Self Driving EV, Hmmmm.

[MOAK]

Last weekend I rode in a Tesla X for a little over an hour. It was in self driving mode the entire trip into Providence and back. Simply stated, I was amazed at some things and did not care for others things that it did. Basically it drives the vehicle in the very same manner that I used to teach to drivers in the transport industry. Simple things, like choosing to be in the center lane/lanes of a multiple lane interstate. The center lane is the safest to be in for a number of reasons. The car knows how to yield, then merge properly. Before changing lanes the signal blinks 3 times. The car accelerates smoothly. It does not wander, it does not tailgate, the cameras are constantly scanning all lanes of traffic, ahead, behind and traffic in the oncoming lanes of the interstate. Basically, as I stated, it drives the vehicle in the same manner that a really good driver would do. However, because it is a computer, it has no intuition. The car does not see far enough ahead. It will speed up to close a gap in traffic with a stop sign or a red light a hundred yards away. The car will change lanes into another vehicles blind spot. That's a huge no no. The car changes lanes, much too abruptly. That turn signal blinks 3 times and whoosh. Because it has no intuition, it will slow down abruptly to allow a car to come into the lane that has a turn signal on, even though the human has seen the turn signal blinking for miles, as the driver left the signal on. There are a couple of other idiosyncrasies that made me feel like I was riding with a very inexperienced driver that has great potential. The car handles itself much better than the average human driver, there are no brain farts, there are no mistakes, there are no distracted driving errors. Safer? Yes, much safer than most humans. This should be a good conversation..

 

[smritte]

If you look into the technology, you see how far it's come. The latest AI can tell the difference between a box truck and a trash truck. They can park in a parking lot. Intuition wise, it's getting there. My sister is on her 3rd Tesla. I've watched the AI evolve over the years. The issues I see here are the none self driving being around them. Late 80's ABS was starting to become main stream. The news reported, the numbers of accidents increased with ABS. The problem wasn't ABS but the fact the ABS car stopped quicker than the non ABS. The non vehicle would hit the ABS causing it to loose control. Two non ABS cars stopped in the same (ish) distance.

There's also several aftermarket self drive systems out there that are amazing. What that means is, its an open source software with several people evolving it. My brother in law has a system on his Subaru and it rivals Tesla's system.

Different manufactures are working on a telemetry system. It will broadcast a signal about 40 meters around itself. The idea is to have other cars know what's around them, direction and speed. This way they can compensate if necessary. An example would be all the signals are out. The problem here isn't the technology but, none of the manufactures will agree on the protocols.

Personally, I would love to take a long trip and not have to watch the road. I look around any way. Eventually, it will take you to the store, drop you off and park itself. If its low on power, park over an inductive charger until you signal it to pick you up again.

 

[grubworm]

no shit...electronics are now way smarter than actual human beings.
not exactly what i would call "bragging rights"...

 

[MOAK]

no shit...electronics are now way smarter than actual human beings.
not exactly what i would call "bragging rights"...

Remember Deep Blue beating Kasparov? The interesting part is they are only about a generation away from AI being intuitive. Just between me & you. The AI driving the car is a much better driver than most drivers I’ve ever ridden with, all 2 of em- I don’t trust anyone but me.

 

[Outdoordog]

I've rented a Tesla model S, twin motor. It was a very fun car. Interior was unimpressive, felt cheap almost. Finding a charger station was a pain as well, 2 out 3 times, it was full or not working.
As for the self driving part, I'm not sure I'd trust it yet. I've seen videos of teslas swerving into oncoming traffic. Another one, when the tesla was passing some trash cans, it jumped into oncoming traffic.
Plus, I love driving.