Self-driving home anyone?

[bluejayway]

Hi guys,
I came across an article and became curious to know your opinion on the matter. Driverless cars are already looming on the horizon and there also projects to make motorhomes that will take you to work while you're having coffee or shower, travel longer without the need to stop while you sleep (seems cool to me). Though would you care to live in such conditions all the time? To me it's a great option for trips, but not sure I would choose to sell my house and forget about it for good 😄 (source https://tranio.com/world/spotlight/self-driving-mobile-homes-how-driverless-cars-will-change-the-pro...)

[pnichols]

timjet wrote:
For all you nay sayers realize you more than likely have ridden aboard an airplane that self landed that otherwise could not have landed at that airport due to low visibility. I my 34 yrs of airline flying I never had not once an autoland fail.

Apparently you missed this part of my earlier post in this discussion thread - here is the portion of my post related to what you stated above:

"We watch a lot of those docu-dramas that show what happened, and what caused, major air disasters ... AND it's just plain scarry in many of those episodes as to what the final findings were.

Many of the reasons were that the pilots were so "used to" the plane's computer systems handling so much - flight after flight - that when the systems went haywire (often a transducer problem or a small mechanical part failure) the pilots didn't know what to do to manually counter-act what the systems were erroneously trying to do. The airline industry has had to actually retrain their pilots on how to fly an airliner the old fashioned manual way so as to be able to override a failing automatic-fly system!!

P.S. We don't fly ... not due to lack of knowledge of the statstics about the millions of safe miles people fly ... but due to full knowledge of the seriousness of the consequences when one of the multitude of things that can go wrong does go wrong. We'll take our chances at 55 MPH on the ground in an RV instead of at 550 MPH a long way from the ground in a plane.

[atreis]

I also can't wait for self-driving vehicles, including motorhomes. IMO, it'll be a great boon to maintaining mobility into old age, and would allow one to do other things during those long, boring, parts of the drive.

[timjet]

For all you nay sayers realize you more than likely have ridden aboard an airplane that self landed that otherwise could not have landed at that airport due to low visibility. I my 34 yrs of airline flying I never had not once an autoland fail.

I'll put my faith and life into a robot before I risk driving next to a distracted/incapacitated/mad/suicidal driver. I'm 67 and do believe that totally autonomous cars will be available in my life time. The general public will demand and pay for it and car manufactures will meet that demand.

I can't wait for my motorhome to be self driving. We'll start from home after dinner, watch some TV, go to sleep and wake up the next morning in a campground next to the Grand Canyon. It's coming weather you like it or not, just wish I was 10 years younger.

[tatest]

I just turned 72, my family history suggests lifespan to the middle to late 90's with limited function at 90-92 years. I do not expect the infrastructure and technology for what you envision in what is left of my lifetime. What I expect is limited use of low-speed self-driving taxicabs in dense urban areas, particularly where other types of traffic have been severely restricted.

Like Coolerman, I come from a 30 year career of software development, and my experience has been that you can program only for the situations you envision, and hope for human intelligence to compensate for the situations you didn't think to cover. Commercial aviation is approaching the autonomous stage (still cannot handle takeoffs and maneuvering to cruise) yet frequently encounter unanticipated situations requiring immediate human intervention. Their tightly managed traffic environment is several orders of magnitude less complex than today's road traffic. Self-driving vehicles in the broader context will require either an external control system, or intervehicle communication, along with elimination of all uncontrolled traffic, including pedestrians and bicycles.

[ventrman]

I wonder if it will be accurate enough to find the RV Park, then back into your Space by itself.

[Bachelor]

No, I don't think I'd be showering while the motorhome is driving itself to work! :E

[jetboater454]

Even thought it's very rare now,I don't want to be in the passenger seat when the car has a tire blow out.
:E

[DrewE]

I suspect fully automated self-driving cars are a good ways off yet.

Partly I suspect this because other transportation systems that are much simpler to automate, and indeed that we've had the technology to automate for many years, are still human controlled. Trains, for instance, with very few exceptions have engineers to control them. Ships have captains. Airplanes have pilots--and automating flight (at least most aspects of it) is quite a bit simpler than automating driving because the environment is somewhat more controlled in the sense of having fewer and less frequent unexpected things intruding into it and having far greater separation between vehicles. Having the third dimension available to spread out traffic really helps there.

