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Two sentences explaining why your self-driving car won’t have a steering wheel


RV_

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It seems that self driving cars are right around the corner! Google among others, including leader Tesla, are testing their models at a town that is also only manned by automatons.

 

Until I read this article I had a vision of a car I was still at the controls of, but just not grabbing the controls. I really had no idea they would have no steering wheels or other controls inside for our emergency use. Then I thought about this article and it makes sense. But how would I feel the first time I had a vehicle driving at 70 plus mph?

 

The lack of needing a driver, even to sit in one place just in case, has the advantage of my being able to draw the curtains so I can change my underwear. :unsure:

 

Excerpt:

 

"Last week I shared some photos from inside Google’s prototype of a self-driving car. The reactions were about as polarized as I’ve ever seen on a blog post I’ve written. The first group of readers were amazed, and they wanted to know where they could buy one. Everyone else was terrified of the interior. A car that they could never steer? No thanks.

 

The problem with including a steering wheel in a self-driving car is that human drivers can’t be trusted to effectively take over in sticky situations. So the makers of driverless cars can’t responsibly include a steering wheel.

 

Reid Hoffman, the renowned Silicon Valley investor and LinkedIn co-founder, relayed some telling research from Stefan Heck, the founder of Nauto, a self-driving car start-up:

Research that Stanford has done shows that drivers resuming control from Level 3 vehicles functioning in autonomous mode take 10 seconds just to attain the level of ability that a drunk driver possesses. And to get back to full driving competence takes 60 seconds.

 

That’s a full 10 seconds just to function at the level of someone who shouldn’t be behind the wheel. A self-driving car cruising at 70 mph is unlikely to have 60 or even 10 seconds to wait for a human to take over."

 

Links and pics and more at the article page here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/wp/2015/07/21/two-sentences-explaining-why-your-self-driving-car-wont-have-a-steering-wheel/?wpisrc=nl_innov&wpmm=1

RV/Derek
http://www.rvroadie.com Email on the bottom of my website page.
Retired AF 1971-1998


When you see a worthy man, endeavor to emulate him. When you see an unworthy man, look inside yourself. - Confucius

 

“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” ... Voltaire

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