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New Honda Accord Drives Itself
pmenefee writes "Japanese car manufacturer Honda has launched a new self-driven car. Dubbed Honda Accord ADAS, the vehicle can change gears and steer itself around bends. While the auto-pilot function will currently only operate on motorways and dual carriageways, officials at Honda believe that future ADAS models will tackle all roads."
Well, not quite- nice to see that Honda could come out with an ADAS system barely a month after it becoming legal....
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Is this some kind of euro-test?
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Does this make anyone else think of the old Looney Toons cartoons where one character diverts another character's path of travel by painting a false line from the middle of the road to someplace else?
Not only that, but my grandma and all the other old people out there can let go of the wheel and save some lives. Just don't tell your grandma that she has this feature when she really doesn't have it. That might cause some more accidents.
Unfortunately, as self driving cars become more and more viable, we're going to run into a liability problem. Sure, the self driving cars can probably cut crashes and resulting deaths by some huge percent, but there will still be some that happen. Then, those crashes and deaths will be the responsibility of the car manufacturer who will get sued into oblivion.
Jerry
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They'll just charge you with whatever they charge people who pass out in their cars after realizing they're too drunk to drive.
Most laws are worded that as long as you're physically able to start the car (possession of the keys), it's as bad as plowing through a bunch of little kids.
It doesn't look like it'll make turns for you. Or even know when to take turns. In fact, it looks like you may have to dis-engage the system to turn or pass someone. And you still have to know the way home.
That said, it seems like the #1 problem with drunk driving is staying in your lane and keeping the right speed.
I'm redminded of the movie The 6th Day (starring the Governator), where in one scene Ahnold and whoever was co-starring were sitting in a truck, looking at each other and talking while the car drove. When they got close to their destination, the car beeped and informed them that it would be returning to manual in 10... 9...
The car also had built in GPS with maps, and seemed to be able to drive itself anywhere, though not from the exact beginning to the exact end (it relied on humans for such things as parking.)
Does this new Honda have any of this? Being able to have the car hold your position is helpful, especially because it will allow you to pay greater attention to other driving matters, such as cars surrounding you and judging your next turn off (though, at least in America, it will just allow Soccer Mom's to apply more make-up, sigh.)
Can the Honda steer around cars that are going too slow? Say it's set to a +/-10 mile variance; if a car in front of you is going 10 miles slower than you want to go (or the speed limit allows, depending on how its set up), will the car automatically work around it? What if a car is coming up behind you too fast; will it move over to let the other car pass?
Can it navigate itself off of highways? We already have GPS-enabled systems that inform you when a turn or exit is coming up that you need to take; how well could they integrate that into the car steering itself?
What happens if the road lines dissappear or become unreadable, be it from construction or wear? Does it hold a straight course, alerting you right away? Does it slow down? Or is it looking far enough ahead that it would have enough time to alert you to resume manual control?
Does it merely watch the road, or does it calculate the shape? What if a car changes lanes in front of you, blocking the camera from seeing the lines, and right after the road goes straight after being a curve? What will the car do? Will it have enough data to know the road it about to straighten?
I love the idea of a car driving itself, if only because that means less asshats on the road (their car, unmodded, will certainly respect road rules and common decency, even if its owner doesn't.) However, there are a lot of questions I have before I feel safe driving in one of these. Also, I'm sure someone will figure out within a month how to clip something onto the steering wheel to make it think that someone is touching it. (Or, the stupid parents will just tell their kid in the passenger to reach over and touch the steering wheel, while said stupid parent goes on talking on a cell or grroming his/herself or whatever.)
And heaven help us if it runs Windows.
If liability issues kill the implementation of self-driving cars, then it's time to kill all the lawyers.
Personally, I would much rather have a robot driving a car than a teenager. Or an old person. Or a drunk. Or somebody on a cellphone. Or me, when I'm daydreaming, frankly. Who hasn't experienced that thing where you jerk alert and suddenly realize some part of your brain you're not even aware of has been driving for the last 45 minutes - on the freeway, at 75 mph - while the rest of your head has been somewhere else?
There will still be wrecks, but I think we'll have fewer of 'em. I'll take my chances with the robots.
Really, one HUGE problem in this country is that nobody understands risk assessment. It's the kind of ignorance that gave us the completely ineffective PATRIOT Act in response to 9/11.
Serving your airship needs since 1995.