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Nissan's Autonomous Car Now Road Legal In Japan

Posted by Soulskill on from the as-long-as-you-don't-program-it-to-run-over-mimes dept.

Daniel_Stuckey writes "The current test vehicle uses what Nissan calls its 'Advanced Driver Assist System,' which isn't fully autonomous, but rather can be thought of as a really advanced cruise control system. According to the company, the system can keep a car in its own lane, while automatically changing lanes to pass slower vehicles or prepare to exit a freeway, which it can also do automatically. Along with that, the car automatically slows for congestion, and — most impressively in my opinion — can automatically stop at red lights. In other words, the car isn't fully automatic in that you can't simply type in a destination and have it do all the work, but the bulk of driving load is taken care of. Curiously, Nissan's goal appears to be to take sloppy human drivers out of the equation to eliminate road fatalities."

8 of 205 comments (clear)

  1. Curiously? by Antipater · · Score: 5, Funny

    Curiously, Nissan's goal appears to be to take sloppy human drivers out of the equation to eliminate road fatalities."

    "We want fewer people to die" is a curious position to take?

    --
    Everything is better with chainsaws.
    1. Re:Curiously? by pablo_max · · Score: 4, Informative

      Why? Dead people tend not to buy as many cars.

    2. Re:Curiously? by BreakBad · · Score: 5, Funny

      They sure do like to vote though.

    3. Re:Curiously? by cusco · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Hell, in Miami they still drive.

      --
      "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
    4. Re: Curiously? by Mike_EE_U_of_I · · Score: 4, Insightful

      But will it detect that guy you've seen in your rear view mirror switching lanes doing 40mph faster than you?

      Yes. And it will almost certainly do it better than almost any human driver.

  2. Now it just remains to be seen... by Kjella · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Now it just remains to be seen if drivers will continue to pay attention to the road, or if it becomes so autonomous that people start slacking (more) behind the wheel. It really won't work to have a car that drives itself 90% of the time and then expects you go randomly jump in for the last 10%. Still, nice to see this tech getting closer to reality.

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    Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    1. Re:Now it just remains to be seen... by Dimwit · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's what worries me. The transition to fully automatic cars needs to be essentially 100%, or at least 99% with a "pull over and stop moving" for the remaining 1%. Otherwise I would've be surprised if fatalities went *up* due to drivers taking a nap/getting drunk/reading a book and failing to notice when they need to take back over.

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      ...but it's being eaten...by some...Linux or something...
    2. Re:Now it just remains to be seen... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I dont think that is true at all.

      Of course it is not true, because the entire premise of the GGPP's objection is false. Self driving cars do not expect the human driver to "randomly" jump in. If the SDC calculates that it cannot make the best decision, it will prompt the human to take over. If the human does not respond, the SDC will either continue if it is reasonably safe to do so, or pull over and stop. The people designing these systems are not morons.