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Honda To Test Self-Driving Cars In California

An anonymous reader writes: Reuters reports that Honda has received approval from the State of California to test their self-driving cars on public roads. They join not just Google and Tesla, but Mercedes Benz, Nissan, and several other companies with permission to test. Take note: autonomous cars are no longer a fringe research project for a few future-focused companies. The industry as a whole is recognizing that autonomous driving technology will be a vital part of transportation by car sometime in the future.

34 comments

  1. One problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Too bad there won't be enough people working/able to afford them!

    1. Re:One problem by stoatwblr · · Score: 1

      Once cars are "autos", you won't need to own one. Humans Need Not Apply as drivers anymore too.

  2. Yeah... but by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What if I need to go offroad?

  3. The question remains... by nospam007 · · Score: 1

    ... will it respect the Asian driving style?

    1. Re:The question remains... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      Q: What do you get when you cross a Mexican with a Chinaman?

      Mr Trump, is that you?

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    2. Re: The question remains... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Do you think the sole criteria for becoming a US resident should be that you can sneak across the border? That's essentially what the liberals are arguing for. Trump simply says he wants controlled immigration from Mexico where the we take only their best and brightest. Not their average or below average. Seems reasonable to me. But that does make for good fake outrage, does it?

    3. Re: The question remains... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      Do you think the sole criteria for becoming a US resident should be that you can sneak across the border?

      Do you think that opposition to illegal immigration requires you to make racist jokes?

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    4. Re: The question remains... by starless · · Score: 1

      Do you think the sole criteria for becoming a US resident

      Do you think the word "criteria" is singular?

    5. Re: The question remains... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do you think the sole criteria for becoming a US resident should be that you can sneak across the border? That's essentially what the liberals are arguing for.

      It isn't, and you don't believe that it is.

      Strawman arguments are lies.

  4. Thought these were banned..? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Pretty sure self-driving cars had been banned..

  5. The industry as a whole is recognizing that autono by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The industry as a whole is recognizing that autonomous driving technology will be a vital part of transportation by car sometime in the future.

    Gotta move all those tulips somehow

  6. Re:Off road by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    Then you'll control the car in a high-level way that resembles how they pilot spaceships in Star Trek.

  7. When will my car be able to take me home from the by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Five years?

  8. Re: When will my car be able to take me home from by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My mom is 89 and stopped driving a few years ago. She lives in a small town without good public transport. She misses the flexibility, eg, to go to the store when she wants to. She probably wouldn't buy a self-driving car, but I bet a small fleet of self-driving cars on call for use would be very popular. (No drivers to pay...)

  9. Duplication by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Given that the intention is develop an autonomous vehicle it should make sense for all manufacturers to work on a common system, rather than a diverse range of competing hardware technologies. At the end of the day, the idea is not to distinguish the company's based on the quality of the AI, but on the service it provides to the customer.

    This eliminates duplication of effort and associated costs. Further, a single system can be secured much better that an entire eco-system of buggy solutions.

    1. Re:Duplication by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you don't get they don't care about the effort and costs, as long as they then get to be the ones to lock up that feature in their own propietary garden

  10. Thank God! by BrendaEM · · Score: 1

    When they hit your car, you can fight Honda's legal department, in Santa Clara's Superior Court whose sole purpose is to caters to the needs of the wealthy.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
    1. Re:Thank God! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Already fought Honda a couple of times and lost. My two dogs died in my Civic after it caught fire due to a known defect that Honda refused to do a recall for. The car I had before that was a CR-V with fault valves, and I had to replace the engine once and the head three times. Like with most Hondas over their lifetime, I spent more on it than I paid. I would not trust that bottomfeeder garbage company with a self-driving car. They don't do real engineering. They're just a screwdriver shop that puts together parts from real manufacturers.

    2. Re:Thank God! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Honda used to have a good reputation for quality. It's a shame if they have fallen so far.

    3. Re:Thank God! by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Honda used to have a good reputation for quality

      People are suckers.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  11. Self Driving Cars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If they work, we save tens of thousands of lives per year on US highways. And lose millions of truck driving jobs.

    1. Re:Self Driving Cars by Computershack · · Score: 2

      As a truck driver who has a little of this tech fitted to my truck already (adaptive cruise control and automatic emergency braking) I'm not worrying about losing my job any time soon. I live in a country which has lots of rain, fog and where it snows. The ACC and AEBS shit themselves and turn off when it rains heavy or as soon as the front of the truck gets a light covering of snow. Currently no autonomous car can drive in rain, fog or snow. The AEBS also has false positives ocassionally giving heart stopping collision warnings when I pass under certain bridges and more than once its slammed on the brakes when taking a gentle corner that has had metal posts put up along the kerb. Fortunately when it happened I wasn't carrying the load I was on the return journey otherwise there would've been a nasty accident.

