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Uber Expands Driverless-Car Push With Deal For 24,000 Volvos (bloomberg.com)
Uber agreed to buy 24,000 sport utility vehicles from Volvo to form a fleet of driverless autos. According to Bloomberg, "The XC90s, priced from $46,900 at U.S. dealers, will be delivered from 2019 to 2021 in the first commercial purchase by a ride-hailing provider." Uber will add its own sensors and software to permit pilot-less driving. From the report: Uber's order steps up efforts to replace human drivers, the biggest cost in its on-demand taxi service. The autonomous fleet is small compared with the more than 2 million people who drive for Uber but reflects dedication to the company's strategy of developing self-driving cars. "This new agreement puts us on a path toward mass-produced, self-driving vehicles at scale," Jeff Miller, Uber's head of auto alliances, told Bloomberg News. "The more people working on the problem, we'll get there faster and with better, safer, more reliable systems."
The technology is all here already, really? Where's any video of a driverless car in bad weather? In a city? On a road torn up by construction? On a road with dual line markings per lane because it's been shifted due to construction? At an intersection with 50 other driverless cars? At an intersection with a damaged light? The arguments about kids, animals, and hitting one thing to avoid another are bullshit but the other arguments aren't. You're putting blind trust into corporations, corporations that time after time have shown they're completely not trustworthy. They'll do anything for the next $ including killing you if they'll come out ahead. Just look deeply at the smoking, food, and pharmaceutical industries if you think they care about your life. Even the banking industry illegal forced people out of their homes to increase their profits. The auto industry has already been caught polluting the air. That directly leaves to decreased health and earlier deaths. Most of the tech startups' primary goals are to keep their illegal activities locked up in court until they're big enough to lobby for laws to protect their 'innovations'.
There's no proof driverless cars will reduce congestion. I think it'll cause the opposite. There will be more people on the road because long commute times will no longer matter as much. Live in the cheap areas and work remotely during your 2.5 hour commute. Poorer folks will give up renting out an expensive shack and will live out on the road. People already try to do that now but they're harassed by cops when they sleep in parking lots. Now they can sleep on the road as the car circles the city all night. Driverless cars will a large culture shift, don't apply today's standards to it.
In 1972 the Lockheed L10-11 flew from Dallas to Palmdale (including takeoff and landing) with no pilot. I still don't see an airline without pilots. If anything I'd think trains would run without a pilot and yet they have them too, and they run on fixed tracks. I think self-drive cars may be further out than anyone expects.
You _should_ push your car past its limits in a wide open empty paved space. That often ends in a spin, give yourself room. If you don't know the limits, you likely trip over them or never get anywhere near them. First step is finding them, then you can push them.
360 plus generally requires a little power to keep the drive wheels spinning. Fun though, might have to turn off traction control.
Your right, you should never let the cops catch you doing donuts.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'