I just don't get.....

[DaLittle B]

Uhhh...No,Sorry I pinch a loaf,and get the hell out of there.

The self driving cars,I think I'd be ok with it,if most or all of the other cars are self driving. That way the cars would be able to talk to each other,or set up in some sort of automated fashion, I've not actually seen one,or been in one.The ideas of Humans are driving along with other self driving cars, I'd be apprehensive.

I have one,that I get bashed a lot for anytime I mention it....(especially by younger people)
I don't get the greatness of virtual reality headsets,this massive future of them being in every house hold. *Until we're talking about something like the Star trek holideck type virtual reality.

Yes I can see them in some business settings,and training tools,etc.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

No doubt the self driving cars have made errors.  But one instance of a self driving car running a red light is only a reason to abandon the technology if no human driver has.  Absolutely there will be accidents even fatal ones caused by self diving cars.  That isn't the issue.  We should not expect or demand perfection from self drinking cars.  The relevant question is, "which are safer? make less errors? Humans or computers?"  Computers win by a landslide.  And self driving cars are better now then they were a year ago, and next year will be even better.  Human drivers aren't getting better and with texting and cellphones are getting worse.

Have humans avoided accidents when self driving cars made mistakes? Yes.  But self driving cars have also been able to prevent accidents after a human driver made a mistake that could never been avoided otherwise because of the computers supior response time. 

They are unquestionably safer.

  Also they make travel easier.  Now it is perfectly fine to spend you commute talking on phone, texting, reading the paper or even napping. No need for a designated driver when you go out.  The car will stay sober.  No hunting for a parking spot in the city then walking to your designation. Car lets you off at the door than parks and waits for you to call for pick up. 

Twenty years from now a steering wheel will be as rare as rotary phones are today.

[masterfins]

I don't get:
Black coffee or unsweetened tea... Sure, the caffeine may still be there, but drinking it unsweetened just seems nasty to me.

I agree with you on the tea, but I love my black coffee.  I started drinking black coffee to avoid the calories of sugar/cream; as I was told black coffee actually has a negative caloric effect.  Once I got used to black coffee I loved it.  The downside is you can actually tell when the coffee sucks because there is no cream or sugar to cover it up; hence I usually don't buy coffee on the outside (which is a plus because it saves money).

[masterfins]

As a side to B's original post, I don't get people making roadside memorials where loved ones have died in automobile accidents.  I can understand the initial placement of flowers/cross/etc., but some people keep them going for decades.  I don't get that, there are cemetaries for that.

[pondwater]

It's better than reading the back of a shampoo bottle over and over.  I feel you and Phish are in the minority here...

How long do you people shit? You can't sit for 3-5 minutes without reading something? That's interesting. I don't like touching anything until get done, wash my hands, and get the fuck out of there.

On an off note, I only shit at home. I don't get how people can shit on a public toilet....

[Spider-Dan]

There are different levels of autonomous vehicles.

Level 0: nothing
Level 1: can automate one thing (e.g. cruise control)
Level 2: can automate more than one thing in concert (e.g. adaptive cruise control that follows a set distance behind the car in front, lane keep assist)
Level 3: can automate all driving functions, but in case of unexpected condition, immediately passes control back to user (current versions of Tesla Autopilot are capable of a poor version of this, but Tesla does not yet allow it)
Level 4: can automate all driving functions, and in case of unexpected condition, car can safely navigate to roadside and pass control back to user (most companies are targeting this level)

Level 2 and 3 are what most people would start to consider "self-driving," but they are really too dangerous to allow on public roads.  Even at Level 3, the car can pass control back to you at any time, which essentially means you have to pay just as much attention as if you were driving.

Level 4 is much safer than the overwhelming majority of drivers.  Setting aside issues like texting, intoxication, or sheer fatigue, a well-developed Level 4 system is significantly less likely to hit someone in a blind spot, or run a red light, or run into someone stopping quickly... especially if that other person is also driving an autonomous car.  Relatedly, autonomous cars have exponential safety gains, because the more of them are on the road, the more they can communicate road conditions with one another.  If your autonomous car hydroplanes, it can tell the other cars around you to watch out.

This question is essentially no different than comparing humans vs. machines in other tasks.  While a trained professional can do a better job than a machine, most people on the road are from that standard.

[Phishfan]

I've seen The Terminator and The Matrix. Stop AI before it ruins humanity.

[Spider-Dan]

The sooner we embrace AI robots as the true children of humanity, the easier it will be when they decide to exterminate us.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Just because a car can't handle all driving conditions doesn't mean the driver needs to pay attention 100% of the time in order for it to be safe.

Highways are among the easiest thing to program a car for, so take a car that can handle highways and nothing else along with a commute I use to have to make once a week for a meeting. 10 mins of suburban driving, 1.5 hours of highway, 2 mins off the highway into parking lot at work.  With such a car I could spend almost 3 hours round trip on my laptop until I heard. Ding ding, you will need to retake control of the car in 1 min.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Part of the evolution to self driving cars might not occur because of efforts like google and Tesla trying to make a self driving car but incremental improvements to automatic collision detection systems.  Self driving cars give control to the driver when things are too complex for them (e.g. Roads without visible lines). These systems take control from the driver, when it is obvious (to the system) the driver is about to do something stupid.  As these systems get better, eventually they will morph into self driving.

[Spider-Dan]

Here is an example of the problem with Level 3.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQkx-4pFjus

The driver is notified (the beeps) and given control less than one second before the crash.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Here is an example of the problem with Level 3.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQkx-4pFjus

The driver is notified (the beeps) and given control less than one second before the crash.

Tesla isn't at level 3, it is at level 2.

Tesla's owners manual clearly states, that this is a specific situation the software cannot handle.

The car (not the driver) did react in sufficient time to slow down a car traveling highway speeds so that it was a fender bender, as opposed to a more serious accident.  While not perfect it wasn't catastrophic.

Over 37,000 people die in the USA per year, most because of human error.  A video of a non fatal accident doesn't change the fact that overall computers are BETTER drivers than humans.  The expectation that self driving cars need to be perfect to replace humans is stupid, because humans are far from perfect.

[Spider-Dan]

The point I was making is that Level 3 can result in situations like the one in the video, where you are passed control with very little time to act.

The entire point of autonomous driving is that you can stop driving and pay attention to other things instead; a movie, a conversation with another passenger, sleeping, etc.  But if you are expected to quickly take back control - by definition, in a complicated situation that the car can't figure out how to handle - that is a recipe for disaster.

As far as whether Tesla's "Autopilot" is Level 2 or Level 3: they effectively sell their product as Level 3 but use the legal fine print to define it as Level 2.  Previous versions of Autopilot would continue working without your hands on the wheel, and it's only events like the video I linked above that have forced Tesla to implement more strict checks that the driver is still "driving."  This is what I meant when I said that current versions of Tesla Autopilot are capable of a poor version of Level 3, but Tesla does not yet allow it.

[Phishfan]

Since my, "I just don't get..." has almost derailed the thread, I have another driving related one.

I just don't get how traffic on an interstate highway can come to a complete stop and then open up again without any evidence of an accident or some other external force. The roadway is completely open and someone is at the head of the line. How does traffic stop?

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Since my, "I just don't get..." has almost derailed the thread, I have another driving related one.

I just don't get how traffic on an interstate highway can come to a complete stop and then open up again without any evidence of an accident or some other external force. The roadway is completely open and someone is at the head of the line. How does traffic stop?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Suugn-p5C1M

BTW if we ALL had self driving cars traffic jams would be much less frequent.