This should eliminate the danger from cars !

[human909]

While I agree even one death is one too many, the road toll is from memory averages a small number 300-400 people per year.
When you put it into perspective ie: comparative to other nations, the number of cars on the road, and distances traveled etc... is quite low.

We are pretty good and our policing on speed and alcohol some of the strongesting the world. But the UK, Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, and Scandinavia are all doing better. Ie most all the other places that have a strong legal system and good social equality.

A fantastic interactive map here:
http://pulitzercenter.org/projects/road ... ualization" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[zero]

Germany has a larger rail modal share, which causes its per pop road toll to be lower than ours, but its per km road toll is actually considerably higher. ie plenty of people out there misrepresenting German road safety in australia, usually with the goal of increasing highway speed limits.

[simonn]

What happens when the sensors or systems don't work properly? I'm thinking of Malaysia B777-200/ER out of Perth many years ago which had ADIRU problems.

About the same thing when the sensors or systems do not work properly for a human. However, by the time driverless cars come to market, I expect the failure rate of human sensors to be much higher.

Also, we can evolve sensors much more easily. Once we (as in humanity) have worked out how to build better sensors the stay better. Humans just stay idiots and repeat the same problems over and over again (or even make them worse).

The difference between a car and an aircraft is that car can, in general, just stop so failing safe is a lot easier.

[Mozzar]

Then we will start getting i-cars, or google cars. Apple and google will start making their own software for the cars and then everyone will have internet in their cars. Then people will be spending 99.99% of their time on facebook or playing some stupid game like candy crush (no offence to people who like it but it's not a game that i could play all day).

[Paul B]

Dimis, the road toll would disagree with you on the most profound of levels.

While I agree even one death is one too many, the road toll is from memory averages a small number 300-400 people per year.

you consider 300-400 deaths per year to be a small number ? You can't be serious. Anyhow, the toll Australia wide in 2012 was over 1,300.
When driverless cars are the norm, people will look back in amazement that road death was a reality at all.

[Red Rider]

Then we will start getting i-cars, or google cars. Apple and google will start making their own software for the cars and then everyone will have internet in their cars. Then people will be spending 99.99% of their time on facebook or playing some stupid game like candy crush (no offence to people who like it but it's not a game that i could play all day).

They've already started!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_driverless_car" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.google.com.au/about/jobs/lif ... mahan.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[simonn]

Germany has a larger rail modal share, which causes its per pop road toll to be lower than ours, but its per km road toll is actually considerably higher.

Is Germany's road toll better?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... death_rate" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Australia is actually comparatively good. I still think our urban/residential street speed limits are too high though. Certain freeway sections could probably have higher speed limits. The problem is that too many people have poor lane discipline (which is seems to be encouraged by the roads - new lanes appearing to the left and then the right lane disappearing... why? etc).

ie plenty of people out there misrepresenting German road safety in australia, usually with the goal of increasing highway speed limits.

+1

[Paul B]

another development hot off the press !!!
http://media.smh.drive.com.au/cars/car- ... 02235.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[queequeg]

What happens when the sensors or systems don't work properly? I'm thinking of Malaysia B777-200/ER out of Perth many years ago which had ADIRU problems.

Watching Aircraft Investigations, I find myself yelling at the pilots to ignore the ridiculous readings coming from the computer and just fly the plane. There were two almost identical 757 crashes where the plane was 100% operational with no control issues, but the pitot static system was blocked (one with a wasp nest, the other with duct tape!). Since the auto pilot takes all pressure based readings from this system (altitude, speed, vsi), a blocked system sends the computer into a tizz. As a private pilot who only ever did a VFR rating I never had to face that issue, but the first rule of flying is that power + attitude = performance. That is, set the throttle at 80%, put the wings level and the pitch at +10 degrees. The plane will climb at a specific speed. You don't need instruments for that, but it is not easy fighting an automated system saying you are going too fast while at idle power with nose at +30 degrees. Knowing where the computer gets its information from is a big help.

[Xplora]

The comments about the evolution of the technology are well and truly on the mark. You don't need to strip all human control immediately. You already have drive by wire accelerator pedals, parallel park assist, ABS braking is a classic sneaky one, heck a computer is controlling the choke on your EFI engine from the 80s. It's not hard to change those reverse parking sensors to reflect larger areas of perception, and remove a driver's ability to merge into someone else. Take away their ability to accelerate from the lights. Crawl management (peak hour queuing behaviour would be easy to solve, just not cheap lol). It's rumbling along already. Just advance it 2-3 more years and support for even less human intervention will grow - especially as the climate change movement finds more momentum. Lots of fuel gets wasted by dopey drivers.

[VRE]

Let's just hope they follow the 3 Laws of Robotics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics

[winstonw]

Two mates and I had an incident with a quarry truck and dog last Saturday. Made a complaint to the police and the two quarries (Dayboro Rd, Petrie, Brisbane).

This got me thinking about onboard cameras yet again...and one of my mates said battery life will always be a limitation. (We were on 2x9hr rides back to back).

Then I thought well considering the electronic crp people expect cars to have these days, rather than stick cameras on bikes, put them on all vehicles and include a black box. Russians are doing this more and more as it definitely helps resolve insurance claims. I then envisioned the multitude of ways this would dramatically change driver behavior. It's a wonder our insurance industry hasn't been a major advocate.

[RonK]

Let's just hope they follow the 3 Laws of Robotics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics

Hehe. They are of course a work of fiction by Asimov.

[Xplora]

It's a wonder our insurance industry hasn't been a major advocate.

It would definitely help if your insurance company just said "drop the premium in half if you have the camera set up". Not that hard to sort out either - set the recorder to delete the first 20 minutes in the video if you run out of space.

This is the biggest "thing" to me. Technology is only limited to your imagination. The simple fact of the matter is that some humans are not fit for control of a motor vehicle, and passing a driving test does not mean they pass the attitude test. We can resolve some of these issues, and we can definitely provide incentive to opt in. No one is perfect - but society has to draw a line in the sand and say "you aren't perfect, but you can't force other people to suffer because of your failures".

[Paul B]

This is the biggest "thing" to me. Technology is only limited to your imagination. The simple fact of the matter is that some humans are not fit for control of a motor vehicle, and passing a driving test does not mean they pass the attitude test. We can resolve some of these issues, and we can definitely provide incentive to opt in. No one is perfect - but society has to draw a line in the sand and say "you aren't perfect, but you can't force other people to suffer because of your failures".

+1

[Mulger bill]

This is the biggest "thing" to me. Technology is only limited to your imagination. The simple fact of the matter is that some humans are not fit for control of a motor vehicle, and passing a driving test does not mean they pass the attitude test. We can resolve some of these issues, and we can definitely provide incentive to opt in. No one is perfect - but society has to draw a line in the sand and say "you aren't perfect, but you can't force other people to suffer because of your failures".

+1

And another

[ColinOldnCranky]

At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, 'If Ford had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.'

In response to Bill Gates's comments, Ford issued a press release, stating: 'If Ford had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash......... twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.

3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.

4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.

5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads.

6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single 'This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation' warning light.

7. The airbag system would ask 'Are you sure?' before deploying.

8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.

9. Every time a new car was introduced, car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as in the old car.

10. You'd have to press the 'Start' button to turn the engine off.

11. If you had to call On-Star you would be instructed in some foreign language how to fix your car yourself!!!!

12. If you multi-task while driving by turning on your radio, temperature control, lights, toot the horn etc., your car will drastically slow down or come to a screaching halt with each task!

[Xplora]

^^ Then Microsoft created a better operating system so the quirks virtually disappeared, and Ford did nothing except bleat to Barack Obama that they didn't deserve to go bankrupt despite not trying to match Microsoft's improvements on a far simpler platform.

[Lukeyboy]

Passed a broken down falcon on the side of the road tonight...

[VRE]

Let's just hope they follow the 3 Laws of Robotics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics

Hehe. They are of course a work of fiction by Asimov.

So? Several of his works of fiction later on became fact. His thinking was way ahead of its time.

[simonn]

^^ Then Microsoft created a better operating system so the quirks virtually disappeared, and Ford did nothing except bleat to Barack Obama that they didn't deserve to go bankrupt despite not trying to match Microsoft's improvements on a far simpler platform.

Wut? Windows is still as quirky as ever. Sure it crashes less than a decade ago, but they still can't resist adding quirks on purpose.

I'm with you on Ford though .

[RonK]

The comments about the evolution of the technology are well and truly on the mark. You don't need to strip all human control immediately. You already have drive by wire accelerator pedals, parallel park assist, ABS braking is a classic sneaky one, heck a computer is controlling the choke on your EFI engine from the 80s. It's not hard to change those reverse parking sensors to reflect larger areas of perception, and remove a driver's ability to merge into someone else. Take away their ability to accelerate from the lights. Crawl management (peak hour queuing behaviour would be easy to solve, just not cheap lol). It's rumbling along already. Just advance it 2-3 more years and support for even less human intervention will grow - especially as the climate change movement finds more momentum. Lots of fuel gets wasted by dopey drivers.

Some more examples:

Ducati Multistrada Touring - Ride-by-Wire, ABS, traction control, Skyhook electronic suspension adjustment.

BMW R1200GS Adventure - Ride-by-wire, ABS, traction control, ESA electronic suspension adjustment.

[Paul B]

Nissan commits to self driving cars by 2020

"Safety Shield sensors provide 360-degree monitoring around the vehicle, providing audio-visual warnings and activating the car’s drive, steering and braking systems to avert accidents when things get dire enough. It’s developed on a philosophy of self-containment, eliminating the need for the car to be connected with external sources of data".

http://ninemsn.carsales.com.au/news/201 ... _editorial" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Lukeyboy]

Can we include Shimano DI2?

[Paul B]

CEO Carlos Ghosn released a typically bullish statement on his company’s commitment to it this week.

“In 2007, I pledged that – by 2010 – Nissan would mass market a zero-emission vehicle. Today, the Nissan LEAF is the best-selling electric vehicle in history. Now I am committing to be ready to introduce a new ground-breaking technology, Autonomous Drive, by 2020, and we are on track to realise it,” he said.