Slashdot Mirror


Ford, GM and Toyota Collaborate For Self-Driving Safety Rules (detroitnews.com)

Ford, General Motors, and Toyota have formed a new consortium called the Automated Vehicle Safety Consortium (AVSC) to develop safety standards for self-driving cars. "The newly formed Automated Vehicle Safety Consortium in conjunction with the auto engineering association SAE International says it will fill a critical need by providing a safety framework around which autonomous technology can responsibly evolve before self-driving vehicles are put into widespread use," reports The Detroit News. From the report: Being able to advance the safe deployment of fully self-driving cars represents a new step toward the benefits the technology will bring, said Edward Straub, director of automation for SAE and executive director of the new consortium. Straub said the automakers in the new consortium would turn information discovered through their self-driving testing over to SAE committees every three to six months, and the information would be discussed in public SAE sessions as a set of guidelines are being developed.

Straub said other automakers and technology companies would be welcome to join the consortium, provided they have experience testing fully autonomous cars. The announcement of the new partnership may be a reaction to the inability of Congress to pass legislation that would allow car manufacturers to sell thousands of self-driving vehicles in the near future, said Michelle Krebs, senior analyst for Autotrader. "GM, Ford and Toyota clearly saw a need to set standards that eventually may become regulations because the proposed regulations, which had been moving quickly, have now stalled," she said. Straub said the automakers in the new consortium are operating independently of the efforts to pass legislation in Congress.

67 comments

  1. Tesla by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Will have full self-driving by the end of the year.

    1. Re: Tesla by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

      *hits from the bong*

      yeah and we will have all funding secured

      *takes a righteous gravity bong hit*

      please pay no attention to our sales drop

      *bogarts the roach*

      yeah, we will make our numbers

      *eats a lot of Doritos*

      why is the man asking about financial prognos- progs- pregnancies? Whatever dude, did you ever feel like Phish was speaking to you)

    2. Re:Tesla by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Will have full self-crashing by the end of the year.

      Fixed that for you.

    3. Re: Tesla by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      now they just need to make affordable (long term) smart traffic lights to direct traffic more appropriately

  2. Security by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's never to early to think about security.

  3. Simplest rule by SuperKendall · · Score: 4, Funny

    Each car can electronically compare purchase price with each other, most expensive car gets right of way, least expensive car gets the ditch.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Simplest rule by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Don't forget to add driver's net wealth into the equation.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  4. Pedestrians and cyclists by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fuck them. Pedestrians and cyclists MUST be full partipants in these policy deliberations.

  5. Will they take criminal liability? or do an uber by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    Will they take criminal liability? or do an uber where that safety driver may face criminal changes even when they need to look off the road at the cars systems.

  6. What could go wrong? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Toyota is handling the braking controls.
    Ford is working on automatic rollover prevention.
    GM is developing a new system to replace ignition controls.
    What could go wrong?

    1. Re:What could go wrong? by dgatwood · · Score: 4, Informative

      Toyota is handling the braking controls. Ford is working on automatic rollover prevention. GM is developing a new system to replace ignition controls. What could go wrong?

      Also:

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    2. Re:What could go wrong? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lets forget how 80s chevy pickups exploded when t boned... smfh

    3. Re:What could go wrong? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or how they shut off on highways, killing way more people because of house keys on the same keyring!

    4. Re:What could go wrong? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or how their autonomous driving cant figure out what sunlight is?

    5. Re:What could go wrong? by krakelohm · · Score: 1

      *fireworks not included.

      --
      You are all a bunch of idots.
  7. Put the customer in charge of the rules by themusicgod1 · · Score: 2

    The right to repair guarantees that it's the *customer* who is the backstop of ethical behaviour of their vehicle, which is exactly where it should be. I do not want the decision of who my car is going to kill going to be made by some company that owes it's existence on sucking on the government bailout tit.

    --
    GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
  8. Not self-driving, so not invited by thesjaakspoiler · · Score: 3, Funny

    It will be a long way before the bicycle manufacturers come up with self-driving bicycles so they are not invited to the party. And concerning pedestrians, they are in the category 'humans' which are in general considered to be too incapable doing anything beynd posting messages on social media.

    1. Re:Not self-driving, so not invited by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 0

      Why the actual FUCK would anyone want a 'self driving bicycle', that defeats the entire purpose of a bicycle!

