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Senate Committee Expected To OK Autonomous Car Bills in Michigan (detroitnews.com)

Michael Wayland, and Melissa Burden, reporting for The Detroit News: Michigan legislators could vote as early as next week on sweeping autonomous vehicle bills that would allow self-driving cars on any Michigan road without a human driver behind the wheel. The Senate's Economic Development and International Investment Committee is holding a public hearing on the bills at 10 a.m. Wednesday at Nexteer Automotive, 3900 E. Holland, in Buena Vista Township in Saginaw County. The seven-member committee is expected to send the bills to the Senate floor for a vote as early as Tuesday. If approved, the bills would need approval of the House before heading to Gov. Rick Snyder's desk. "We're very, very sure that this is going to move out of committee tomorrow," Sen. Mike Kowall, R-White Lake Township, who introduced the legislation, told The Detroit News on Tuesday. "We've aired out just about everything over the sun."

121 comments

  1. This is a first by goose-incarnated · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The laws governing something are completed before we've even managed to invent it.

    --
    I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
    1. Re:This is a first by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Michigan hosts the automotive testing grounds of several companies. In southeast Michigan seeing experimental, preproduction vehicles on public roads is common.

      This legislation isn't about change or something new. This legislation is required to maintain the status quo.

    2. Re:This is a first by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      They need to ramp up the TSA so they are able to handle the extra load of screening passengers before they enter self driving cars

    3. Re:This is a first by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      The laws governing something are completed before we've even managed to invent it.

      Except that self-driving cars have been around for several years. They certainly aren't perfect, but they already have a track record better than human drivers (which is not a difficult criteria). They are ready to replace human drivers on public roads for many tasks, including routine driving on known routes.

      Will SDCs be in accidents and even kill some people? Very likely. Would even more people die if the same cars had human drivers? Even more likely.

    4. Re:This is a first by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Obviously it will be perfectly safe once the technology is ready.

    5. Re:This is a first by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      These are narrow use cases. It doesn't work if they don't control the experiment. They need clear weather, no ice, etc. etc. It's a hack, not a real solution. Which is why every time they wreck, the driver is blamed, and not the car.

    6. Re:This is a first by aXis100 · · Score: 1

      Gee, we better give up on it now. It's not like any other difficult task ever made incremental progress towards a comprehensive solution by leveraging real world experience.

    7. Re:This is a first by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hardly, we've had laws limiting or restricting types of things (often weapons and drugs for example) or types of activity for decades. In this case we have laws governing behaviour on roads, those laws require a driver with a valid license, by definition that means we've had laws about fully autonomous cars for years. All that is happening here is that legislatures are acting, refreshingly quickly, to amend those laws to keep up with the times/

    8. Re:This is a first by MitchDev · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I noticed that too. Shouldn't this technology have moved farther BEFORE legalizing it?

    9. Re:This is a first by MitchDev · · Score: 1

      No dumbass, they need to prove it works first, THEN they can see about getting them legalized for actual road use.

      Your way is like saying "We have cars that can drive over 50 miles per hour, but we haven't developed brakes yet, so lets put these on the road and we'll do the brakes later, and won't bother with brakes if you don't legalize this first."

    10. Re:This is a first by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No dumbass, they need to get them out on the roads first, because there's no other way to prove they work than to put them in real traffic conditions.

      Your way is like the idiots that passed laws requiring a guy holding a lantern to walk in front of a car to warn people it was coming.

    11. Re:This is a first by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      so, like patenting something before its invented....its the 'murkin way.

  2. Autonomous car bills? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What if I don't have a car, are they still going to send me a bill? That doesn't seem fair.

  3. They will be great on icy roads by hodet · · Score: 1

    Can't wait to see these things navigate black ice.

    1. Re:They will be great on icy roads by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Thermal sensors will know the temperature of all sections road within stopping distance. Cameras that can see stuff outside of the visible band of radiation will see the difference in reflection between ice and normal road. A 360 deg continuously LIDAR/RADAR will know the position and velocity of everything within stopping distance.

      It won't be checking its texts, facebook, looking in the rearview mirror for 1/2 a second. "Black Ice" won't confuse it because it happens to be the same color as the road surface.

      Yeah, I can't wait to see how they'll do. I really can't wait for the autonomous vehicle rally races.

    2. Re:They will be great on icy roads by bigfinger76 · · Score: 1

      They'll probably be programmed to not slam on the brakes, so it will be an improvement over their human counterparts.

    3. Re:They will be great on icy roads by arbiter1 · · Score: 1

      Um knowing the temp of the road isn't gonna really help much less it assumes its black ice all the time, throw on to issue of when roads are COVERED in snow so you can't see lines to know where the road is, and no GPS isn't gonna help.

    4. Re:They will be great on icy roads by ShooterNeo · · Score: 2

      There probably is a way to determine the difference in road surface. Even if it's not by seeing it ahead of time but just correctly responding when the vehicle hits the black ice patch. Good modeling of the vehicle and modeling of different alternative actions could easily result in better control on such surfaces than human drivers can achieve.

    5. Re:They will be great on icy roads by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      What vehicle has this technology in it? Google cars? A lot of people talk about 'what autonomous cars can do' and then list technology that no company has made work in a car ever. The fact that the technology exists and could theoretically be used in a car doesn't mean a company will make it commercially viable and reliable enough to put in an actual vehicle.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    6. Re:They will be great on icy roads by arbiter1 · · Score: 1

      Its called black ice for a reason.

    7. Re:They will be great on icy roads by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Because it's invisible to the human eye? A poorly designed sensor that only detect stuff on the EM spectrum between 400-700 nm wavelength? (And in some people it can't even differentiate between red and green).

