Page 3 of 12 FirstFirst 12345 ... LastLast
Results 21 to 30 of 113

Thread: Autonomous Vehicles (new job ?)

  1. #21
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Posts
    6,265
    The big thing that needs to happen is have an algorithm to allow certain systems turn off when certain parameters are active. Think of VW cheating the emissions game.

  2. #22
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Posts
    12,803
    Hopefully moore's law will shrink these computers down to cellphone size in a few years...

  3. #23
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Location
    Sydney, Australia
    Posts
    2,291
    I don’t see this as a big issue.

    For commuting there is probably plenty of stops, when you can power down systems, things like “radar”. Don’t need that while stopped, turn it on again just before moving to check it’s clear.
    Things will improve, as Billi said, Moore’s law (although it often turns into, same price, more power and features!)

    But let’s consider who would want these vehicles and what it would cost them.
    I see the main early adopters being richer, busy people. They commute in peak times and want more free time (to relax or maybe work during the trip). They won’t care if the running costs are double a self drive electric car. The benefit to them in time is way more than the extra cost. Especially if they are jumping to their first electric vehicle, they probably still save running costs over what they have now.

    Where it will hurt most is the reduced range, if that is what stops people buying the car in the first place. This is likely to be just a perception of a problem, rather than an actual issue for these people.

    But in the battle of self-drive-electric v autonomous-electric, I don’t think the extra power requirements of the autonomous systems will make a huge difference, the benefits will be so significant (and radical, game changing) that it would dominate an increase in costs or decrease in range.

  4. #24
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Posts
    12,803
    Energy cost is not much, just surprised to hear these systems can impact EV ranges that significantly...

    I wonder how teslas system sucks up power now...

    Colleague of mine still doesn't feel safe letting his model x drive by itself.

    My Honda clarity's semi-automnomous system(adaptive cruise and lane keeping) sucks too. Every so often it'd warn me that it couldn't 'see' the lane lines and need me to take over! Adaptive cruise also doesn't inspire confidence but better than lane keeping. If these features were not included in the clarity ev, they're definitely not worth paying extra for. Luckily as far as I can tell, these simple systems didn't cost me extra energy... AC/heat impacts range more significantly.

  5. #25
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Posts
    799
    Well, since those cars are level 2 only you do need to be paying attention and be ready to take control at a moments notice. Something which some Tesla drivers don't seem to understand.

    One comment about Moores law, in many areas of automated vehicles it doesn't apply because there is a significant amount of mechanical parts involved in the automation of the driver. Radar, lidar, pretty much any of the sensors etc are the expensive bits and are not subject to moores law. Sure they'll get cheaper because of increased investment and mass production but we won't see the gains in those spaces at anywhere near the rate we saw it in computing power.

  6. #26
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Posts
    12,803
    Original article... and also according to samoht, it's not just the financial cost, but the computational power requirements being a huge drag! Computers making calculations, not just sensors, using up more power than the car's engine! That seems pretty crazy... I always thought those crazy roof top sensor will cause a huge aero drag for those cars, but I guess, aero drag is probably nothing compare to computational drag!!!

    But supposedly human brain is also the most energy hungry organ compared to any other body parts...

    So I guess we're on track for AI.

  7. #27
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Location
    Sydney, Australia
    Posts
    2,291
    The human brain does use up most of your energy, if you are “at rest”.
    Once you are moving, exercising, you muscles easily use up way more energy.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if the cars are the same, especially the more powerful vehicles.
    While stopped, no power to engines but the computers are still needed.
    Less powerful engine commuter style, more stops - overall ration of computer to engines would go up.

  8. #28
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Location
    Sydney, Australia
    Posts
    2,291
    Seems there has been a fatal incident with a pedestrian and an autonomous Uber.
    https://gizmodo.com/uber-self-drivin...-au-1823891032

    Not a lot of details, it was at night at an intersection. Will be interesting to find out details.
    And I’m not trying to be ignoring that this is the death of a person, but for people who don’t know the victim the story is about the car, technology and how this might affect the industry.

  9. #29
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Posts
    12,803
    Should be an easy investigation with so many sensors/cameras onboard...

    Also, what would be the point of having a human driver in these tests? Auto-ubers have ran a red light before. Now killed somebody... all with a human driver sitting inside!

    Uber tried to blame the red light running on driver error, turned out it was a computer error.

    Now, I'm sure they'll probably also try to blame the driver in order to save their tech?

    Uber really should just stick to ferrying people using 'proven' tech. I think they're in over their heads.

    In any event, when shit hits the fan, who should ultimately be responsible?

    Owner of the vehicle or manufacturer of the vehicle? For a full autonomous vehicle, it only makes sense for the manufacturer to be responsible.

    But if somebody converts a Ford or Honda into an autonomous vehicle, then the "converter" should become responsible, not Ford or Honda.

    Anyway, whatever legal issues that need to be figured out, it's safe to say that every autonomous accident will be recorded with precision... making investigations much easier.

  10. #30
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Posts
    799
    The cars have a human driver because they're only level 2 and so the driver needs to be there to be able to take control at a moments notice.

    In terms of the laws they're being written atm however Volvo has come out and said that if an accident occurs with one of their vehicles in Autonomous mode that they will take full legal responsibility. That obviously doesn't mean that it's their fault (if the person walks out from behind a bus and there's no chance to stop it wouldn't be their fault for instance), just that they will take responsibility if it is.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •