Hands Free. Should We Be Worried

I don't care how much they try to plug Technology and it's the way forward "what happens when it fails" I have worked in environments with high levels of Technical innovations and they require very high maintenance and fail with disastrous results.
So what back up's are in place and what happens if you are hit by an automated vehicle what insurance is in place, not my cup of tea but then I am an old fart

 

I believe there is an element of future control also, with automated vehicles, and new communications technologies (e.g. 5G), I can see that in the not too distant future the state will be able to determine how you travel at their whim i.e. when, where, at what speed, or even if you are allowed to travel at all.

You only need to look at China and their "social credit" system, and it is only a small step from that, once the communication and monitoring infrastructure is in place.

The EU is already looking at vehicles with automatic speed limiters using road sign and GPS data. Anyone who thinks these measures are for safety are deluded.

 

My sister has a Tesla car, she was telling me the thing has adaptive cruise control that is supposed to keep you a certain minimum distance from the vehicle in front. I think several high end cars have a similar thing and they are getting more common all the time. She reckons when you turn a corner the sensors pick up the hedge or wall that is at the side of the road and brings the anchors on hard, so hard the poor buggers following her car shit themselves! The technology obviously needs further fine tuning as it were. Technology itself is wonderful, we'd all be still riding horses if we didn't push the boundaries every now and then. Don't forget people thought your brains might explode if you travelled at over 30 mph when the first steam trains came along. I don't like the idea personally but I'm an old fart too. Perhaps better to ask a 20 year old what they think?

 

My view is that, by and large, the technological advances are barely adequate to compensate for the continuing general decline in ability of a HUGE proportion of the "driving" population. I'd rather take my chances with a robot, automaton, AI-assisted device, etc., than with a LOT of the numpties that I come across when I'm driving - most particularly on the motorways where these things are designed to work.

And that goes double when you factor in the numbers of 'white van' (other colours are available) drivers using their mobile phones whilst occupying lane 3 at 77mph.

This is the rant of the day thread, isn't it?

 

If I wanted an expensive, high-maintenance system with no backup, I'd get the wife to drive.


*I'm not married - it's a joke!

 

My Skoda has is it and in the main it works very well, adjusting speed on the motorway and dealing with stop start traffic.

Where it doesn't work well, and I've seen reported is common across many brands, is where there is a big difference in speeds, for example coming up behind a parked car when you are doing 60 as it applies the brakes far too late.

i have has a situation similar to your sister's when on holiday in the US with a rental Nissan.As we turned a moderate bend in the road, the adaptive cruise locked on to a ride on mower straight in front of us, but actually to the side of the road.

We slowed rather abruptly, much to my surprise and the surprise of the vehicles following me

 

I've had so many near misses with drivers on their phones and seen phone related accidents that the sooner the cars start driving themselves and let the occupants get on with FaceTweetTokagramming each other without the distraction of having to pilot a couple of tons of metal the better.

A lot of drivers see the rise of automation as taking away their freedom, in particular it seems their freedom to break the road traffic laws. However the key purpose of the road system is to facilitate movement of people and goods, not as a playground, and as traffic volumes continue to increase automation is inevitable if we want the traffic to flow safely.

I'm fully aware that there will be compromises and the systems will never be perfect.but the roads are likely to be safer and overall move more quickly with software at the wheel rather than meatware.

 

Be afraid, very afraid!

 

The thing is it's not at all intuitive. It can't look at a situation and think "this doesn't look right" it can't predict that that pedestrian is going to walk out in front of you whereas a driver can predict to a certain extent.
Technology's alright when it works.

 

* Humans are alright...when they do what they have been taught and are intended to do.
* Tech is alright when it works.
I do think a working combo is what is best.

I remember when ABS entered the market, especially on bikes.
Then every biker claimed they could break faster, that ABS was a danger when it failed and so on.
Looking back I think ABS has saved many lifes.

Sure, this can only to some extent be compared to ABS, but its still the same hesitation towards new tech and these days generally spiced up with a conspiracy theory of some sort.

 

Level 4 automation will require interaction and compromise between vehicles to actually work. That means the end of motorcycles, that may reach Level 1, but no further. As for the Level 2 cars that are on the road in some US cities, I am surprised the "no risks" UK would allow them, given the dismal safety record. Probably a lobby effort by Google with money involved to push the technology and ignore the problems. Your public roads have now become a free laboratory for Alphabet to test whatever they like. Funny how that works.

 

No, no,no! I've tried hands free on my bike and it is disastrous.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Elaine_Herzberg

 

If it reduces the amount of boneheads tearing up and down our 30 mph limit road - with parked cars and playing children all around - to the Spar all day and much of the night then I'm all for it. I'll be on my bike, smiling.

edit: and no, I'm not worried at all - the roads I ride along for fun are mostly traffic free, apart from the odd tractor
Mind you, getting to those roads is another matter.

 

That could be done with static speed cameras, but you very rarely see speed cameras outside schools and hospitals where they would be a geniune measure to increase safety.

For automated hands free vehicles to be genuiely safe, then all vehicles would need to be the same with the ability to communicate with each other. This would obviously be an end to human operated vehicles and any freedom you have to travel as you see fit, you will become simply a passenger not a driver.

 

And you never did when you where young?, this is just going to be a fully automated life so boring do you really think they are going to let bikes be the only thing to tear arsse along the roads, totally characterless way to live no excitement.

 

No I didn't - I've never torn up and down 30mph roads - at all. I had my fun out in the sticks, on autobahns and on the racetrack. I always thought racing around built up areas was for losers.
The only points I ever got - a ban, actually, was for doing 230km/h on an empty stretch of the Köln ringroad at around 2am where 100 was the limit.

edit - I should pobably add that at age 18, within 6 weeks of buying my very first car I drove over and killed a 27 year old guy who was drunk and fell asleep in the road. That probably affected my attitude.

 

Trouble is Duck, unless you keep it well maintained it quickly changes from Stella (Ingrid didn't rhyme) from Sweden to Bella from Bradford






NB if Stella just happens to be a members partner, well done, similarly if Bella is ....