Thursday, March 09, 2017

Can I Ride In Them While Wearing Google Glass?

Yes I know this bores most of you, but none of these articles ever addresses what are to me the real practical problems with self-driving cars, especially when we're talking about automated taxis which seem to be most of the focus: how do they navigate the random parking lot? How do they decide when it's ok to pull over to a curb to pick someone up, something which actual taxis do in a semi-to-not-legal fashion all the time? Not that my situation is universal - just an example of one complication- but if I summon one will it know how to wait outside for my house for me, which would generally require it to just pause in the middle of the street while I carry my suitcase to it for my journey to the airport (also, too, how will it put granny's suitcase in the trunk for her?). How will it deal with the airport dropoff area, which is about as chaotic as anything, with cars and buses double and triple parking to let people out?

They'll be really neat. They just won't work well enough to be practical.

The number of autonomous vehicles on California’s roads has more than doubled as automakers and big tech companies race against secretive start-ups to test their self-driving cars.

180 cars are licensed to drive autonomously with a driver.