Huh? we certainly do have bold. And italics.
and both bold and italics.
And underline: text underlined
And more…
Driverless cars are NOT just in labs or in some special road track. They are on the road today in almost every major city being tested in real time situations. They have a long ways to go…but they are coming.
Mike,InNH, can you be more specific? Can you provide some links or something? I’m curious what “on the road today in almost every major city being tested in real time situations” really means.
I have never noticed a vehicle that did not have a driver in it, although the vehicles you refer to may not be operated in that way? Perhaps the driver sits there and “tests” the computer with hands off of the controls?
In any event, “they are coming” might mean anything ranging from next year to 10,000 years from now, so I feel comfortable with my present conclusion on the matter: they will remain an interesting curiosity for many years to come, possibly for the rest of this century.
@Anthropoi, Alphabet tests their driverless cars in and around Mountainview, CA, a suburb of San Francisco. It is a densely populated area. The testing is conducted on surface streets.
As support for your point about old ideas staying power, Google is now Alphabet and has been for some time now. Still, a lot of people still refer to Alphabet as Google.
Edit: They have been a lot more places; all on public roads: http://www.google.com/selfdrivingcar/where/
Alphabet…good name for a soup…dumb name for a corporation…
;-]
All the driverless cars on the road today have controls for a driver to take over and for a driver to be there. But the car is driving itself…unless something happens.
I hesitate to comment since it is Sunday but just to set the record straight, I will not even have a glass of wine and drive afterwards. I certainly would not condone a golf buddy too plastered to drive home to then hitch a ride in his driver-less car. This particular application will not come to pass. So the laws will remain the same. If you drive a car drunk, or sit in a car with the keys drunk, or ride in a robot controlled car drunk, you are still guilty of a DWI and throw the keys away.
You make excellent points. One thing to consider- at one time, the car itself was new and vastly outnumbered by horses. They shared the same roads. Cars eventually won out and gained wide acceptance. I’m sure there was much the same thinking going on then. How is this different? I believe the threshold will be crossed when people realize they can reliquish control and use the time more effectively. That is motivation enough IMO.
@bing, you may be correct concerning riding in a driverless car drunk, but you might also be wrong. Coming from the other direction, riding in a driverless car when drunk might be similar enough to a taxi ride that it will be OK. We haven’t gotten to that point yet, and we will just have to see when we do.
Assuming true autonomous cars, then anyone in the car is a passenger. Drunk or sober, it would be like taking a ride in a taxi. But right now they are not truly autonomous.
Since when are Drunk passengers in a vehicle considered DUI???
First off…unless the vehicle is involved in an accident how can a cop even pull you over? They are designed to obey all traffic laws at all times. The cop wouldn’t have probable cause to pull the vehicle over. I guess you people who live in states where they allow road blocks to check for drunk drivers it’s possible.
Second…Google (and others) are working on a driverless car with no driver controls (steering-wheel, brake pedal or gas pedal)…how can any court possibly charge the Drunk passenger with DUI.
Third…One of the features that driverless cars is advertising…is the car can be used to drop the kids off at school while you’re still getting ready for work. So should the kids be pulled over for not having a drivers license.
Fourth…In the same vain…they are also advertising that you won’t need a drivers license. Again - so the person should be given a ticket for not having a drivers license when they’re the passenger.
Fifth…Again in the same vain…One group they are targeting are older people who are no longer allowed to drive. Great way for them to still get around.
I’m quite sure Google (and others) have already considered all of this and is working with Federal and state governments.
And again…before anyone has a tissy fit…I’m not in anyway saying these should be mandated.
What I do see is before these vehicles are allowed to be on our roads with no driver is that the government ensures that they are extremely safe. Companies are already working with the DOT on how to certify and what tests these vehicles will have to pass before they can be certified…And I’m sure there are many things not mentioned.
Are we there yet??? From what I’ve read…at least 5-10 years away from having them sold the public yet.
Me thinks it would be easier for all to just not drink and drive. Think back though when it was a split second decision to avoid an accident such as in an intersection or driveway and how the computer would react to the unexpected car speeding through a red light. You really want your kids in that car while the computer decides evasive action?
Just to add a bit of somewhat dark humor to this discussion which has somehow devolved into keyboard slugfests I will list a few fictional films addressing total trust in technology gone wrong, haunting, and a comet. 2001 A Space Odyssey. HAL 9000 “I’m sorry Dave. I can’t do that”. War games. “Let’s play global thermonuclear war”. Christine (haunting). Maximum Overdrive (comet). Terminator (Skynet). Until autonomous motor vehicles are a very, very proven technology I will have to continue with very focused situational awareness while taking my chances with the distracted/entitled idiots and drunks.