      What does black ice look like on the IR spectrum? UV?

      The more I read slashdotters comment on modern technology that some of us have experience with the less and less confidence that I have any of them know anything.

      throw on to issue of when roads are COVERED in snow so you can't see lines to know where the road is, and no GPS isn't gonna help.

      So how does a human stay on the road? We somehow manage with two (or one) optical sensor with limited range of view driven through a neural net that has limited bandwidth and slow propagation delay between nodes. In older cars without ABS or power steering you could sometimes add a 'touch' sensor to that because you could get feedback as to what was going on through the brakes or steering wheel.

    8. Re:They will be great on icy roads by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      They're going to have to model the shape of the road.. where I am they don't plow down to pavement everywhere. If the tires don't match the ruts you can easily spin the car sideways and slide uncontrollably. The alternative is to drive 5 mph everywhere, which is what I am very afraid these vehicles will end up doing.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    9. Re:They will be great on icy roads by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 1

      What computer has the technology not to use punch cards? IBMs? A lot of people talk about "compilers" and "programmers writing their own code" and then list technology that no company has made work in a car ever. The fact that punch cards are easy to use and we already have operators trained to use them means there exists a company to make it commercially viable and reliable enough to ever let a programmer type Fortran.

      Additionally, how do you know what autonomous cars can an can't do? Are you relying on press releases? What they show off to the public? I've seen stuff, in production, that no one ever really talks about on niche products that may see 100 uses world wide. Is there room for improvement? Absolutely, but that goes for old and new tech alike.

      Look at the corporate logos on the 2004 DARPA vehicles. Do you think all of those companies said "Well, we wasted our money here, lets go home"? A lot of those companies have been developing the tech for worse environments than Michigan Roads (which is saying a lot given how our roads look).

      Do you think they gave money to a bunch of grad students out of the kindness of their hearts? Start cross referencing who was on Carnegie Mellon's Red Team and patents held by Alcoa, BF Goodrich, Caterpillar, Yamaha, TerraSim, Trimble, Kubota, and M7 Visual Intelligence.

      Google's very late to the game.

    10. Re:They will be great on icy roads by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      Can't wait to see these things navigate black ice.

      During snowstorms last winter, Tesla recommended that drivers engage Autopilot because it could handle the icy roads more safely than most humans.

      It is amusing that when people want to point out a limitation of SDCs, they often pick something that SDCs do particularly well. SDCs handle low traction situations better than humans do.

    11. Re:They will be great on icy roads by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Ok well then let's stop talking about automated cars and look forward to transporter technology then, if our conversation is to have no basis in reality.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    12. Re:They will be great on icy roads by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 1

      Because a human has a model of the shape of the road? How does the human get into the ruts? Magic?

      Why is the sideways slide 'uncontrollable'? Because *you* can't control it?

    13. Re:They will be great on icy roads by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 1

      Other than the fact that companies had prototypes back in 2004. And they've come a long way in 10 years. Another 10 years now that it's near commercialized and out of research think tanks and by 2024 there are going to be multiple on the road offered by multiple companies.

    14. Re:They will be great on icy roads by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why is the sideways slide 'uncontrollable'? Because *you* can't control it?

      You really sound like someone from socal that has never driven on midwest winter roads.

    15. Re:They will be great on icy roads by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This needs to be promoted, my only concern living in this state are the road conditions (pot holes, lumps, divits, etc) and them being allowed to operate on ALL roads (we have some horrible farm roads (I'm not talking dirt, horrible asphalt) that aren't even part of the city infrastructure (they tend to be county and pretty well unmaintained, some minor bridges serve as good examples where mapping data needs to be thrown out and the AI will need OCR and prior knowledge)).

    16. Re:They will be great on icy roads by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      It's uncontrollable because the movement of the car is perpendicular to the direction of the wheels.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    17. Re:They will be great on icy roads by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Does your crystal ball mention if anyone will be able to afford one of these vehicles in their driveway?

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    18. Re:They will be great on icy roads by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      Does your crystal ball mention if anyone will be able to afford one of these vehicles in their driveway?

      Tesla cars already come with all the hardware needed for full self-driving. They just need a software upgrade. Some people can afford them.

      The cameras are very cheap, as are the ultra-sound sensors. Automative radar is affordable and dropping in price. LIDAR is more expensive, but many cars, including Tesla, don't use LIDAR. The full package of sensors and computer should only add a few hundred to the cost of a car, and you are likely to quickly recoupe that with lower insurance premiums.

    19. Re:They will be great on icy roads by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Tesla cars don't detect the contour of the road, to my knowledge and can't see up to the top of the car. Lidar isn't used because it can't see through fog and gets fooled by simple things like a bag blowing in the wind in front of the car.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    20. Re:They will be great on icy roads by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then I want to drive my own car so I can out brake the robots.

    21. Re:They will be great on icy roads by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 1

      I grew up here. I've driven on them a lot. I've also regained control during a "uncontrollable" condition.

      And it only got into that uncontrollable position because I screwed up at a previous step. Over corrected a steer, blipped the accelerator too hard. A finely tuned feed back controller would have done a much better job than I did.

      Cars have been racing each other on and off track in conditions worse than most roads at speeds your average driver would never be able to manage on the same course.

    22. Re:They will be great on icy roads by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 1

      And how did it get there? Sounds like the feedback controller manipulating the actuators was tuned wrong, didn't have the right sample rate or had a bad sensor (perhaps it was checking a text message).