    2. Re: Not self-driving, so not invited by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You got "wooshed", and it couldn't have happened to a bigger dumbass.

    3. Re:Not self-driving, so not invited by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 4, Funny

      A self driving motorcycle would be a boon, however. That way, the rider can give his undivided attention to wildly gesturing at drivers on their cell phones, and slapping wing mirrors of drivers he thinks are not giving him enough space. Meanwhile the AI can be set to accelerate fast if it detects someone pulling out of a driveway a couple hundred meters down the road. Maybe it can even handle the rev bombing...

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    4. Re: Not self-driving, so not invited by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

      Thanks for making it easy to confirm that's just a trolling account, it'll make it easier for the site owners to delete it and block your IP address. Have a nice day! :-)

    5. Re:Not self-driving, so not invited by Viol8 · · Score: 1

      You'd need a special subroutine for 50cc mopeds - always filter to the front of the queue at the lights then when they change to green accelerate away at the pace of a kneecapped tortoise staying in the middle of the road at all times and making sure at least some drivers behind don't make it through before the next red. Also - see self driving bicycles.

  9. That's not enough by HangingChad · · Score: 1

    It's a good start but we need communication protocols so cars can talk to one another and so traffic control devices can talk to them. We need uniform standards for road sensors, lane markers and broadcast obstruction warnings.

    Maybe this is the incentive we need to finally fix our broken infrastructure.

    --
    That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
    1. Re:That's not enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      None of that is ever going to happen because there will never be fully driverless cars on public roads because the technology is so half-assed that it will never be able to handle it adequately enough to prevent unnecessary accidents and tragic senseless deaths. Hang on to your driving license you're going to need it for a long time to come. Driverless car fanbois are living in a fantasy world.

    2. Re:That's not enough by dgatwood · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It's a good start but we need communication protocols so cars can talk to one another and so traffic control devices can talk to them.

      Actually, no, we really don't, despite the old guard car companies' near-constant insistence that it is somehow critical. There's no plausible design for an inter-car communication protocol that can't be forged, and if you can't trust the data coming in, you can't really do much useful with it, so what's the point of even sending it? It's not as if the difference between the few milliseconds it takes for a computer to recognize what's happening visually and the few nanoseconds it takes to decode the signal electronically is going to make any real difference anyway, in practice.

      Also, traffic control devices had better be visually obvious enough that humans can recognize them, or else they won't work, and if they are, then computers don't need any additional electronic communication. It just introduces more opportunities for bugs and hacking.

      We need uniform standards for road sensors, lane markers and broadcast obstruction warnings.

      This, I agree with. Of course, making that happen around the world is about as likely as Tesla reaching level 5 autonomy in 2019. :-)

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    3. Re:That's not enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And forging it will get you federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison time. I can take a radio out and start pretending to be an air traffic controller right now, but I don't and neither does anyone else, because to do so means going to prison. Are you going to propose that we remove radios from planes?

      Also, UWB ranging can supposedly be made secure, so potentially the attacker would not be able to significantly forge his position.

    4. Re:That's not enough by Kjella · · Score: 2

      I'm pretty sure that if traffic was all cars we'd have self-driving cars by now, for the simple reason that cars are bound by traffic rules. If it's an intersection and you're running a red light there's not much doubt who's at fault. If the rules are too ambiguous we can always make them clearer until say a lane merger is properly described and you can put a car's behavior into "at fault" or "not at fault". Right now we're trying to work backwards from "do not crash" into behavior that won't ever cause a crash and that's probably not happening, if you're a dick it's not hard to get other cars in trouble in ways that today would be considered a joint fault. And if you're trying to be a dick like speed matching a car overtaking you close to 100% at fault. We're going to have to describe correct behavior better and then deal with the rest in court.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    5. Re:That's not enough by dehachel12 · · Score: 4, Informative
      https://www.teslarati.com/tesl...

      Tesla released its first Vehicle Safety Report after the third quarter of 2018. During that period, the electric car maker registered one accident or crash-like event for every 3.34 million miles driven with Autopilot active, and one accident or crash-like event for every 1.92 million miles driven with Autopilot disengaged

    6. Re:That's not enough by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      And forging it will get you federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison time.

      Only if they catch you.