@Bing - You think you can see better and react faster to a dangerous driving scenario than a computer? Interesting.
@sgtrock21 - Fictional movies are the basis for your understanding of how the world works? Did you see Star Wars? Are you afraid of Death Stars and The Force? 
I think we can all agree that current technology is not ready for mainstream use in driverless cars but, despite all our agonizing, I think the writing is on the wall for drivers with human controls. You and I may want to drive but the cold reality is that the younger, technology driven generations would not only trust a computer driven car they would LOVE it. I asked my teenagers last night about it and they were practically giddy with delight at the thought of using their smartphones safely while a car drove them wherever they wanted.
Oh sure…sometimes we argue…but at least we respect each other here. We have all come to sorta know each other over the years via this forum.
While I’m sure Many would consider me a Nut Case or worse OR say that my advice is off the wall. Nobody ever pokes fun at me and if they disagree they respectfully disagree 99.9% of the time… .
What I am saying is that our group of regulars is the most knowledgeable and considerate Ive ever come across in internet forum land.
You should take a peek at the discourse in some other forums… Boy Howdy can they get ugly ! It conveys a bad image…and rightfully so. We look like a Church Choir compared to most.
Blackbird
I thibk when the technology is ready. No question my kids would be much safer in a driverless car. There is no driver to get distracted even for a milisecond. Response time is well over a million times faster then the fastest human can make.
Count me in as one who would prefer to drive myself. I enjoy driving. But I agree, future generations will embrace this technology. The future is going to be very different. Probably won’t be many reasons to leave your home in the first place. Those with jobs will telecommute. Movies will be shown in your home thru pay-per-view / on-demand. Wanna see the Grand Canyon, the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, etc? Put on a virtual reality helmet and experience it in your own living room. No need to go out to a restaurant, your daily allotment of soylent green will be delivered via drone from amazon.com.
I’m gonna have to quote George H.W. Bush here, “I’m getting old at just the right time!” Of course he’s in his 90’s I’m only in my 40’s.
I’m thinking about all the truck driver/ cab driver / bus driver jobs that would be lost, but I guess that’s another discussion. The argument over automation displacing jobs has been going on for over 200 years.
My view, regarding truck driver jobs, is, it’ll be a LONG time before the public accepts 80,000 lb loads going down the highways with no human “Captain”. I have read that airplanes can now take off, fly, and land entirely on auto-pilot, and have been able to do so for quite some time, but all the airplanes still have a pilot and co-pilot each at 6-figure salaries because nobody in their right mind is going to board a plane with no human at the controls. The public hasn’t accepted it yet. I’m betting it’ll be the same way with commercial truck drivers.
My response to @“Honda Blackbird” : Agree with your comment wholeheartedly except the part about you being a Nut Case. You know a lot more than I do. But the whole part about the regulars being knowledgeable and considerate and other forums being ugly is true. That’s why its such a shame we’re restricted to only talking about cars and transportation. Be nice if we had an “off-topic” category where we could discuss other things, within reason. (Perhaps, keep politics and religion off-limits to avoid hard feelings?) I know I have several things I’d like to start discussions about but I can’t, because, well, they’re not specifically about cars and driving.
I find that even when I disagree with someone here, they often present an argument that makes me re-consider my own point of view, and remember that rational thinking people will often see things differently.
Part of my problem is I’m surrounded by people for the most part, who, if the topic isn’t football, or sex, they aren’t interested in a discussion. Also, its hard to have an intellectual discussion with people who live such a hand-to-mouth existence that they can’t understand how someone can buy something more expensive than a candy bar without going into debt. (Soon as you start talking about buying something, or doing something, or “making a move”, they react with some variant of "WOW, you must have money falling out of your keister to be able to afford to do THAT!) Well, buying an $11k Mitsubishi instead of an $80k Escalade just might have something to do with that.
By contrast, I sense that the majority of the people who post here are people I would want to associate myself with if we were actually co-workers, or neighbors, etc.
they will remain an interesting curiosity for many years to come, possibly for the rest of this century.
Seriously? I think you only have to look back 100 years and see what technology existed then compared to today to realize it will be vastly different landscape by the turn of the next century.
I recall my late Dad saying he thought they were nuts when they said they would be transmitting pictures over the air and again when they said they would be in color…
Twenty years from now, cars will no longer have controls for driver operation. The days of each car on the road being driven and controlled by one of it’s passengers are fading fast…You will get in the car, a computed voice will ask where you want to go, it will verify your requested destination, and off you will go, the entire nationwide traffic control system, everything controlled by hardware and software in the car and local wireless “cells” that will keep track of every cars location in the cell and their position on the roads…Car wrecks and accidents will become distant memories.