    23. Re:They will be great on icy roads by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 1

      You're right. I concede. You heard it here companies working on autonomous vehicles, fluffemutter said that it can't be done. Might as well give up your R&D departments now.

    24. Re:They will be great on icy roads by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 1

      Do any of the roads you're talking about have track conditions like this?

    25. Re:They will be great on icy roads by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      I didn't say it couldn't be done. I just said that it is a far stretch to assume it can be done. So far of a stretch that we can't really talk about it as if it is a viable possibility. I would concede that *if* thermal sensors are practical in cars some day then they may be used for this purpose but no one has any way of knowing that at present time.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    26. Re:They will be great on icy roads by ArylAkamov · · Score: 1

      I really can't wait for the autonomous vehicle rally races.

      Sounds pretty boring to be honest. Then again I'm in the "BRING BACK GROUP B! QUATTRO NOW!" camp.

    27. Re:They will be great on icy roads by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Doesn't Autopilot need to see lane markings?

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    28. Re:They will be great on icy roads by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 1

      Why not both? Split the sport into 2.

      Humans racing in Group B.

      Robots racing in the "battle bots" series. Screw the 110 kg (~250 lb) weight limit on battle bots. I want robotic warfare on a racetrack sized arena.

    29. Re:They will be great on icy roads by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're gonna be waiting about 40 years. Or just replay Sebastian Loeb

    30. Re:They will be great on icy roads by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      HAHAHAHA SDC's handling conditions better than drivers can.

      No they dont. You do realise that traction controls actually fuck you up in slippery conditions and do lead to longer braking times?The average trained driver can easily assfuck any automated car.

      SDC nutter.

    31. Re:They will be great on icy roads by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      Doesn't Autopilot need to see lane markings?

      No. Tesla collects location information from its cars. It then takes that information, throws out any outliers, and averages it to get the center point for the lane. With that information, it can navigate using GPS only, with no lane markings.

    32. Re:They will be great on icy roads by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The more I read slashdotters comment on modern technology that some of us have experience with the less and less confidence that I have any of them know anything.

      I am also, from time to time, amazed by the overlap between technophobes and some of the clearly technically minded people on here. I've lost count of the times that I've seen people on here claiming certain new technologies are a waste of time, will never take off, can't work etc and autonomous vehicles just appear to be their flavour of the month.

      I'm happy to accept that there might be an extended period where self-driving cars can't handle certain road conditions, like for example the road being entirely hidden by snow, and that someone with experience in those conditions would be fine; I simply don't see that as an obstacle to self-driving vehicles picking up the vast majority of driving duty. I also don't think its unlikely that if self-driving cars became standard on less extreme roads then we could take technological steps to provide additional information or change conditions in areas where those difficult conditions are found.

    33. Re:They will be great on icy roads by ShooterNeo · · Score: 1

      This is in fact how they already do it to an extent. Nearly all the autonomous vehicles in testing have lidar sensors which do give that kind of shape for modeling. They've got some really cool, lower cost LIDAR sensors like these. http://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-...

      As a side note, the actual hardware is doable. 6 or so LIDAR sensors, a dozen or so fixed position camera, a couple of radars, and a computational architecture that probably uses FPGAs and custom ASICS for the machine vision and machine learning and a bunch of ARM processors. Mere thousands of dollars worth of physical hardware at the mass production stage. The high cost is obviously the development.

    34. Re:They will be great on icy roads by dave420 · · Score: 1

      If a person can deal with it, a computer with better processing and hardware will also be able to. How do you figure out where the lanes are? Why do you assume it's impossible for code to do that too?

    35. Re:They will be great on icy roads by dave420 · · Score: 1

      It's not a far stretch at all - they only have to be as good as humans. If people can navigate this stuff, then autonomous cars can. Their improved feedback from the wheels would mean they can detect dangerous driving conditions better than humans. They don't have to be perfect, and they will improve all the time. You have to show why there is some impenetrable barrier for these cars which humans can comfortably sail through. Until you can do that, there is no reason to think the cars won't be at least as good as us.

    36. Re:They will be great on icy roads by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Impenetrable barrier? How much of real life can current AI really understand? It can win at Go.. Bid deal. A bunch of well known calculations stacked up on top of one another billions of times. You aren't fully appreciating how tuned the human mind is to anticipating events in the real world and I can't explain it to you.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    37. Re:They will be great on icy roads by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Do you know how much seat belts cost? $5. Car companies had to be forced by law to put them in.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    38. Re:They will be great on icy roads by ShooterNeo · · Score: 1

      Not comparable. The seat belt doesn't increase the value of the car to the buyer, at least in the early days when the general public didn't like to wear them. If your car's autonomous, it's got concrete financial value.

      1. You can live farther away and save money on rent and mortgage, doing your first hour or 2 of work as the car drives itself
      2. You can save money on gasoline because while you're at work it can go to a charging station and spend a couple hours charging at a robotic charging station
      3. You can save money on parking because it can go drive and park somewhere cheaper than right next to where you want to go in an expensive place downtown
      4. And the obvious - you can register the car with an Uber like service and have it making money for you as a taxi when you're not driving it.

      As I said, actual financial value. More than the cost of the hardware for autonomy. Now, obviously the car itself is a liability as well. It might crash and kill you, it might crash and injure you or need major repairs and the manufacturer might balk on paying.

    39. Re:They will be great on icy roads by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, but what about all the stuff they didn't know they needed to program around?

      I can't wait until these things start killing people, and I'm glad I don't live in Michigan.

      Pass the fucking popcorn, PLEASE!!

    40. Re:They will be great on icy roads by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Human's stay on the road because they have self awareness. Heck they have awareness. Machines do not. How do humans perceive simple patterns where computers do not? How do humans navigate a simple obstacle course without even thinking but the best robots in competition can't realistically do it? How can even a young and not particularly bright human create a coherent story but a computer can't? You do know the difference between hype and tech don't you?

    41. Re:They will be great on icy roads by DarkVader · · Score: 1

      It doesn't seem to matter to a lot of people. They mention something that they think a technology can't do, someone else provides proof that the technology is already doing it, and they keep believing it can't do it.

      Self-driving cars are already a reality. They're here and on the roads now, they will be in mass production within 5 years, and people are still claiming that they won't work, even though they clearly do.

    42. Re:They will be great on icy roads by No+Longer+an+AC · · Score: 1

      One of the scariest experiences I ever had driving involved black ice in a heavy snowstorm. I couldn't tell it was there until I started to lose control. I quickly regained it and then lost it again a moment later causing me to do a near 360 and for a moment I was sure the cars behind me were going to slam into me or that I was going to end up in a ditch. Instead I came to a near perfect stop at the red light. In retrospect I should not have even tried to stop for it.

      Worst case scenario: It wouldn't detect the black ice until traction started to be lost, but it would have reacted faster and probably better than I did.

      Another of the scariest moments was on an interstate in a different heavy snowstorm with a bad windshield wiper (the one on the driver's side).

      Looking back on it, I must have been crazy to continue even though I drove that stretch of road every day. I could not see the lines or where the shoulder stopped or started but I suppose with the help of other cars taillights I got home okay.

      A SDC could probably determine that even though it couldn't see the lines or where the should started and ended that it was in the right place and headed in the right direction given that this would be the route it took home from work every day.

      Worst case scenario: It wouldn't do any worse than I did. It might have even had the good sense to say "You're nuts, dude. This is not safe."

      I cannot think of any experience I've ever had driving where I am confident that I could outperform a self driving car. I can think of a few where the SDC would have done better than me.

      And of course, like everyone else, I consider myself a better than average driver. My faults in the snow and on black ice were due to lack of experience - I spent the first 40 or so years of my life living in places where even a light dusting of snow was a once in a decade event and would cause chaos on the highways.

      Even where I live now it seems the first decent snow will result in chaos to a lesser degree as many people seem to forget how to drive in such conditions over the summer.

    43. Re:They will be great on icy roads by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 1

      > A bunch of well known calculations stacked up on top of one another billions of times.

      What exactly do you think "anticipating events" is?

      Do you think a auto driving car is going to 'forget' how it is to drive on snow and ice every fall? Is an auto driving car going to 'forget' that deer are more active during a certain time of year and not anticpate them?

      It doesn't need to 'anticipate' an event because it's already calculated all outcomes and chooses the best which is what it does in Go.

    44. Re:They will be great on icy roads by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      I live in Minnesota, and I have problems when I encounter black ice. It wouldn't take that much for a self-driving car to be better at handling it than I am.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    45. Re:They will be great on icy roads by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Most things aren't commercially viable when invented. Most products have gone through phases like "This would be cool"..."this mostly works in the lab"..."we could probably sell this if we could get the price down"..."we've sold a few in test markets and these are the problems we're finding"..."this works well enough but it's still too expensive for large-scale merchandizing"..."this is ready for prime time"..."BUY IT USED AT JOE'S".

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    46. Re:They will be great on icy roads by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      1. Won't matter to most people. I don't live an hour for work because I have to come home, have supper with my family, and then take my kids to extra curricular activities. Time away from home is time away from home, doesn't matter if it is more productive time.
      2. How much will that charging station cost? Parking where I live is now $18 a day with no electricity. People will smell profit potential.
      3. You're assuming an automated car will just be able to find a spot on the street somewhere, as opposed to using a parking lot outfitted so that autonomous cars don't run into each other
      4. And deal with shit/puke/piss in my car? No way. Have you ever seen the inside of a bus?

      You're living in a dream world. People can't afford cars as it is. My van has an entertainment system in it that is probably $500 worth of electronics but the manufacturer calls it a $3000 option. Now you're putting $3000 of sensors in the car.. easily adding $10k to the list price. You're also introducing much more complexity; and electrical complexity which are the really expensive problems. I've known many people who have had electrical problems and just deal with it because they are too expensive to fix. I've had cars with lights not working, etc. Now you will be forced to fix it because you have no car otherwise. I just don't see it panning out the way you think it will. Capitalism is just not set up for people to afford the cost of ownership of an automated vehicle.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    47. Re:They will be great on icy roads by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      You can't calculate when deer are going to show up. An automated car will have to have some sort of long range heat sensor for deer and other wildlife, good to 100ft or so. Unless you want the car to drive slowly forever more just because deer are prevalent at that time. Can current LIDAR even tell the difference between a bag blowing in the wind and a rock of the same size being dropped from a bridge? Will it detect a person on that bridge that might drop a rock?

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    48. Re:They will be great on icy roads by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Fine, but people shouldn't be talking about it like it will happen because it might not.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    49. Re:They will be great on icy roads by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 1

      > You can't calculate when deer are going to show up

      Um, you can do exactly that. It's what actuaries for insurance companies do for a living. How often a person collides with a deer is something that is both measurable and calculable

      > An automated car will have to have some sort of long range heat sensor for deer and other wildlife, good to 100ft or so.

      Uh, ok. FLIR has existed for years. It's cheap enough now they're putting it in cell phones.

      > Unless you want the car to drive slowly forever more just because deer are prevalent at that time.

      Why would it do that? Humans don't.

      > Can current LIDAR even tell the difference between a bag blowing in the wind and a rock of the same size being dropped from a bridge?

      Can a human at 80 MPH? How does it do it with just an optical sensor?

      The FLIR camera will show a thermodynamic difference. The LIDAR will detect a moving object. The object tracking computer will know that the rock is falling at 9.8 m/s^2 and the bag isn't. The LIDAR will know the position of every car in both lanes and behind it, at the same time. It'll know it should swerve right instead of left without having to check the mirrors or remembering if something was in that lane. It'll know that the rock will intersect the road in .5s and that it is exactly 4m from the intersection point and that braking will just result in a rock in the windshield.

      > Will it detect a person on that bridge that might drop a rock?

      Again. How does a human detect it? With 2 optical sensors that detect on a limited portion of the EM spectrum.

      The technology exists today in cell phones to detect a face. Neural nets can do live object tracking on embedded systems with no problems.

      Are you even trying to come up with legitimate problems with self driving cars at this point? You've brought up nothing that is even a real issue. Everything has been stuff that is not only already solved but done so on a level that humans will never be able to compete.

      You have all of 6 senses, most of which are useless in helping someone drive. Sound and smell may help you diagnose car trouble but it's not going to help you see a person on a bridge going to drop a rock.

      Controllers have been in vehicles for years. An ECM from the 80s can keep a car idling far better than you ever could manually trying to close the loop on engine speed, why do you assume it's any different for any other sort of controller?

    50. Re:They will be great on icy roads by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Your stance would make sense if anyone has made this stuff work. But as it sits right now, apparently Tesla Model S's will drive into a trailer. If they will do that, why would I think they would avoid a falling rock? I'm just calling things as I see them. I don't really care if the technology is out there, the fact is that autonomous vehicles don't deal with these things now and may not for a great many years to come. Especially at a consumer level.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    51. Re:They will be great on icy roads by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 1

      Your stance would make sense if anyone has made this stuff work.

      They have. Just because you don't know they have doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

      apparently

      You know this from analyzing the Tesla data? You've run the data analytics? Tesla is a very new company to this game as well and rushed to be the firsh to market.

      Especially at a consumer level.

      What ever you want to believe.

    52. Re:They will be great on icy roads by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Tesla data only shows us how safe Autopilot is in the circumstances where Autopilot works. You can't compare that to a human right now. Turn autopilot on in your driveway and ask it to to drive all the way to your destination without turning off (like a human has to) and then see how safe it is. Just as an example, how many accidents happen on the highway just because a human tried to pass another vehicle and misjudged the distance they had? Autopilot doesn't pass other vehicles so you can't look at it as a perfect score, it is just something we don't know yet. Tesla data is just lacking in the things that Autopilot doesn't yet do. Saying Autopilot is safe based only on situations where Autopilot works is like praising a poker player who comes to the game with four aces up their sleeve.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    53. Re:They will be great on icy roads by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 1

      Highway fatality statistics for humans are much, much worse than those of computers.

      Just as an example, how many accidents happen on the highway just because a human tried to pass another vehicle and misjudged the distance they had

      Exactly. A computer would know exactly how far another vehicle was. It would know in less than a second how fast it was going, has calculated how long it will take to pass, knows the vehicle weight and exactly how fast it can accelerate. Before a human would be through questioning if they should pass the computer would have already made a better decision.

      Why do you continually bring up Tesla? They're the last ones to the game and focused on highway first. The real players in the game have been doing off road testing for a *decade*. Caterpillar, Oshkosh, Volvo, Kumatsu, etc.

    54. Re:They will be great on icy roads by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      So which of those companies are performing safe passing of other vehicles at highway speeds with technology that will be widely affordable in the near future?

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    55. Re:They will be great on icy roads by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      You realize autonomous off-road vehicles are way easier to design than civilian road vehicles.. right?

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    56. Re:They will be great on icy roads by ShooterNeo · · Score: 1

      Well, (1 and 2) are specific to your situation, not most people's situations. (3) is more a "by definition" thing - if you can't trust the car to find a spot to park in an ordinary lot somewhere and not hit any people or other cars in doing so, it's not really a smart enough vehicle to be considered fully automated. (4) is possible to deal with, it's not the same as public transit because people using your car as a taxi are not anonymous. Also, it could make a stop at a cleaning place before returning to you once it's near time to pick you up for the day.

      As for the cost of $3k worth of electronics, no, you're the one misunderstanding auto manufacturer costs. TLDR, they only make 10-15% profit, not 300%. So why does your van's option cost 3k when it's $500 worth of electronics? The reason is both the cost of labor and integration and the bigger factor is you ARE getting shafted on that option. That doesn't mean that if the base cost of the bare van were 25k, that it actually costs only 7500 worth of metal and machining to build the van. It's probably $21000 for the machining and labor and everything else.

      Capitalism doesn't work that way in a competitive market, in a competitive market the prices of things tends to drop to the actual total cost + the cost of capital. The "profit" that Toyota earns is mainly a fee for the billions of dollars of capital that Toyota has to have in order to operate.

      So no, I'd expect that if the electronics were 3k, it would add 4k to what's call the marginal cost for the manufacturer. Now, the manufacturer also has to somehow divvie up a multi-billion dollar tab for developing autonomy among the vehicles it sells. Maybe the early ones will add $10k or $30k to the cost. The manufacturer also has to set aside money for every autonomous vehicle to fund the insurance policies.

      In fact, being realistic here, the manufacturers might be forced to charge a subscription fee for autonomy. The fee would pay for the manufacturer to continue fixing bugs and fine tuning the software for autonomy (and updating the maps it uses), and also would pay for an insurance policy the manufacturer would have to have to pay for the damages caused when it screws up. *

      * Obviously the only way the economics of this would work out is if the fee + regular car insurance was less than you pay now for car insurance, which is possible.

    57. Re:They will be great on icy roads by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      All I know is that there are a great many automated features in luxury vehicles that are used to sell luxury vehicles. For example, adaptive headlights have been around for at least 10 years, and still only put into luxury vehicles. Because that is how capitalism works; if they find a feature that sells cars they will use it to sell the most expensive cars. They don't care about the lives that they would save if the technology was accessible to everyone. Automation will not every be available to everyone, no way. A few wealthy people will be driving around in them, a few will get rich off of them, and if anything, the masses will just be using it like a taxi service which will be just as inconvenient and just as expensive except now a driver isn't able to support his family off of it any longer.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    58. Re:They will be great on icy roads by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Plenty of people are working on it, and every part we need is clearly possible. It's a matter of putting things together and refining them.

      What we will not have any time soon is highly intelligent obstacle prediction. The software can notice a ball coming into the street, and anticipate a child following. It can note whether cars along the street are ready to pull out or not. However, it won't be able to do what I did once: there was a pedestrian on a corner when I approached an intersection, and I just knew he was going to dart into the street in front of me, so I was easily able to avoid him. Considering how many times I've done that in my lifetime, I'm not sure it's all that important.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    59. Re:They will be great on icy roads by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, because humans are so good at dealing with black ice. No wait... they're not, which is why there are so many accidents when there's black ice on the road.
      The fact is that conditions when black ice is likely to be present are well known, and people continue to ignore those conditions and drive as if there is no hazard. At the very least a properly designed autonomous vehicle will be able to detect when the combination of temperature and humidity make black ice likely and slow down. They will also "know" previous locations of black ice and respond appropriately, i.e. slow down, when approaching those places, something too many human drivers do not do.

    60. Re:They will be great on icy roads by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      You're not sure if it is at all important? Well it sure is if we don't want cars to be hitting pedestrians! Automated cars will need to anticipate anything and everything a human can or the lawsuits against the companies will be plentiful and will make them financially impossible. If an automated car hits that kid that darted out onto the street, that kid's parents should absolutely sue the automated car company or at least get a big insurance settlement. I can't even think of all the edge cases that happen in the world that a human can detect; thank you for bringing up one. There are bizarre things that happen out there and from what I seen engineers are not thinking of it all. Case in point, Tesla's autopilot running into a trailer.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    61. Re:They will be great on icy roads by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not to mention that black ice typically forms in the same places under the same conditions. Also networked vehicles will be able to respond to road conditions as reported by other vehicles.
      And of course there's the omnipresent anti-autonomous vehicle point "Let's see how it handles snow/rain/darkness/Easter bunnies in the road." discounting the fact that humans handle all of those things badly. There's a reason that places where snow is uncommon shut down when it snows. There is also a reason where snow is common that people have certain kinds of vehicles and government invests in snow removal equipment. And even those places often shut down until roads are cleared.

    62. Re:They will be great on icy roads by ShooterNeo · · Score: 1

      Ok, you've changed your argument. I concede this is a massive social problem because the truth is, if several million drivers lose their jobs rapidly over a few years as automation becomes huge (I'd expect it to take about as long as it took for iphone like smartphones to become the overwhelming majority of phones sold - 5 to 10 years, once automation makes economic sense).

      But it's not one you can claim won't happen. The costs of the physical hardware in each vehicle won't stop it from taking over. How much does it cost to keep a car driving 24 hours a day now? Say 2 drivers make 40k a year in successive 12 hour shifts, plus the costs of the maintenance. If the automation is 3-5k worth of electronics and servos plus a subscription fee for the update service plus liability insurance...

      Ok to be honest I see your point. For a long time it would probably make more sense for services that run commercial vehicles to automate. Individual consumers like yourself would still drive themselves because it would be cheaper, even if trucks and buses and delivery vehicles rapidly all became automated.

      The only business model that would make sense for individual consumers to automate is if you got charged _per mile_. So you pay the company that is responsible for the automated system and updates the software and maps and insures it a per mile fee. So it would be proportionally cheaper...no, still cheaper to drive yourself. Huh. That fee would have to be less than the increased liability of driving yourself, and it would not be cheaper for a long time.

  4. liability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If there is no driver, who is liable? The folks who built the car? The folks who wrote the software? The folks who certified the software? The poor schmuck in the passenger seat(s)? Hopefully these kinds of bills clarify this, rather than letting the courts have a field day for the next 2-10 years.

    1. Re:liability? by sims+2 · · Score: 1

      The folks who built the car... That's already been decided.

      --
      Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
  5. No Fault by JBMcB · · Score: 3, Funny

    Michigan is No Fault, so it's nobody's fault.

    --
    My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
    1. Re:No Fault by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No fault means it's the fault of those stupid enough to actually pay for auto insurance.

    2. Re:No Fault by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No fault means it's the fault of those stupid enough to actually pay for auto insurance.

      Auto insurance is mandatory in Michigan.

    3. Re:No Fault by MrLogic17 · · Score: 1

      And crime is illegal too, therefore it can't happen.

      I'm in Michgian, and I've been hit by an idiot with no insurance. I had to pay out of pocket the deductible that was legally the responsibility of the person at fault.
      They were broke, and taking them to court would get me squat. No point in trying.
      As the saying legal saying goes "There's power in poverty"

      Back on topic - no fault might actually be good for automous cars. Can you imagine the size of a lawsuit between 2 large auto manufactures who's cars collide?

    4. Re:No Fault by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No Fault doesn't mean no fault at all. It also doesn't mean you can have your pants sued off if you do something stupid. Do some research.

  6. Wow really? by coolmoe2 · · Score: 2
    "We've aired out just about everything over the sun."

    Leave it to a republican to even fuck up such an old ass saying.
    Perhaps the sun is underground where he is.

    1. Re:Wow really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      U don't make no cent you liberal races.

  7. Still have to use a dealer by sjbe · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Great. But we still can't buy a car without involving a greedy pointless middleman.

    1. Re:Still have to use a dealer by MrLogic17 · · Score: 1

      Michigan being protectionist in favor of old established companies?
      Shocked, I tell you. Shocked.

      This will change once the sales tax folks start noticing how many of us are hopping over to Ohio or Indiana to buy Tesla's direct.
      Takes money to fight money.

  8. fdgrert4th6thfg by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So we're introducing bills that allow driver-less cars but never mandated that all cars come equipped with temperature sensing mechanisms for icy conditions, night vision cameras, etc.? Call me stupid, crazy, etc. but something seems a little...off / ironic...with how this whole autonomous car bullshit is evolving.

  9. Bought and paid for. by waspleg · · Score: 0

    Why bring a product to market that you can't sell because it's illegal? First you have to buy the laws you need. Worry about the product later. I doubt it's coincidence this is in Michigan.

    1. Re:Bought and paid for. by MrLogic17 · · Score: 1

      Michigander reporting in.
      Auto manufacturing is leaving the state, and has been for a long time. (Ever see photos of Detroit?)
      The "Big 3" aren't even domestic brands anymore, and non-Detroit brands like Tesla are threatening to take market-share once model 3 start rolling out.

      I'd wager this is out of fear. Michigan is a has-been in the auto world, and we need to get back into the game. I like this proposal.

    2. Re:Bought and paid for. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Another Michigander Reporting In:

      Ford is in great shape. It's absolutely a domestic brand, the quality is excellent, and they have the best selling vehicle in America.

      General Motors despite what the news tells you about how it was "saved" is on life support. This is mostly because of the idiots who ran it after the bailout, who forced them to keep building the Volt - a car that loses $7,000 per unit. Endless research on batteries and hybrids that went no where except to bribers sucked up the R&D budget and now everything they have is dated.

      The count of green boondoggles in Michigan under the progressive leadership of Granholm - that cost the taxpayers a small fortune is staggering.

      Jeep/Chrysler isn't an American company anymore.

      The UAW is as powerful a force in Michigan as the government, and is equal to the mafia in clout - and tactics. You are correct - a lot of manufacturers left. They are thriving in states without unions, and building better products too. And no, they are not exploiting the workers.

      There's still plenty of Automotive in Detroit Most of the world's manufacturers have offices here. Big offices. Along with all the Tier 1's.

      Tesla with .0000001% market share may be a populist dream, but it doesn't matter except on SlashDot. It doesn't affect the automotive marketplace a bit.

      Look at the sales numbers of the most popular vehicle in the U.S. - the Ford F-150 - and weep your electric car heart out.

  10. Of course, the vote.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The vote is done by autonomous voting machines.

  11. Aww, that's cute... by hackel · · Score: 1

    Michigan lawmakers still think their state is relevant in the high-tech auto industry.

    1. Re:Aww, that's cute... by HiThere · · Score: 1

      Well, this will make it relevant. Driverless cars need to be tested somewhere, and Nevada ghost towns aren't really sufficient. Perhaps they'll decide to make them near where they can test them.

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    2. Re:Aww, that's cute... by MrLogic17 · · Score: 1

      Totally agree. BUT - if this passes, it's a great proving grounds for winter driving. Nevada has hot & dry down pat. Cars need to be tuned for driving in sub-optimal weather, and man, do we ever have that.

      Drop an autonomous car in the lake-effect snow region, and that problem will get solved real quick.

  12. Can we sue the politicians if accidents happen? by ebusinessmedia1 · · Score: 1

    Self-driving cars are still vaporware. If the idiots in Detroit put cars on the road that are not capable of perceiving ALL road variables, and thus cause deaths, the legislators who pass this bill; the Governor, and all senior automotive execs should be help *criminally* responsible.

    1. Re:Can we sue the politicians if accidents happen? by Harlequin80 · · Score: 1

      US law indemnifies law makers and other government officials in these cases.

    2. Re:Can we sue the politicians if accidents happen? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What will you say if self-driving cars wind up causing some injuries and deaths, but such losses turn out to be substantially lower than injuries and deaths than human-driven cars (by percentile)? -PCP

    3. Re:Can we sue the politicians if accidents happen? by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Injuries and deaths now in the name of saving lives in the future only makes sense if:
      - families now are compensated financially, and
      - it is a statistically assured fact that automated cars are the same price as regular cars in the future and they are better than humans.

      Right now I don't see how any of this will happen.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    4. Re:Can we sue the politicians if accidents happen? by ThatsMyNick · · Score: 1

      Agreed. Self driving cars/cabs dont currently exist in Singapore. Like not at all. Completely vaporware.

    5. Re:Can we sue the politicians if accidents happen? by MrLogic17 · · Score: 1

      Wow, a straw man, true Irishman, and ad hominem all in one post. Good job!

