Slashdot Mirror
Google's Self-Driving Cars Now Know When To Honk (engadget.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Engadget: Google's self-driving cars are not only getting smarter by the day, but they're also getting a little bit more polite. According to the project's latest monthly report, the self-driving car team has recently been teaching the car's AI when and how to honk the horn and give the human drivers on the road a helpful heads up. In order to train its honking algorithm, the team tested a variety of honk-worthy situations, like a car backing out of a blind driveway or a car headed the wrong way down a one-way street. At first, the car would play a little honk sound inside the vehicle so engineers could record whether there was a legitimate need for a honk and provide teaching feedback. Once they felt the AI was ready, they let it blare its horn to the world. The report goes on to say Google has "sound-designed the self-driving car's 'hum' so pedestrians and cyclists around the car can hear it coming." The sound increases when the car speeds up, and decreases when the car slows down.
Will the cars honk at texting Meanderthal idioticus fools who walk out into traffic?
Or do us all the favor, not honk, and squash them?
Only honking is not enough
Since Google's self driving car are running on computers and computer can differentiate different dangerous situations Google should make their cars 'talk' --- like "Watch out, I'm on your left lane!" or 'get the fuck out of my lane, asshole!', or something like that!
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
if (location - evilcorpHQ < 100) {
horn.honk(5000);
}
if (location - tinderuser.closest < 50) {
horn.honk(50);
horn.honk(50);
}
Because his priority is texting instead of driving.
I'll wait to reserve my autonomous car until it can give someone the finger, though ...
So it hums and it honks? Maybe they should wash it once in a while.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
I guess they will honk each time they read a bumper-sticker with 'Honk if you love Jesus' or 'Honk if you're horny'.
You could always move, I don't think it would change the way you are though.
if (isModel(surroundingCars.inFront, Models.Buick) || isOwnerHomeState(surroundingCars.inFront, States.Florida)) {
...
externalSpeaker.play(new voiceToSound("Get the fuck off my road asshole! I'm driving here."));
surroundingCars.inFront.aggroPoints++;
}
for each car in surroundingCars {
if (car.aggroPoints > 3) {
if(car.occupants.lookHarmless) {
car.flipOff();
}
}
}
Here in Portland Oregon, you could drive for years without ever hearing someone honk their horn.
Aww, did precious snowflake have to wait 3s on the way to work this morning? Here, have a Snickers bar.
Stop the noise pollution the 3 adults that ride bikes on the road around me can deal. The kids are smart enough to use the sidewalks.
No sir I dont like it.
Hum? All the time? Come on, what we don't need is more noise. More than any other vehicles, Google cars are aware of potentially intruding objects. Make the sounds when they might help. Do not make sounds when unnecessary. What is it about current society that wants noise all the time?
Will there be a NYC mode where it will do an angry honk .05 second after the light turns green? If not, it's a non-starter for NYC drivers.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
tell me when it gets road rage and starts honking at pedestrians before mowing them over and then i'll be impressed! :)
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
That usually come shortly after the horn honk...but had to be timed just right....
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Right, because that's the problem with texting while driving.
This reminds of a completely irrelevant joke: A man comes into a pub carrying a goose. The publican asks "Does it honk?" - "No", says the man, "- he can hold his drink".
Another US-centric algorithm! Absolutely wrong for some of the world's major cities, Rome, Mexico City, Manila, etc.
while(location == Boston)
horn.honk;
end
You'd think everyone was in a rush going to save someone's life that's critical at the hospital.
All it takes is one wrong honk toward one wrong recipient and it's lights-out for the nerd inside the Google car.
My wife and I shared the driving about equally. Equally concerned about safety, we didn't want the driver to be distracted by orally abusing and gesticulating at offending drivers we encountered on our journeys. It's an important function of driving, but reduces overall safety. We settled on a plan such that whoever was driving would continue on course even after a serious transgression by a road companion ... while the passenger would open the window and express his/her self at the offender with extreme vocal energy and gestures involving arms, fingers and facial disapproval.
It is important that bad drivers are clearly admonished at the moment of their failures or they will not learn. Anyone who trains a dog knows that. A horn just isn't enough in some cases, and in others it is too much. How can the Google car incorporate that shaming that is so beneficial to negligent drivers without requiring the Google car occupant to participate?
...omphaloskepsis often...
It's going to take a breakthrough in quantum computing before they can get one to honk its horn microseconds before the light turns green.
Yeah, those are the words that come to mind when I think about someone honking their car horn.
#DeleteChrome
What about not moving at green lights? I some times have to due that to people.
How do they know if a girl is worth honking at? Can they detect pretty girls?
It would be cool if they could occasionally honk at an attractive and well-put-together man or woman that they see walking down the street. Now THAT would signal the arrival of true AI!
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
I had exactly the same idea, a finger as a "helpful feedback on the other driver's actions".
Not just him. All the cars behind him as well. And, if the intersection is so busy that during rush hour all cars have to wait for several green lights, all subsequent cars for the rest of the entire rush hour.
The sad thing is they also said it will take them 3-5 years to figure out how to implement the turn signals.
This is a cool advancement, because it shows that the cars are getting good at sending a message. But do they LISTEN to honks?
You appear to referencing a study with the small sample size of 50 self-driving cars that were involved in 11 accidents. You should also say that all 11 accidents were the fault of the other party involved (the human-driven car), and the damage was very minor in each case.
I'm not sure what you're talking about when you say they "ignore the rules of the road", but apparently you don't like self-driving cars very much, despite evidence that the roads would probably be safer if all cars were self-driving.
I've learned that they're worthless, so I don't read AC comments anymore.
I swear Google have an employee (not an AI) who keeps a list of all this little tidbits and releases them to the press every few weeks or so. Just to keep the project in the papers.
And all the media just obediently paste them into the headline fied... :(
Drivers in northern California don't appear to honk unless they have their head wedged into the steering column. I get weird stares when I honk at cars in San Jose for doing things like driving in the wrong lane, when busses turn right on red right in front of me requiring me to pile on the brakes. (city bus drivers are terrible drivers considering driving is their job that they do every day)
In the mid-west, you honk at people for commiting any offense, even if it doesn't directly impact you. Like if you see someone run a red light, you honk at them. Maybe point at the traffic light and give them a WTF look. If someone doesn't merge like a zipper in heavy traffic, someone is going to start honking, because nobody likes it when people cut in line.
I've driven in NYC only twice, but there wasn't really all that much honking. I think because I was there on the weekend and it's probably only a rage circus on work days.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
certain steep and narrow bridges where I'm from require you to honk before passing over them, as you cannot see the other side. Some places have hills like that too. If the self driving car can't read the rusty old sign next to the bridge, it won't know to honk. Hopefully people who can afford self driving cars are staying out of such rural middle-of-nowhere places.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
They need a speaker near the front grille that screams "THE LIGHT IS GREEN, ASSHOLE!"
I just saw a rainbow colored car going by playing "La Cucaracha" nonstop!
Not sure whether it's the law nationwide but in many places you're only supposed to use your horn to alert other drivers of your presence.
if(car.occupants.lookHarmless)
So true lol
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
And you want Google's car to honk in support?
Awe, did you just have a brain poop? Having the fortitude to not back down is not the same as being "tough". You believing it does implies you are simply an ignorant bitch. And why would I go to LA or New York? Because LA and NY are so much tougher than Detroit? Too funny. How about going to Detroit and telling them that. And yes, I have been to NYC, LA, Oakland, KC, Chicago, Gary, etc... I don't make it a habit, but work takes me places and I like to explore.