Google, Ford, Volvo, Lyft and Uber Join Coalition To Further Self-Driving Cars (reuters.com)

Google, Ford, Volvo, Uber, and Lyft are forming a coalition to help speed self-driving cars to the market. Until now, these five companies have all been working on their own driverless car initiatives. According to a statement, the new effort, dubbed the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets, "will work with lawmakers, regulators and the public to realize the safety and societal benefits of self-driving vehicles." David Strickland, a former top official of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, is coalition's counsel and spokesman.

Comments

A Whole New Sport

[sycodon]

Trolling driverless cars.

Brake checks, lane changes, etc.

These companies have no idea what awaits them on the road.

Re:A Whole New Sport

[drinkypoo]

These companies have no idea what awaits them on the road.

I suspect they're planning to sue the insurance companies of the drivers who do that stuff into oblivion. They will have detailed records describing exactly why those acts are illegal.

Re:A Whole New Sport

[bigpat]

They will have detailed records

Yes. Messing with a driver-less car would be stupid. Smile for the camera, because it will show up on your arrest warrant for reckless driving.

Re:Kick Uber Out

[lgw]

will work with lawmakers, regulators and the public to realize the safety and societal benefits of self-driving vehicles." David Strickland, a former top official of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, is coalition's counsel and spokesman.

In other words, these major corporations have formed a special interest (super?) PAC to lobby congress and the regulators, led by a former regulator from one of the groups they'll be lobbying.

Yay?

Re:Kick Uber Out

[ShanghaiBill]

In other words, these major corporations have formed a special interest (super?) PAC to lobby congress and the regulators

Yes, and that is a good thing. Legislators and regulators should receive input from people and organizations that actually understand the issues. Their interests in promoting this technology are pretty well aligned with the public interest, so I don't see any major problem here.

Willing to pay up in cases of death/injury? others

[Joe_Dragon]

Willing to pay up in cases of death / injury?

Who will do the jail / prison time for criminal cases of car accidents?

Willing to be open to FAA like code audits / tests?

What about tickets both ones that go to the car (owner) and ones that go to the driver?

DUI issues can you get a DUI just for being in a auto drive car in auto mode?

Can have a drop out to manual mode just before an accident to get out of having any liability?

Can they force to have dealer only service?

Can they force updates on you and make you pay data overeager and roaming fees? Where an 1-2GB update can cost as much as a new car?

Re:So in 20 years

[JMZero]

There are plenty of skills that were very common 50 years ago and are gone now. How many people here under 30 are competent horse-riders, or know how to pickle fish? All of my father's family (well, the men at least) are competent at hunting, trapping, skinning animals, logging, and basic carpentry. People still hunt, but many fewer would be able to really feed their family that way (as my father fed us).

Lots of skills still exist, but are much less common then they were even 20 years ago. Fewer drivers would be able to change their oil, rotate their tires, or perform other basic maintenance.

Things are moving fast in the world now. There will be skills that are lost with every generation - heck, there's some skills that came and went within a generation (eg. identifying and replacing failed vacuum tubes, VCR repair, making a config.sys that could run Wolf3d) - and skills that are new to each generation. When that cycle stops is when we'll have to start worrying about whether our civilization is advancing.