    6. Re:Can we sue the politicians if accidents happen? by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      How about a situation where self-driving cars are known to be about twice as safe as regular? That would mean something like 15K traffic fatalities a year from self-driving cars, after the changeover. Your reply was not germane to GP's question.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    7. Re:Can we sue the politicians if accidents happen? by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Ok but again, we don't know that so we shouldn't be threatening lives now.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
  13. in a criminal case I don't think no Fault will cut by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    in a criminal case I don't think no Fault will cut it. And do want to be in that small town jail with the cop who just lost his kids in that school bus crash? When that auto drive truck just plowed in to it?

  14. criminal cases don't have EULA's or NDA's to block by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    criminal cases don't have EULA's or NDA's to block from getting out. And I want a hard ass Judge like the one from My Cousin Vinny to hold people in contempt of court for trying to pull the EULA's, or NDA's BS to get out of giving out logs / source code. Just wait for an deadly accident and a criminal case to be opened.

  15. Re: Can we sue the politicians if accidents happen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Can we sue the politicians who still allow combustion engines to pollute our air and kill people? I wish we could.

  16. In public by sjbe · · Score: 1

    Except that self-driving cars have been around for several years.

    Not on public roads in many places. Until recently it would have been illegal to use a self driving car on a public road in my state.

    They certainly aren't perfect, but they already have a track record better than human drivers (which is not a difficult criteria).

    That is debatable. A) The data comes largely from private sources with a vested interest in positive results and B) since the vast majority of "self driving" cars still have a person sitting at the wheel who is actually paying attention (because it is their job) it is unclear what the source of their advantage in safety is if any. While I would agree with the assertion that this technology seems very likely to result in safer road in time, it isn't in the hands of the general public in any substantial way at this time and so conclusions are difficult to draw.

    They are ready to replace human drivers on public roads for many tasks, including routine driving on known routes.

    Umm, no. No they are not. Not at the time I am writing this and probably not for at minimum another 5-10 years under the most optimistic assumptions. I look forward to the day when that is true but it is not true in 2016.

    Will SDCs be in accidents and even kill some people? Very likely

    "Very likely"? Try absolutely certain to kill some people. Rest assured that developing this technology will come at the cost of some lives like most revolutions in transportation technology. There will be some failure modes we will only learn about from people being hurt/killed. The hope is that the many will benefit from the sacrifice of the few.

    Would even more people die if the same cars had human drivers? Even more likely.

    To be determined. That is however hopefully the end game. Going to be a bumpy road getting there though.

    1. Re:In public by DarkVader · · Score: 1

      I can't think of a state where it's ever been illegal to put a self-driving car on the road.

      The technology to do so hasn't been ready until recently. Why would a state outlaw what isn't possible?

      And that which is not illegal is, by default, legal.

    2. Re:In public by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Up until a few years ago, it was assumed that cars had drivers, and there might well be laws referring to "the driver" in ways that would require one to be present.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    3. Re:In public by DarkVader · · Score: 1

      While that's not impossible, there are 50 states and I haven't read all of the applicable laws in all of them, I've never seen a case where that's true. The laws I've seen place conditions on the driver, but do not address one not being present, making a self-driving car de facto legal.

  17. Oh Goody ! by JimSadler · · Score: 1

    Now the people in Flint can have bottled water sent to their door by a driverless vehicle. How about cleaning up the plumbing in Flint? Maybe we need a plumberless plumber to do the work.

  18. See this video to see where Google is on auto cars by DirkDaring · · Score: 1

    2016 update on Google Self driving cars. A much watch video if you are interested in this stuff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uj-rK8V-rik

  19. Against self interest by sjbe · · Score: 1

    Michigan being protectionist in favor of old established companies?

    Go figure. What I don't really get is why Ford, GM and FCA aren't making a bigger stink about getting rid of the dealer networks. I realize there is a lot of short term pain for them to do that but the dealers really provide them no benefit at all. In fact they really hurt their business. The sell marginally less cars because of the middleman markup, nobody trusts the dealers, the dealers capture a ton of repair business, etc. I don't get why they aren't maneuvering to buy out or otherwise get rid of their dealer networks. It's clearly in their financial interest to do so.

    This will change once the sales tax folks start noticing how many of us are hopping over to Ohio or Indiana to buy Tesla's direct.

    Maybe. I don't think it will change in Michigan unless the Big 3 get behind the change or if state laws regarding mandatory dealer networks are ruled unconstitutional somehow.

    1. Re:Against self interest by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "What I don't really get is why Ford, GM and FCA aren't making a bigger stink about getting rid of the dealer networks."

      Apparently you don't remember the public outcry during the negotiated GM debacle. Or you have never experienced a quality dealership experience, you just wrongfully assume that all sales people are liars, all corporations are evil, and everyone is out to get you. Probably have no clue why you need a dealership to diagnose the PCM in a modern car, which is actually why they get so much better mileage and pollute less...

  20. Wrong!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    With the money Big Corp has to throw at a lawsuit? Nah, it'll be the passenger's fault, for being stupid enough to ride in one.

  21. Do they have to certify the auto driving system? by HalAtWork · · Score: 1

    Do they have to certify the auto driving system? What is the criteria? Can I just slap in my own homemade system in an existing car like George Hotz and just unleash it on the streets?

  22. Re:Do they have to certify the auto driving system by david_thornley · · Score: 1

    In what way is this different from you just slapping in your own braking system?

    --
    "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  23. Re:Do they have to certify the auto driving system by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In that you need to meet a spec to be "street legal"

  24. Re:Do they have to certify the auto driving system by david_thornley · · Score: 1

    Right. We've got laws to handle replacing the braking system, and they can be adapted to the auto driving system.

    --
    "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes