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Hyundai To Release "Semi-Autonomous" Car This Year
jfruh writes While self-driving cars from Google and others remain in the prototype stage, Korean carmaker Hyundai intends to release a premium sedan called the Equus this year that includes self-driving features. While a car's ability to navigate complex urban environments on its own is still a ways off, the Equus will allow the driver to take their hands off the wheel and feet off the brakes during highway driving.
Driving is boring, people don't pay attention to the road, is the solution to make it more boring?
This is always my concern. If the car is semi-autonomous, that means the driver should be ready to take control of the car if something goes wrong. But if the person has their hands off the wheel, and foot off the brake, what are the odds that the person will be able to take control when they need to?
I'm just envisioning the near future, where most days people don't have to touch the controls. People get complacent, and start reading books, watching a movie, or browsing the net while driving, because it's so boring and they never have to do anything anyway. Then once in a while something bad happens, and the person is unable to do anything about it, because they weren't paying attention. Sure you could blame the person, but you could put some blame on the car/manufacturer for giving them a false sense of security.
That or people just don't buy the self driving car, because if I have to pay attention all the time anyway, there's no way I'm paying for the self driving car unless I can actually do something else while driving.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
I expect it will be a lot like cruise control where it will only kick on when particular conditions are set.
For the most part I see this as a great safety feature. Having driven highway for 5-6 hours in one shot, your eyes get strained from staying focused, and your instinct is to just close your eyes to let them rest a bit. Just having a feature to keep you in your lane, and not ramming into the car in front of you, is useful, where you can let your eyes focus on something easier for a few minutes, or away from some glare.
Oddly enough if you are not so intent in watching out for danger, you can be less focused and see what is happening around you much easier.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Honestly, have you looked around at other drivers?
I see so many people with their face glued to their phone that I assume they're doing all this and more. I know damned well I've seen bad driver shows in which idiots watch TV on their cell phone while driving.
I'm forced to conclude that at least 1/3 of all drivers are barely aware of their surroundings while driving.
I could stand at an intersection for an hour and see a huge amount of drivers with their face looking down at their phone. How the police can't seem to do this I have no idea.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Or you could just pull over and take a 5-10 minute walk every two hours or so to get some blood flowing to the brain again. In fact, I think this is recommended by most driving instructors.
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