It might begin very soon

Terryallan wrote:
What happens when the road isn't where it is supposed to be? Like in a construction zone where the road was moved over a few feet. I know. The car runs into the guard rail. Seen it happen.

The autodrive systems currently being developed like GM supercruise and Tesla autopilot FSD use AI to make some decisions. We have FSD on our Tesla. Not the limited test beta that works in cities (there are less than a 1000 test cars with this test software in it presently) but the standard FSD available on any Tesla as an option. If it is on FSD (full self drive) on a road or highway it watches the lines and makes decisions accordingly. If the lines disappear it try's to do the same thing using the edges of the road. At some point if it can't do that it notifies the driver that he or she must take over immediately. But these are level 2 systems meaning a driver is present and must be able to take over at any time. The Tesla system requires the driver to have a hand on the wheel and actually checks every minute or so.

But for the most part it works pretty good and interventions are seldom. It navigates makes the turns for all the on ramps and off ramps if you have a destination programmed in, makes all the necessary lane changes, stops at all the stop signs and stop lights etc. I find it a little paranoids and slow around crosswalks and bicycles but maybe that is a good thing.

To give you an idea on its AI capabilities, the RV park where we store our class A decided to add some home brew stop signs last year. Basically a stop on a pole on a tire rim. I tend to drive the car with TAC on all the time so just in case I miss a stop sign or stop light the car (who my wife named JARVIS) will see it and stop. Anyway, not expecting a non compliant stop sign on a stick on a curb I would have driven right through this one. But JARVIS saw it and came to a gentle stop. We were yakking and trying to figure out why the car stopped and then saw the sign. Well, at some point later the park took them out because technically they weren't really compliant and people complained. Anyway, for at least the next half dozen times we noticed that JARVIS still slowed down to almost a stop looking for the sign that he knew was there before. He finally adapted and now he doesn't stop anymore.

Here is a picture of that sign.



And this is the display the driver sees if there is a stop sign.



We don't use the summon feature much as it is a little slow, but the times we have used it it works okay. Frankly I can walk faster to the car than summoning the car from the door at Walmart, but the couple times we have used it for kicks it has done okay, backing out of its parking spot, driving up the correct side of the parking lot lane, stopping for pedestrians etc etc. Like I say, we don't use it much. People get freaked out when they see there is no one in the car when its driving around the parking lot.

We do use the autopark in the garage feature when its tight in there because of projects etc. Pull up to the garage door. garage door opens, select autopark, get out of the car, as soon as the car door closes car goes in gear and drives into the garage. It stops and then closes the garage door, I walk in the main house door and don't worry about being able to only open my car door half way in the garage. Easy peasy.

Some manufacturers like Tesla are going real minimalist with their interiours getting people use to not having buttons or knobs to play with. Most everything can be done by voice. I can literally say to the car, "my a$$ is cold" and it turns on my seat heater. I think my wifes car has like two buttons, and both are on the steering wheel. Even the brake pedal rarely gets used as it is pretty much all one pedal driving.



Meet Jarvis. :)



Anyway, I'm sure there will be lots of AI developments in the next few years.