A self-driving motorhome would be really neat, though. Fill up with gas in the evening, set the destination for your next stop, and then eat dinner, take a shower, and sleep for the night while it whisks you there effortlessly. Or, perhaps more practically, actually enjoy the scenery rather than being vaguely aware of it out of the corner of your eye....

[pnichols]

JimBollman wrote:
I'm from the generation where cars were simple and the driver complex. Now the cars are complex and the drivers are simple.

That statement should become a classic and be enshrined in stone! :C

[JimBollman]

I'm from the generation where cars were simple and the driver complex. Now the cars are complex and the drivers are simple.

[Thom02099]

Just one more thing for some troll living in mommy and daddy's basement to hack into. Hacking has become a way of life for far too many of these trolls. Look at all the things that have been hacked into recently (Wells Fargo, Equifax, etc). Now imagine you are sitting on the john in your MH as it accelerates to 100mph in any busy downtown area. Little Johhny Hacker just pulled off another one.

No thank you. I'll keep driving for myself for as long as I can.

[time2roll]

Intelligent cruise control to not just maintain speed but also following distance would be enough for me.

Full self driving? I will wait for at least 30 percent market penetration before I jump in. Going to be a long time.

Cameras recording while driving will be a huge improvement to who did what and when. Might have Santa bring me a dash cam this year.

[pnichols]

wa8yxm wrote:
Airplanes are, for the most part, self driving now days.. IN fact it's not even that much computer (The ECC in a Ford can pilot one cross country) but once air born they fly and often land under computer control. .BUT A HUMAN PILOT is still needed just in cuss (No that is not as typo cause if he's needed cussing will be happening). Cause STUFF HAPPENS.

We watch a lot of those docu-dramas that show what happened, and what caused, major air disasters ... AND it's just plain scarry in many of those episodes as to what the final findings were.

Many of the reasons were that the pilots were so "used to" the plane's computer systems handling so much - flight after flight - that when the systems went haywire (often a transducer problem or a small mechanical part failure) the pilots didn't know what to do to manually counter-act what the systems were erroneously trying to do. The airline industry has had to actually retrain their pilots on how to fly an airliner the old fashioned manual way so as to be able to override a failing automatic-fly system!!

I can't imagine the overall danger in multiplying close to these kind of scenarios hundreds of millions of times all over the world as dumbed-down drivers and/or non-drivers suddenly see their lives flashing before them as they realize that the vehicle they are in or the vehicle coming at them is no longer "self driving" itself as it should. 😞

"Change" is not always for the good once all is said and done. Sometimes it's just change for change's sake, or worse .... for improvement in someone's pocketbook due to us eventual users following along like lemmings. Thank goodness for lawyers.

[wa8yxm]

We have been working on self-driving vehicles since before I was born (1950's) and in fact have had them .. Sort of.. For a long long time. Most folks have seen them but do not understand what they have seen.

Ever been to an amusement park and seen the mini-cars that follow a rail around a track.. Yup, one of the earlier proposals for self driving cars, To make it more fun they loosened the track followers but that's the same concept.

Someone up-thread ask about "How many times has your computer "Glitched" (This one does it multiple times a day) Well.. Space Capsules, which are mostly self driving, use multiple computers in a democratic manner (If two of them agree then that's what we do, out of 3 total) Use of multiple computers reduces the odds of a glitch to the point of near zero.. Still happens though.

California demands that even self-driving cars have a steering wheel and manual override.. Google and others claim that defeats the purpose.. but frankly.. I think it is a good idea.. TESLA who now makes self driving cars has had a few accidents. but every time the human operator was "Sleeping on the job" as it were,, That is not paying attention.

Airplanes are, for the most part, self driving now days.. IN fact it's not even that much computer (The ECC in a Ford can pilot one cross country) but once air born they fly and often land under computer control. .BUT A HUMAN PILOT is still needed just in cuss (No that is not as typo cause if he's needed cussing will be happening). Cause STUFF HAPPENS.