-driving cars, and his concern was that people would be able to hack them and intentionally cause them to malfunction. Is it a possibility?

Your current cars can be hacked and intentionally caused to malfunction. It's not a possibility, it's a reality. Yet you don't hear of such things on your evening news.

I'd love to see legislation keep up with technology on this point. Remotely wrest control of a vehicle from a driver or itself? Attempted murder, period.

Nevin73 wrote:
ActualDragon wrote:
manta173 wrote:
Nevin73 wrote:

I don't know. I wouldn't imagine it would be that hard to integrate sensors to measure the width of the road and have an algorithm calculate lane size from the road width.

Road width can be very hard to measure on country roads... especially in bad conditions. I have driven on roads hat are similar in color to the dirt on the shoulder and are peaked to the point that a typical sensor may have issues finding the far side.

Not to mention you have to account for shoulder size and that's going to vary widely by class of road and location, not to mention different shoulder types. Shoulders also generally get larger on turns to account for trucks turning and just the way people perceive and react to curves as they approach them.

My thinking though is that all of these details are governed by road building specifications of some sort. It may be too big of a database to implement, but I would expect a query of Kentucky highway shoulder/lane widths to come back with some very specific results.

Of course the problem of sh*tty roads being sh*tty would remain.

They are, but most of the specifications are a guideline. It would be quite an endeavor to get a good catalog of specifications, particularly the necessity for them to be standardized. State DOTs are getting better at this sort of thing but it's very fragmented. I wouldn't want to base a car's driving on a database that needs to be updated all the time. And yes, deteriorating shoulders would throw everything off.

Dr_Awkward wrote:
MoonDragon wrote:
bekkilyn wrote:

I was having a discussion with a friend about self-driving cars, and his concern was that people would be able to hack them and intentionally cause them to malfunction. Is it a possibility?

Your current cars can be hacked and intentionally caused to malfunction. It's not a possibility, it's a reality. Yet you don't hear of such things on your evening news.

I'd love to see legislation keep up with technology on this point. Remotely wrest control of a vehicle from a driver or itself? Attempted murder, period.

I'm amused at my apparent name change. Where did the site even get that?

Specific legislation could definitely help. Particularly in the case of deterring people just doing it for teh lolz. When I took a malware class in undergrad I had to sign an honor statement that I wouldn't hack anybody's system without their express permission. Policy changes frequently don't even occur to me because I'm so used to dodging that question from a research perspective...

ActualDragon wrote:

I'm amused at my apparent name change. Where did the site even get that?

Pardon me, Consultant? Go fetch me a coffee...

MoonDragon wrote:
ActualDragon wrote:

I'm amused at my apparent name change. Where did the site even get that?

Pardon me, Consultant? Go fetch me a coffee...

Whoops! My apologies - this is what happens when you get put in a new department!

Volvo Is Taking Its Self-Driving Cars to China

Volvo has big plans for its fleet of autonomous cars—and it’s about to put them through a rather big test, too. The car manufacturer has announced that it’s taking 100 cars to China, where “local drivers will test autonomous driving cars on public roads in everyday driving conditions.”

It’s not the first time Volvo has planned to let real people loose with the cars, but the congested roads of some of China’s cities could pose a tough challenge.

Convoy of 'self-driving' trucks completed cross-Europe trip

The article calls them self-driving but each had a driver on board and they may have required intervention at times. I think it's more of a proof of concept of the 'platooning' strategy where a lead truck takes the brunt of air resistance for the rest of the convoy with the following trucks going autonomous to safely follow the leader.

Ford Tests Its Self-Driving Car In Total Darkness Using LiDAR Tech

Using a combination of radar, cameras, and light-sensitive radar called LiDAR, one of Ford's self-driving cars has successfully navigated a winding road at night and without headlights. LiDAR works by emitting short pulses of laser light -- 2.8 million laser pulses a second -- so that the vehicle's software can create a real-time, high-definition 3D image of what's around it to determine the best driving path. Ford's self-driving cars come equipped with high-definition 3D maps, which include information about road markings, signs, geography, landmarks, and topography. If a vehicle isn't able to see the ground due to inclement conditions, it will detect above-ground landmarks to locate itself on the map. Ford's self-driving cars equipped with the LiDAR radar system are particularly noteworthy because they can operate without the usual cameras that depend on sunshine and street lamps.
farley3k wrote:

Ford Tests Its Self-Driving Car In Total Darkness Using LiDAR Tech

Using a combination of radar, cameras, and light-sensitive radar called LiDAR, one of Ford's self-driving cars has successfully navigated a winding road at night and without headlights. LiDAR works by emitting short pulses of laser light -- 2.8 million laser pulses a second -- so that the vehicle's software can create a real-time, high-definition 3D image of what's around it to determine the best driving path. Ford's self-driving cars come equipped with high-definition 3D maps, which include information about road markings, signs, geography, landmarks, and topography. If a vehicle isn't able to see the ground due to inclement conditions, it will detect above-ground landmarks to locate itself on the map. Ford's self-driving cars equipped with the LiDAR radar system are particularly noteworthy because they can operate without the usual cameras that depend on sunshine and street lamps.

I wonder how scalable that is for a busy road. Like, a 5 lane highway with heavy, but flowing, traffic. That many cars, you're going to be picking up a lot of LiDar reflections from everyone else's car.