      I can take a radio out and start pretending to be an air traffic controller right now, but I don't and neither does anyone else, because to do so means going to prison. Are you going to propose that we remove radios from planes?

      No, because if you tried that, they would trace the signal back to you and put you in jail. If you want to cause self-driving carmageddon, attach a radio to a Raspberry Pi with four D cells, program it to transmit a signal that says "Speed limit 90 MPH", and toss it out on the side of the road right before a hairpin turn. Good freaking luck catching the person who does something like that.

      Also, UWB ranging can supposedly be made secure, so potentially the attacker would not be able to significantly forge his position.

      You're still making the flawed assumption that the attacker is a "who" and not a "what". There's your first mistake. Start with the assumption that the cars are all connected to a cellular network, and can be hacked from anywhere on the globe. Now design a system in which cars are somehow supposed to make meaningful use of data sent by other similarly connected cars while ensuring that if one gets hacked and starts sending out a "Slow down here. There's a pothole" message every five seconds, it won't bring the entire traffic grid to its knees as the message gets passed on to car after car.

      Any time you trust data from outside the vehicle, you run the risk of a malicious actor compromising the data provider and giving you garbage. That's why self-driving cars have to be able to handle nearly all driving without even so much as a map, or else they cannot ever be truly safe. This is not to say that they should be able to figure out where to go without a map, but they should not drive into buildings or drive off of cliffs or miss traffic lights or any of the other things that come from trusting outside data over what is immediately observed.

      So if you have to rely on observation as your primary source of truth anyway, how much data can you realistically obtain from other cars that would be beneficial (I mean, of course, beyond what can already be determined from people's cell phones automatically checking in with Waze or whatever)? I can't think of anything, really.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    7. Re: That's not enough by Type44Q · · Score: 1
      We don't need an incentive to fix infrastructure; those holding the wealth do.

      Talk to them.

    8. Re:That's not enough by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      If the rules are too ambiguous we can always make them clearer until say a lane merger is properly described and you can put a car's behavior into "at fault" or "not at fault".

      Properly describing a lane merger is already impossible. If you put all the responsibility for safety on the merging car, it becomes impossible to merge in busy traffic. The only solution is to become more aggressive in merging, and force traffic to brake for you.

    9. Re:That's not enough by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      If you want to cause self-driving carmageddon, attach a radio to a Raspberry Pi with four D cells, program it to transmit a signal that says "Speed limit 90 MPH", and toss it out on the side of the road right before a hairpin turn. Good freaking luck catching the person who does something like that.

      Where do you get the key to sign the message ?

    10. Re:That's not enough by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Tesla wouldn't compare easy driving miles where Autopilot does work to harder miles where it doesn't would they? I'm assuming in your stats they only compared miles where people can use Autopilot? Also if a person didn't activate Autopilot that day in a certain place because there was a circumstance like construction they shouldn't compare that as well.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    11. Re:That's not enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I wouldn't know that. What I DO know however is that those 1 in 3.34M is VERY good compared to regular statistics, more so for a system that is still being improved.

    12. Re:That's not enough by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      Autopilot isn't self driving.

    13. Re:That's not enough by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      I think if you compared most very expensive vehicles, you would find that the owners are careful with them. Also, keep in mind that there are fewer Teslas on the road so fewer chances of other people hitting them, which would pad the stats.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    14. Re:That's not enough by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      I was thinking incorrectly with that last line. Posting before coffee.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    15. Re:That's not enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's a good start but we need SECURE communication protocols so cars can talk to one another and so traffic control devices can talk to them. We need uniform standards for road sensors, lane markers and broadcast obstruction warnings.

      Maybe this is the incentive we need to finally fix our broken infrastructure.

      Fixed that for you, Governments & companies are pressing ahead too fast to consider data & communication security. That cannot effectively be "bolted on" later.

      I believe Tesla has their external vehicle communications encrypted in a VPN tunnel. That is a start.

    16. Re:That's not enough by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      It's a good start but we need communication protocols so cars can talk to one another

      You mean like these? Noob. You should at least give yourself a basic education in a subject before spouting.

      and so traffic control devices can talk to them. We need uniform standards for road sensors, lane markers and broadcast obstruction warnings.

      An AV which depends on V2X is untrustworthy. AVs have to work even when the communications network is completely down in order to be useful, because otherwise people will learn to depend on them in situations in which they are not dependable.

