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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."
Whatever happens, happens, and the courts ascribe liability -- to the driver. The little guy, generally with shallow pockets.
The equation changes when large companies with deep pockets need to make that decision ahead of time, and they (or their insurers) take over liability.
(1) How to get them to deal with snow
Why does every self-driving car denier tout this out as "IT'LL NEVER HAPPEN" evidence?
Humans can drive on snow with 2 EM sensors that are limited to the 'visible spectrum' and an IMU that gets messed up rather easily? Especially when on snow?
With the range of sensors and their sampling rate I expect them to be much, much better on snow.
No, but I've been in the following situation.
(1) hit the deer, possibly damaging my car and ending up with a buck through the windshield
(2) cross the center line on a hill with poor visibility.
I can't speak for deer, but the official line for kangaroos is: Hit the thing. You're far less likely to be killed.... Don't swerve. Ever.
If your exit strategy is an IPO, then that strategy makes perfect sense.
The grander the promise, the more money you'll need for your IPO.
One of the problems...
Do we really want to create "efficient" traffic that's easy for computers to navigate, at the expense of usability for pedestrians and cyclists?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Try crossing the street or cycling in this mess? Will we all be bound to our cars just to walk across the street?
Seriously reading through the majority of the comments that list inane things like "what about children crossing the road?", "what about cats and dogs?", "what if there's an ambulance?", "what if the road is blocked and there's construction work, how does GPS work then?"
I mean seriously do you guys have no understanding of information systems?
To those of you think driverless cars are too hard, and they can't possibly work, just watch, the only issues driverless cars will have will be trust, in the same way people trusted a horse and cart over a car 100 years ago.... The technology is already all here and those who understand it know that driverless cars will be safer and result in less congestion than roads filled with cars driven by people.
Welcome to the 21st century.
Compare the relative value of a pilot's salary with the contents of a plane and a taxi driver's salary with the contents of his taxi.
Well, the response to that point is: If a human driver has time to consider that, then there probably isn't going to be an accident anyway. Accidents are normally a surprise. We've got a split second to react. If we're still weighing the moral pros and cons, we've probably already hit whatever was directly in front of us/
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'
oh man so many problems with this. i drove uber "part time" 20-40 hours a week for 3 years, and with over 2500 rides, i have seen some shit. Like the drunk guy who got in, did not put in a home address, mumbled something that sounded like the name of a neighborhood, and passed out. when i got to what i thought was his neighborhood, woke him up for directions, how is an AI car going to do that. Had 3 people vomit in back seat, how do you monitor that? several times a group would get in, argue over where to go for dinner, and wound our way to what seemed like 3rd or 4th possible destination. or the times the passenger is 50-100 ft down the wrong way on a 1 way street, trying to get them to walk to the car could be comical, when they have absolutely no idea where they are or sense of direction. Will this new system have something to guide the cars on where to go when have downtime, to try to be in best spot for a pickup, or will system strive for a coverage map. or just knowing the city, and which way is best, even when gps says go another way. so much human element trying to get people places when they have no idea where to go. will need at a minimum live voice chat to a human to help running 24/7.
a ride share program/app/company? It hasn't been about ride sharing in ages.