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Why Self-Driving Cars Are Still a Long Way Down the Road
moon_unit2 writes "Technology Review has a piece on the reality behind all the hype surrounding self-driving, or driverless, cars. From the article: 'Vehicle automation is being developed at a blistering pace, and it should make driving safer, more fuel-efficient, and less tiring. But despite such progress and the attention surrounding Google's "self-driving" cars, full autonomy remains a distant destination. A truly autonomous car, one capable of dealing with any real-world situation, would require much smarter artificial intelligence than Google or anyone else has developed. The problem is that until the moment our cars can completely take over, we will need automotive technologies to strike a tricky balance: they will have to extend our abilities without doing too much for the driver.'"
Because Skynet, that's why.
I completely agree. You can imagine any emergency scenario you want with combinations of black ice, sand, curves, blowouts, etc. But a human being has to rely on what they've experienced to help them react to those situations and I'm willing to bet that most people are unprepared for that scenario. On the other hand, a computer which has been programmed for that scenario, or has learned from it, can easily benefit the entire population of cars via a software update. A computer can make real time assessments of weather, tire wear, etc to determine the best possible course of action. Most people I see around here can't even be expected to turn on their lights in inclement weather let alone know how to reactor to uncommon emergency situations.