It's more than just other drivers though. They also have to account for trash on the road, wild life, or the idiot human playing in traffic.OceanBlue2000 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 02, 2020 9:32 amI agree. Give the mode to people who have agreed to undergo training and have promised to report on testing. But I think autonomous cars in general have a major issue: we're never going to get all the benefits unless all cars are autonomous. People will do dumb things (mostly right in front of me) so the safety of autonomous cars will always be a question until you can teach a car to plan for rationality but be prepared for dumbness. Take humans out of the decision making process and what you'll eventually have is an efficient mode of transport that takes you door to door. Try and tell people they are no longer allowed to drive their 996 on the turnpike, though.gnat wrote: ↑Mon Mar 02, 2020 8:17 am
This is exactly what it is. The manufacturer knows that it is not 100% which is why all the materials for it say that the driver has to stay attentive and ready to take over in an emergency.
The object, of course, is to make roads safer by removing the average idiot from the equation. Unfortunately they are depending on the average idiot to help test the functionality and the said average idiot would rather do anything than pay attention to the road.
Really the mode should be restricted to just those that can show they are capable of fulfilling their role in the system (e.g. multiple multi-hour tests where their attention is constantly monitored and there random events they have to react to).
I do believe we have reached the point where cars can legitimately carry the compute power (meaning that it fits in the car without compromising other aspects) to manage the problem. While I think power will continue to improve, it's the sensors and logic where we will see the greatest improvements for awhile. I also think we are close to being good enough as far as ability goes, but as humans are writing the code there will always be risk of glitches and the result of that can be catastrophic.
This is why an engaged human behind the wheel will continue to be critical for the foreseeable future. Some what illogically I think as the systems improve it will be even more important to have an engaged and able meat sack backup behind the wheel. My reasoning is that as things improved there will be larger gaps between "events" and that will engender more complacency.
I agree with your final assessment though. All we have to do is look at how fuel economy restrictions or the death of the stick are accepted from the enthusiast crowd.