The World

[John Ranalletta]

Will the truck stay in the right lane or attempt to pass other semis at tortuously slow speeds, on uphill grades, no less?

[Guest Kakugo]

I am not worried about the technology itself.

 

I am worried Daimler will lobby to make the technology mandatory.

 

 

[Bud]

"Regulators may one day insist cars drive themselves, at least when it comes to highway travel."

 

It's like every flight I've taken to Denver for several years.

 

Yes, there is a pilot and co-pilot in the cockpit. Are they actively flying the plane for the majority of the trip? No.

 

But when HAL tells Dave he is no longer necessary......................

 

 

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[Bud]

Will the truck stay in the right lane or attempt to pass other semis at tortuously slow speeds, on uphill grades, no less?

 

They will be programmed, when arriving a work zone with a merge 10 miles ahead, to immediately move over into the other lane and block all traffic for the next 10 miles.

[upflying]

Don't see the point of a self-driving truck if a safety driver has to be with it. That safety driver will be fighting fatigue and sleep with nothing to do.

[Asymmetrical]

How will these rigs (or any other self-driving vehicle for that matter) navigate in conditions with reduced visibility if lane markers and other vehicles are not easily distinguished from the surroundings?

[John Ranalletta]

That's the point. Likely, if they can't roll due to conditions, they'll just stop, stopping all other traffic as well. Since the computer knows best, no vehicles should be rolling. They'd make a helluva road block.

[Asymmetrical]

It's hard to understand how the widespread deployment of self driving vehicles will be possible with the limitations imposed by bad visibility being somewhat unpredictable and frequent in many parts of the country, especially in winter.

 

On the other I cannot imagine that vehicle manufacturers would have committed the amounts of capital they have to developing the technology unless they foresee ways to overcome the limitations.

[upflying]

I'd like to see it back up to a loading dock.

[Guest Kakugo]

It's hard to understand how the widespread deployment of self driving vehicles will be possible with the limitations imposed by bad visibility being somewhat unpredictable and frequent in many parts of the country, especially in winter.

 

On the other I cannot imagine that vehicle manufacturers would have committed the amounts of capital they have to developing the technology unless they foresee ways to overcome the limitations.

 

The answer is very simple: these firms have a lot of credit on their hands and hence are leapfrogging projects that otherwise would be put on the backburner or be brought up only when the technology is really mature and the demand is truly there.

 

By doing so they are running the risk of "burning out" the markets they are attempting to create: you Americans seem enamoured with electric vehicles, but around here they are not catching up. And mind an European city would be far better suited to these vehicles than yours. Manufacturers have tried every dirty trick in the book to shift them (including hefty doses of lobbying) but so far have little to show to their credit.

The technology isn't mature yet and people are wary of it: horror stories about Renault electric commercial vehicles have pretty much killed this potentially lucrative market already.

 

Self-driving vehicles are exactly the same: the technology is simply not mature yet and, much more critically, there isn't a market for it yet.

 

But this won't stop manufacturers from pushing them very aggressively and, once they fail to shift the completely unreal numbers they have dreamed up, to resort to lobbying: the EU has 31000 employees all over the world (this includes delegations at the UN headquarters in New York and other places). At last count there were 30000 active registered lobbyists in Brussels, Strasbourg and Frankfurt alone.

That's the thing I fear, not the technology.

[John Ranalletta]

Businesses, in general, are using trucks as moving warehouses. If as much effort were put into making rail transport of goods more efficient and time-sensitive, everyone would be better served.

[Asymmetrical]

 

"The answer is very simple: these firms have a lot of credit on their hands and hence are leapfrogging projects that otherwise would be put on the backburner or be brought up only when the technology is really mature and the demand is truly there."

 

Perhaps, but unless this is considered 'pure research' any corporate entity I have worked with requires all investments of capital to show an IRR (internal rate of return) that is only possible if profits from the proposed project are possible within (at least) the intermediate term.