      And then there's the fact that with a truck there's a massive range of variables to consider compared to a car. A car never changes its dimensions, its weight is relatively constant. My truck changes length by over 40ft, its weight changes by up to 37 metric tonnes. Where the fifth wheel pin is, where the axles are, how many axles there are and whether the rear one is a steering axle on the semi-trailer all affect its cornering, manoeuvrability and reversing characteristics. All the loads on it have different effects on the handling characteristics and themselves need the vehicle driven to accommodate them. A tanker filled with 20 tonnes of milk for example requires a lot different driving technique to a flatbed carrying a 20 tonne slab of aluminium.

      As I said, they can't yet even get the self driving cars to work anywhere where there's inclement weather which is why they're being tested in California so I'm not planning a change of job because of automated trucks any time soon.

      --
      I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either. - Scott Adams
    2. Re:Self Driving Cars by stoatwblr · · Score: 1

      The ACC and other bits you have on your truck are designed with stringent operational limitations to reduce liability issues.

      The field of vision they have is nothing like what an automated vehicle has.

      My decade-old car has ACC and what spooks it is quite predictable - just like a blinkered horse - which is what you'd expect from a very simple system with only one POV of the road ahead - unlike the 360 degree multispectral vision that autonomous cars have.

      Autonomous vehicles are nothing like these simplistic creations and they're being prepped to work in all weather conditions.

      If you get the chance to try out Mercedes new trucks (freightliners in the USA) then do so, especially their technology demonstrators. Large vehicles are where automation will pay dividends first and fastest, freeing the driver to get on with paperwork, etc.

  12. Honda isn't the most technical organization by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They typically push engineering and systems integration to other companies. They do have a great marketing department. The uninformed public thinks Honda makes good cars. It reminds me of Microsoft and the public's misbelief about Microsoft. When I worked for a Honda supplier, Honda didn't care about much besides costs and not doing any work themselves. It was all about doing things as cheaply as possible, especially for Honda. I understand they're not big enough to engineer their own cars, but as long as they're not and as long as they push the cheap as possible strategy, they are never going to be able to make reliable cars. I've owned three since my wife is a fan and the supplier discount was nice, but they were a huge hassle to keep running.

    I wouldn't trust them to create a self-driving car. Their culture just doesn't support that type of effort.

    1. Re:Honda isn't the most technical organization by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > push engineering and systems integration to other companies

      Honda is basically a screwdriver shop. We put together parts that other companies make. We have nearly 200k employees, but an embarrassingly few that are in engineering. Other companies do engineering for us. I work part of my job with the F1 team, and much of our engineering is done by McLaren. Our cars are very underpowered and unreliable. We can't even make our showcase racecars reliable. I do not drive a Honda despite the nice employee discount. Honda parts are overpriced, and even if you do your own work, they're still much more expensive to own than a reliable car.

  13. Honda is the Apple of the Car World by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And, yes, I've owned a Honda.

  14. No big American auto manufacturers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As expected, of course, the US auto industry is going to sit around collecting cash with no new R&D, then beg the government for handouts and tariffs when the foreign auto makers take their market. And they'll get it too.

  15. Just what we need by TheAngryCat · · Score: 1

    Being a pedestrian that is just what I need with the idiot drivers on their cellphones trying to run me down, the bicyclists who are riding in the sidewalk (which is illegal in The People's Republic of California) trying to run me off the sidewalk while they are texting.... Now I have to worry about driverless cars with shoddy software and dirty censors running me over. I am going to have to start carrying a flame thrower since open carry of firearms is illegal in The People's Republic of California.

    1. Re:Just what we need by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      censors are not dirty... they remove the dirty

  16. Re:Off road by epyT-R · · Score: 3, Informative

    Talk about delusional.. Have you ever been off-road before?

  17. I misread that as "self-destructing" cars... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I misread that as "self-destructing" cars and was puzzled for a bit.

  18. Re: When will my car be able to take me home from by RicktheBrick · · Score: 1

    Your mom will not miss walking around a store to pick up a few items and than waiting in a check out line to go home again. I would think that she would enjoy shopping on the internet and having the items delivered in a self driving vehicle. I think that self driving vehicles will obsolete almost all or our present commercial areas. It will eliminate a huge number of jobs. It will also save 10's of thousands of death each year and hundreds of thousands of injuries each year. It will also save hundreds of billions of dollars in property damage each year. This also will eliminate a huge number of jobs.