Google's Next Futuristic Self-Driving Car Is a Chrysler Minivan

This collaboration with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) is the first time we’ve worked directly with an automaker to create our vehicles. FCA will design the minivans so it’s easy for us to install our self-driving systems, including the computers that hold our self-driving software, and the sensors that enable our software to see what’s on the road around the vehicle. The minivan design also gives us an opportunity to test a larger vehicle that could be easier for passengers to enter and exit, particularly with features like hands-free sliding doors.

I can't stand the Pacifica. It can't decide if it's a station wagon or a minivan.

Oh man. It's gonna be the future soon.


Lyft and GM will test self-driving fleet within a year
.

Uber and Lyft are both pushing hard to replace their drivers as soon as possible. Which won't be for a while, but don't expect to retire from being an Uber driver with a gold watch after twenty years of service.

http://money.cnn.com/2016/05/19/tech...

Looks like Google is looking to safety with their patent for a sticky hood. Secondary collisions (where the flying pedestrian flies off and hits his/her head on something like the ground) are often deadlier than the initial impact.

Anyway, looks like Google even released a proof of concept picture.

IMAGE(http://images.smh.com.au/2015/04/01/6404357/vd-Madmax-620x349.jpg)

Paleocon wrote:

http://money.cnn.com/2016/05/19/tech...

Looks like Google is looking to safety with their patent for a sticky hood. Secondary collisions (where the flying pedestrian flies off and hits his/her head on something like the ground) are often deadlier than the initial impact.

Anyway, looks like Google even released a proof of concept picture.

IMAGE(http://images.smh.com.au/2015/04/01/6404357/vd-Madmax-620x349.jpg)

That picture looks familiar? Quintin from last year's Burning Man?

No, my mask was leather, not metal.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

No, my mask was leather, not metal.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/r1nl1Dv.jpg)

Quintin_Stone wrote:

No, my mask was leather, not metal.

There's a reason you don't see anyone wearing leather masks on playa, and it sure as sh*t ain't a lack of perverts.

The combination of the sweat from a 100+ degree heat mixed with highly alkaline playa dust makes for a very pasty and very burny skin treatment.

I've been promoting this to my students, but realized that others may be interested in this essay contest.

A simple 500-word essay could net you a $50,000 award in a national contest hosted by Magna International, a leading automotive supplier located in Troy, MI.

What is the challenge?

The Safer Mobility for the Future Challenge, presented by Magna International, is looking for the next breakthrough in automotive safety that helps us get to zero: Zero accidents. Zero injuries. Zero deaths. Seven finalists will be invited to pitch their idea in a “Shark Tank”-style competition at Magna’s US headquarters for a chance to win a share of $100,000. The submission deadline is May 30, 2016

What is required?
• Submit a 500-word essay describing your idea at magnachallenge.com.
• Up to 3 pages of supporting material may be included and must be in and must be in PDF, PPTX, DOCX, or JPEG format.

Who is eligible?
• Must be over 21
• Must be a US Resident
• All majors! Automotive safety touches all of us.
• Students, Staff, and Faculty

I wonder if self-driving cars will involve a subscription to use the software, like a TiVo.

Well that's easy, get rid of cars.

Edwin wrote:

Well that's easy, get rid of cars.

I was actually thinking about what my answer would be last night, and nearly every thought I had was in this line of thinking. Either completely change the form or materials of the car to something different, or to create something that makes the passenger less breakable (like carseats do for kids).

There was an interesting story on NPR the other day in which they were talking about how language matters when it comes to public policy discussions. One of the points they brought up was that most automotive fatalities are not "accidents" per se as much they are the results of operator error or negligence. The use of the word "accident" serves mostly to make the public feel that such outcomes are inevitable rather than avoidable when, in reality, the vast majority of them are entirely avoidable tragedies.

Personally, I can't wait for the prohibition on human driving.

(pardon the bad video quality)

Disco, you read my mind.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Disco, you read my mind.

Great, now I'll have nightmares!

Edwin wrote:

Well that's easy, get rid of cars human drivers.

FTFY

Nevin73 wrote:
Edwin wrote:

Well that's easy, get rid of cars human drivers.

FTFY

That is the end-game of course, but it won't be quick in coming.

It's probably been enough pages that it's worth repeating again, safety improvements will come once these cars are approved to be on the road. Even a small adoption rate will still have an impact, no pun intended, on safety statistics.

Initial price will put self-driving cars out of reach but it's always that way for any new technology. I'm so "old" I remember when everyone and their cousin didn't have a smartphone.

What I foresee, though how quickly this will happen is beyond me to predict, that more self-driving cars will beget fewer accidents which will beget more self-driving cars which will beget fewer accidents and so on and so forth.

I really cannot wait.

I definitely think this competition is to address the gap as everyone preps for self-driving vehicles, especially as the industry waits to build up enough engineers with expertise to manage a full transition. They also need new ways to give drivers confidence in their car's intelligence to keep them safe. A lot of drivers are still hesitant to give up control of their car, but if there are more of these gradual safety measures coming out each year then confidence will increase (as parking assist, bluetooth, onstar, gps have done).

It's a tough topic though, because of course self-driving cars are really meant to solve this problem. The only other thing I could think of was weather related problems since even the self-driving cars are only beginning to address that challenge. But I found that it's already being worked on in at least some ways: Road De-Ices Itself