Bicycle Austin forum

RedFalcon

Member

Registered: 2013-10-10

Posts: 233

Self Driving Fantasy

It looks like our mayor is easily impressed by bright shiny things.

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/ … nd-austin/

Austin Mayor Steve Adler recently rode in one of the cars.

“I was just really surprised at how much the driving of this car autonomously mirrored the way that people drive cars on our streets today,” he said.

Seriously?  THIS is where we are going to set the bar for 'self-driving' vehicles?

MichaelBluejay

Webmaster

From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-26

Posts: 1,466

Website

Re: Self Driving Fantasy

I doubt that the cars actually "mirrors the way that people drive cars".  If that were the case, the autonomous cars would be responsible for lots of speeding, red-light-running, drunk driving, and hit-and runs.

MichaelBluejay

Webmaster

From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-26

Posts: 1,466

Website

Re: Self Driving Fantasy

This article argues that progress on self-driving cars is stalled, and no meaningful progress is expected to be made for a long time:

Even after $100 billion, self-driving cars are going nowhere (Bloomberg)

MichaelBluejay

Webmaster

From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-26

Posts: 1,466

Website

Re: Self Driving Fantasy

Self-driving cars in Austin like to drive in the bike lane:

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/ … bike-lane/

So, they really did get the driverless cars to work just like human drivers!

Jack

Member

Registered: 2013-03-27

Posts: 344

Re: Self Driving Fantasy

"A Cruise spokesperson . . .  said if a cyclist had been directly alongside the Cruise vehicle in the bike lane, sensors would’ve picked up on it and triggered the vehicle not to veer over." 

So maybe better than a human driver!  A bike coming up on the right of a car near an intersection is something the car's driver is less likely to notice.  See #7:  https://bicyclesafe.com/ It's a dangerous mistake to make, rushing up along the right side of a car near an intersection. In fact, a driver (including a self-driving car), can make things safer for cyclists by merging to the curb before making a right turn to help prevent the cyclist from moving into that dangerous position.  Yes, even when there's a bike lane, and arguably even more so then. https://www.thewashcycle.com/2010/07/dr … right.html 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not too pumped about the idea of driverless cars, but I wouldn't be surprised if (1) the driverless car would be less likely to right hook (because it presumably would have sensors and wouldn't be distracted by a cell phone or what) or (2) people would force driverless cars to be programmed to always stay out of the bike lane when they really would be better if programmed to merge into the bike lane for certain conditions.