L4 autonomous semi trucks one step closer to reality

way2roll wrote:
If you fail to make the payments on an autonomous vehicle does it return itself to the dealership?

Naaaah, it locks you in, tells you it will hit a specific object in 5 minutes unless you complete a payment before it gets there.
So now Musk and his cohorts can claim credit with improving the credit scores of their sucke er buyers.

thomasmnile wrote:
Personally, I'd take my chances with the autonomous semi vs the absolutely brain dead humanoids on the roads in my neck of the woods, eating, texting, applying makeup, speeding, weaving in/out of traffic, shooting at other vehicles......you get the idea.

And think how much more accurate their "shooting at other vehicles" will be when they don't have to be bothered with a pesky steering wheel.

If you fail to make the payments on an autonomous vehicle does it return itself to the dealership?

bgum wrote:
We already have a 99 car train that is operated by one person. Why are we not shipping more by train.
The trucks are so big they dominate highways and streets in towns. Those streets were never intended to have trucks that long be used as delivery vans/trucks.

The railroads are interested in dedicated trains like chemicals, grain, crude oil, etc where they pick up 100-150 cars at one point run them to another point, unhook, grab the empties bring back to the loading point, rinse and repeat.

They don't want individual car loads any more and they don't want to build cars anymore. It's inefficient and takes away from much more profitable business. There is no spare capacity on the rails, anyway.

Also shippers can send 20 pallets on a truck and make delivery at multiple destinations in a MUCH more timely manner. Having freight on the railroad in individual carlots is not for the feint of heart.

And yet on-star has been automatically calling for assistance for many years when the vehicle is in a significant accident.

That seems fairly good natured to me. Not heartless uncaring machine.

thomasmnile wrote:
Personally, I'd take my chances with the autonomous semi vs the absolutely brain dead humanoids on the roads in my neck of the woods, eating, texting, applying makeup, speeding, weaving in/out of traffic, shooting at other vehicles......you get the idea.

You have no idea as to what you are saying.

I have worked with very large robotic equipment the last 22 yrs, it has no feelings, no thought process and if you step into it's path will kill you and not feel a thing, stop or regret killing you. Its programming is only as smart as the ones that wrote the programs and it's sensors are only as good as the one that designed and made them.

My newest vehicle has a "lane keeping camera" which is supposed to let you know if you are going out of lane or about to rearend (auto brake) someone.. It even is supposed to auto dim your headlights with on coming traffic or if you get close to another vehicle.

None of those features work well under normal conditions, so bad that I ended up disabling all features I could (auto braking I could not). Add in a few rain drops, snow or fog and wham, all of the camera systems which are supposed to "keep me safe" are no longer safe to use because they become unstable..

Cameras, radar, Lidar, infrared sensors and AI cannot fully replace the human eyes, ears, mind and yes, feelings.

That's all we really need is 80K lb blind, heartless, unfeeling robots running amuck on the road :S

wanderingaimlessly wrote:

When something screws up, who pays?

Insurance will pay according to the local state laws.

Will have plenty of video evidence gathered by the self driving vehicle including all actions made by the computer.

Good luck.

More concern might be from the police when the trucking company reports bad behavior of other drivers.

bgum wrote:
We already have a 99 car train that is operated by one person. Why are we not shipping more by train.
The trucks are so big they dominate highways and streets in towns. Those streets were never intended to have trucks that long be used as delivery vans/trucks.

Rail lines don't go everywhere roads go.

But really, the technology has been there for a while. Maybe 8yrs ago, I got a ride along on a semi around downtown detroit (actual streets and freeways not a closed course) with no one in the drivers seat.

The biggest issue is the legal/liability framework. Even if they are 10 times safer (and this is likely the case), when there is a crash, who will be held responsible and what will the payout be. With an idiot driver, it's the devil you know even if they are a worse devil.

We already have a 99 car train that is operated by one person. Why are we not shipping more by train.
The trucks are so big they dominate highways and streets in towns. Those streets were never intended to have trucks that long be used as delivery vans/trucks.

X2, Thomas.