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GM Plans To Build, Test Thousands of Self-Driving Bolts In 2018 (reuters.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: General Motors Co plans to deploy thousands of self-driving electric cars in test fleets in partnership with ride-sharing affiliate Lyft Inc, beginning in 2018, two sources familiar with the automaker's plans said this week. It is expected to be the largest such test of fully autonomous vehicles by any major automaker before 2020, when several companies have said they plan to begin building and deploying such vehicles in higher volumes. Most of the specially equipped versions of the Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicle will be used by San Francisco-based Lyft, which will test them in its ride-sharing fleet in several states, one of the sources said. GM has no immediate plans to sell the Bolt AV to individual customers, according to the source. In a statement on Friday, GM said: "We do not provide specific details on potential future products or technology rollout plans. We have said that our AV technology will appear in an on-demand ride sharing network application sooner than you might think."
GM Plans To Build, Test Thousands of Self-Driving Bolts In 2018
I forgot that they had a car named "Bolt" and thought they were taking about the fastener. A bolt that could turn itself and tighten to the proper amount of torque would be pretty cool. Granted, it would probably be prohibitively expensive, and not really make a lot of sense, but cool none the less.
Are all of the passengers in these self driving cars going to be neat and tidy? Without a semblance of someone being in charge of the car, I think the future od driverless cars might have the unmistakable reek of shit and piss. I don't know is this particular startup is going to be sans a person that sits there and does nothing, but this will be an issue some day. people sans supervision do some odd things.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
... called a Bolt driver.
Use the links on this page to download the latest version of Bolt drivers.
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NOTE: Don't actually download that shit. I don't know what it is. Try the fish. Tip jar's on the piano.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
. . . and on your tongue?
Dolts.
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
Now if they can just make a self-sealing stem bolt, we'll be all set!
No, no, I have been told it will be $3 a ride. The cheapest way to travel, take one every day to work. Everyone will be locked into such fierce competition that no one will make money on it.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
I like the concept of self-driving lower-case bolts.
Meanwhile, there are tons of car-sharing programs in Europe
(book a car online, find the car, open with your RFID card or app, ride it, return it...
think "car rental" except by the hours instead of the day, and entirely between you, the car and an online webapp, without ever needing to speak to an actual human)
Not a single human interaction needed along the line.
Yet, there are still no endemic problems of people taking dumps into the cars.
I have used such system in Switzerland (Mobility, Catch-a-Car, ElectricEasy, ...), Germany (DB-Carsharing). /. readers whenever such a thing (a car that can be accessed without another human watching) gets mentioned.
I've had friends use such systems in France (Autolib').
Again, these are systems that already exist in the wild *right now* (and have existed for the past decade) where one can enter a car, without ever needing to interract with a human.
None of us has ever found one of those "shit-filled" cars that haunts the nightmares of
The only subtle difference is that these cars are non-autonomous, which require :
- the driver / "renter" to have a valid driving license.
- said driver to not be completely drunk to avoid losing the above mentioned license and/or causing accidents.
So maybe *autonomous* shared cars would see a slight increase of user who got extra charged for cleaning the car, because they puked into it.
And users who need to pay for a *26-hours* long rental and/or overtime, because they passed out drunk and overslept in the car.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Meanwhile, there are tons of car-sharing programs in Europe
(book a car online, find the car, open with your RFID card or app, ride it, return it...
think "car rental" except by the hours instead of the day, and entirely between you, the car and an online webapp, without ever needing to speak to an actual human)
Not a single human interaction needed along the line.
Really interesting, I have a few questions - When you say find it, you mean that it's located some where at random, or there is a garage or some similar place.
Several different system exists. :
Exemple
- Mobility (CH) and DB Carsharing (DE)
The car are normally waiting for you at their respective station. (There are lots of them. At least at each train station. In big cities you can find a station in lots of big underground city parking). You take the car for this station, and at the end of your micro-rental, put it back at the same station.
(A little bit more stringent than what you've used with bicycles : you need to return it to its corresponding station).
Though there exist pilot projects to allow you to commute between stations, typically along some frequented path where every single individual only goes one way (e.g.: one way trips between the city and the airport).
Given that there are all-electric drive cars in the fleets of some companies (Mobility do have a few Renault Zoe in their fleet, Electriceasy has a 100% electric fleet, mostly Citroen C-Zero) you definitely need to return the car in a specific station that has a corresponding high-speed charger (battery full within 30min, so by the time the next renter comes, the car is good to go).
- Catch-a-car (CH) : :-P )
Completely random. Within a region where that service is available (usually a dense city), you pick cars whenever you find them and leave them wherever you want (as long as they are correctly parked, and within the geographic region - a.k.a. the above mentionned city).
It's even more freedom than your typically bicycle sharing service (it's closer to how anonymous bicycle might be informally handled on big campuses
- Auto'lib (FR)
I don't remember clearly, I think the friends mentioned that you can roam between stations... (like the Mobility pilot project).
Are the keys in it?
Usually: yes.
The first time to unlock and unblock the car (the same kind of blocking normally used by the car's alarm system on privately owned car), you open the car using a RFID card. Then you use the keys (usually waiting for you in the glove box or some other similar place) for the remainder of your rental.
At the end of the rental, you leave the key in their stash, and re-lock/re-block the car using the RFID card.
The exception: some modern car (e.g.: the electric Renault Zoe) don't have keys at all, but exclusively use a wireless fob.
On these car, the rental computer is connected to the wireless fob system, and you always use the RFID.
Is there limitations on drive length?
On the complete random system :
Nope. Drive for as long as wish.
As soon you take a car, the car is marked *unavailable* in the system.
Once you finish and re-lock it with the RFID or the App, the car is marked again as *available for rental* in the system.
Using the App, you can *pre-book* a car : Say you don't stumble upon a car in your street. You fire up the app, find that there's a car 2 blocks aways. You can book it from the app and the car will be reserved for you and unavailable to other in the system, as if you've already taken it - rental timer starts ticking right away, so you're also paying as if you've already taken it.
On "Catch-a-car", you pay by the minute, with 2 different prices depending if you're driving the car, or if the car is waiting for you parked somewhere (i.e.: you prebooked it, or you haven't returned it *available for rental* again).
On the systems
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]