      You have no idea what you are on about. Go away.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    17. Re:That's not enough by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      I'm pretty sure that if traffic was all cars we'd have self-driving cars by now, for the simple reason that cars are bound by traffic rules.

      No. Those are laws and regulations, not rules. Rules are things like "don't crash" or "follow laws and regulations". The laws and regulations are complex in and of themselves, but actually following the rules of driving is orders of magnitude more complicated.

      If traffic were all trains, we'd have self-driving transport by now. But since cars have to operate on tarmac (etc.) roads with pneumatic rubber tires, even if you had only passenger cars and they didn't have to mix with anything else, driving would still be very complicated.

      if you're trying to be a dick like speed matching a car overtaking you close to 100% at fault. We're going to have to describe correct behavior better and then deal with the rest in court.

      AVs won't do that shit at all. They will determine which vehicle can most efficiently get into a space, and then let that happen, because more road efficiency means more car efficiency. And they will be configured to be forgiving of other drivers, so a pushy human driver will be able to bully AVs out of the way... but they will also be automagically reported to the authorities by the AV coordination systems.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    18. Re:That's not enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So does autopilot reduce the chance of a crash or are people who are more likely to be involved in crashes tending to disable autopilot?

      Autopilot, in this case, does not mean "the car is driving itself," so information about who is interacting with the system is important.

    19. Re:That's not enough by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      If you want to cause self-driving carmageddon, attach a radio to a Raspberry Pi with four D cells, program it to transmit a signal that says "Speed limit 90 MPH", and toss it out on the side of the road right before a hairpin turn. Good freaking luck catching the person who does something like that.

      Where do you get the key to sign the message ?

      It's hard to answer that without knowing what the architecture would be. For any given architecture, there's a different answer. The most likely answer, though, is that someone borrows a device from an existing speed limit sign and copies the key out of it.

      If we assume a nice architecture with each device having its own key with proper key signing from a root cert, that then becomes a trivial revocation problem, but only after they discover that it has been stolen, which doesn't happen until after the first car goes off the road and somebody analyzes the black box (or after the tenth car goes off the road and they do a really careful survey of the area near the road).

      Unfortunately, the most realistic design for mass-manufactured devices like speed signs would be for the manufacturer to assign a single, standard key across all devices of a given model, which results in revoking all speed limit signs in the State of California and tens of thousands of man hours to physically remove all those transmitters (because they wouldn't be Internet-connected), rekey them, and replace them.

      Or if we assume that the actual safety devices are connected to the Internet, then it becomes even more entertaining, because somebody could just crack one remotely and reprogram it, all while sitting safely in a non-extradition country.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    20. Re:That's not enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      it's the closest that exists.

  10. They have no standing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ford, GM and Toyota do not have any major successful self driving car efforts, so this is simply a way for them to try to attack/slow development for the majors, Google and Tesla and Volvo, so they can catch up.

    They don't have expertise in this field, they are the losers, and as such they don't have standing to negotiate safety standards. That should be done between Google/Tesla/Volvo and the motoring safety inspection companies. You don't negotiate car safety rules with buggy manufacturers, because they just insists that someone walks ahead of cars carrying a flag to warn horses!

    This crappy attempt for the failed companies to inject themselves into the self driving regulations dialogue should be seen as what it is.

    Volvo is owned by the Chinese, and if you want to lead in self driving cars, you need to not pander to Ford and GM.

    1. Re:They have no standing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1 Waymo
      2 GM
      3 Ford

      Tesla is dead last

      https://cleantechnica.com/2018/01/20/gm-leads-tesla-apple-trail-deeply-navigant-research-self-driving-report/

    2. Re:They have no standing by dehachel12 · · Score: 1

      while tesla is already ACTIVELY preventing crashes : https://www.teslarati.com/tesl...

    3. Re:They have no standing by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Again, article did not explain the methodology used for this study. Sorry but I don't trust Tesla or Musk to do a study properly.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    4. Re:They have no standing by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      What? They're saying the technology isn't ready yet and we should slow down with development because people may die? Say it ain't so!

      I'll go with the companies that don't sell flamethrowers on the side, thanks.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
  11. FUCK self-driving cars. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't know ANYONE who wants this shit.

    Look at how well automation turns out when it's part of an Airbus or a Boeing.

    Do you REALLY believe it will turn out better in cars that are built to a price rather than a standard of quality ? If you do believe this, you should
    be neutered for the sake of the rest of the world, because you should not be permitted to breed.

    1. Re:FUCK self-driving cars. by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

      I normally don't agree with ACs but in this case you're right, nobody really wants this shit, and it's not ever going to work well enough to be practical, it's going to be a horrifying nightmare of unnecessary accidents and deaths.

    2. Re:FUCK self-driving cars. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh look, the Slashdot Luddites again.

      Yes, we want this shit. Yes, it's going to happen. Yes, it's going to work well. Yes, the cars will be better than human drivers (obvious, because they already are), Yes, it's going to happen soon. No, there won't be a 'horrifying nightmare' because it will actually prevent accidents and save lives.

      Look, I enjoy driving too - when I'm doing it for fun. But very, very few people enjoy driving in stop and go rush hour traffic. And the reality is that most humans are absolutely terrible at driving. Most humans are so bad at driving that even a really shitty AI would be better.

      Self driving cars will mean you can do something else. That might be work, it might be reading a book, it might be sleeping. But whatever it is, it'll be better than having to pay attention to the road in traffic. And the reduction in accidents will be almost immediate.

  12. after 3-4 year updates cost $250-$500/year dealer by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    after 3-4 year updates cost $250-$500/year dealer only and if you need an bigger disk to say hold the super mapped roads 1TB $250 + $250 labor at the dealer to install.

  13. Not trusting it by houghi · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sounds like a way to make rules that will see that others are always at fault. The reason O think that us because it is two US and a japanese company.

    It is telling if the company that gave up the patent for 3 ppint safety belts is not part of it.

    Sounds like a health research group from the tobacco industry.

    --
    Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    1. Re:Not trusting it by mjwx · · Score: 1

      Sounds like a way to make rules that will see that others are always at fault. The reason O think that us because it is two US and a japanese company.

      It is telling if the company that gave up the patent for 3 ppint safety belts is not part of it.

      Sounds like a health research group from the tobacco industry.

      Actually it's more of a free ad for Toyota, GM and Ford.

      The road rules (known as the Highway Code) here in the UK are very clear about what vehicles should be doing and when, when to go, when to stop, when to give way, what distance to maintain, when to indicate, how long to indicate for, so on and so forth up until who is at fault in a collision. Very little is ambiguous.

      For self driving cars, the highway code simply needs to be turned into computer code. The problem is the highway code assumes the vehicle controller (A.K.A the driver, or at least the steering wheel attendant) can tell the difference between a leaf and a child or can determine which lane markings it's meant to remain within. Automatic systems can't do this yet... and likely not for a while.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    2. Re:Not trusting it by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      For self driving cars, the highway code simply needs to be turned into computer code.

      That's far from simple, as you explain in your next sentence. A common set of safety standards would help to make sure they all do this correctly.

  14. Re:Will they take criminal liability? or do an ube by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    OK, I do not have experience with automotive safety standards, but they tend to be pretty much the same regardless of field.

    Assuming that the responsibility is handled the same way for ISO 26262 as for industrial systems it works this way:
    The standard tells you the procedure you use to develop hardware/software and what documentation you need to produce.
    If the procedure wasn't followed then the engineer is criminally liable when accidents happen and there are cases of them going to jail.
    If the procedure was followed you have two possible cases:
    1) The user intentionally bypassed all safety mechanism to cause an "accident". In that case the user i liable.
    2) The standard is flawed and needs to be updated. (Doesn't really happen, it is pretty waterproof.)

    When developing a safe system you can't just throw in a transistor without the documentation showing why it won't cause any safety issue if the transistor breaks in any of the possible cases.
    Integrated circuits like processors are typically too complex to make it feasible to document every transistor failure so instead you use redundancy. Ideally two different solutions that uses different components together with a failsafe system that makes sure they both behave the same way.

    If you use pointers you need to explain why it is necessary in every case and that they can't possibly point to something else than desired.
    Want to use dynamically allocated memory? Show that it doesn't cause any safety issues when the allocation fails.
    There is a reason MISRA-C is popular in this field. It makes it so much easier.
    I wouldn't want to try to bring a high level language through certification.

    If you wonder about image recognition software or AI: The only way to use any of them is to show that they aren't involved in the safety critical part.
    So far the automotive developers have gotten around it by brakes being the safety critical component and they require that a human monitors the situation and applies the brakes as necessary.

    The only way I see fully autonomous cars being able to comply with existing safety standards is to specify that braking is the real safety critical part. (This is compliant with traffic laws. If you need to swerve you are driving too fast and if you are at a standstill you are not the one who caused the collision.)
    You need both ultrasound and LIDAR to be able to trigger the brakes and they shouldn't go through anything more complex.
    Once you have that, all that other stuff with lane following and smooth deceleration and other things that makes traveling feasible could be added on as non-safe parts.
    If they fail the braking mechanism will prevent you from causing accidents. (However, then oncoming traffic in the lane your car went to when lane following failed might very well be driving too fast to be unable to stop.)

  15. Re:after 3-4 year updates cost $250-$500/year deal by Patent+Lover · · Score: 2

    I think you haven't been to a dealer lately. It's more like $1000 labor plus $500 for a 250GB drive.

  16. This is useless by Sqreater · · Score: 1

    China will start selling dangerous self-driving cars and the whole thing will collapse.

    --
    E Proelio Veritas.
  17. AI models based on their adverts? by shufflingb · · Score: 1

    If so they're in for a bit of a surprise when they discover that their adverts ubiquitous portrayal of empty roads, driving wherever, at whatever speed and it's all just tickety-boo is one big lie that'd make even the Marlboro Man's death stick purveyors blush.

    Seriously though, I think we're at a juncture were we need to understand very quickly what they're being lined up for with self-driving cars by the car/auto lobby. For while it's likely that the number of accidents will go down. It's also true, all else being equal, that the number of car journey will increase. Is there anyone outside of the auto lobby that thinks, yep, what we need is more car journeys. That'll help with the obesity crisis, pollution and global warming. Really?

    So obviously, given the likely outcome of their endeavours what do we think these companies are going to do about it. Is it going to be a) Create policies that attempt to humanise their technology, reduce environmental damage and generally make life better for everyone including non-car owners/users. Or b), keep making vast amounts of money at whatever the cost to society and the planet? How well do we think our legislatures are prepared for this?

    1. Re:AI models based on their adverts? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      while it's likely that the number of accidents will go down. It's also true, all else being equal, that the number of car journey will increase. Is there anyone outside of the auto lobby that thinks, yep, what we need is more car journeys. That'll help with the obesity crisis, pollution and global warming. Really?

      This is why we need to promote rail. Here in the USA, Trump is attacking national rail, probably on behalf of the oil and car companies. It's happened before that auto companies destroyed profitable public transportation lines to increase demand for their product (with the aid of oil and tire companies, who wanted the same for their products.)

      The future of ride hailing is the use of a single app to manage an entire journey. A trip could involve an autonomous car showing up to take you to a train station, where you'd transfer (on one pass) to a train that would take you to an airport, where you'd transfer again, etc. If we are vigilant, that journey will make sense.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:AI models based on their adverts? by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      Rail is very expensive. An autonomous bus in a dedicated lane would be a much cheaper alternative.

    3. Re:AI models based on their adverts? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Rail costs more, but it also carries much more, and costs less to maintain. It's also much more efficient to use steel wheels on smooth rails than to use pneumatic rubber tires even on smooth pavement, let alone the roads we actually wind up with. Trains are also more compatible with mobile charging. They just make more sense for long-distance travel, and often for medium-range trips. Cars are still better for short ones. Buses on tarmac are a problem because heavy axles put high PSI loads on pavement. Trains spread out the load better, so the infrastructure is less self-damaging.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  18. Re:after 3-4 year updates cost $250-$500/year deal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think thats only for the iCar.

  19. Easy by nospam007 · · Score: 2

    A car may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

    A car must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

    A car must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

  20. Wow, something is fhishy. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Note the the corporations that invested the most in self driving cars are Google, Uber and Tesla. Funny that. Neither GM, nor Ford, nor Toyota have track record that would let me trust any of them with safety regulation related rules. Sounds too much like Boing rubber stamping the flight certification of the 737 MAX 8...

  21. The problem with self-driving bicycles... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is they still expect the meatbag to pedal.

    How else do you expect them to run the guidance system, never mind propelling themselves around.

    And remember the most important aspect of self-driving bicycles: Automatic braking is optional :)