Ford announces fully autonomous vehicle by 2021

[EB#]

Given that car manufactures are driven by profit ahead of reliability how will an autonomous car stack up at the end of the day? Ford, for example, have difficulty getting an automatic transmission right ffs.

[mik]

Originally Posted by mik

The main doubt that is in my mind with the current batch of cars with some auto drive function is i still have my doubts they get enough road information to be fully Autonomous .
How would it be if every single car had its own little beacon that sends a signal out to every other vehicle in the immediate area X amount of distance somewhat like aircraft , and the car also receives some form of signal from sensors in the road telling the car precisely where it is on the road .
I dont think this would be too hard to do, and it might open up a whole new series of industries .
Imagine if all those cateye reflectors on the road had small blue tooth module or something similar or an infra red beam or something every x amount of distance to communicate with vehicles , it would be an extra form of Autonomous redundancy .......... or am i up the fairies again .

( Hmmm.........that should have read up with the fairys again ) Note to self ...dont type when tired .

[mik]

Originally Posted by EB#

Given that car manufactures are driven by profit ahead of reliability how will an autonomous car stack up at the end of the day? Ford, for example, have difficulty getting an automatic transmission right ffs.

Good question Mate , down the track i suspect if and when they get it sorted , they might develop the autonomous electronics as a simple package , much like these days auto manufacturers when putting a car together just put their order into Bosch for and abs safety system , imo they will get it down to a simple bunch of standardized components which will reduce the cost .......eventually , and it will probably be as failsafe as abs brakes ................... eventually ..................... one day .

[Mercury Bullet]

Originally Posted by mik

( Hmmm.........that should have read up with the fairys again ) Note to self ...dont type when tired .

Just noticed that.

The fairy appreciation society will blacklist you.

Good one Mik!

[Mercury Bullet]

Originally Posted by Grunter

https://www.google.com/selfdrivingcar/

plus

What's interesting about the following, is how quickly the predicted times from various manufacturers have reduced.

I have a cousin driving dump trucks for Rio Tinto.

The trucks are driverless now (as well as their trains) and I asked him how long he expects to have a job and Rio have told him they won't be fully introduced/activated for another 8 years.

Rio have a large building at Perth Airport where every driverless truck is monitored by a person, so they really aren't driverless, just remotely monitored.

I think it's the regulation that needs to catch up and work out how who is responsible when the inevitable law suits start popping up.

[whynot]

And I am sure 100 years ago there were people who were clinging to using a horse and refusing to use a car. Ditto with steam trains verses diesel, crossing oceans via luxury ocean liners verses aeroplanes. Today we see the transition from landline phones to mobiles. How many people wander into the bank today to do their banking (except the oldies)? Same with autonomous vehicles. There will be a changeover period of three to four decades for sure. But at some point, human controlled vehicles will be banned from certain areas, and then all the roads. I suspect that it there will be retrofit kits available, even for the Model T. Not to say that cars will stop being a source of thrills. I am sure there will be kits available to turn up the aggressiveness level, to break speed limits, etc, etc.

[[THOMMO]]

Originally Posted by Junkyard-Dog

I'm amazed by the technology but I can see why so many are apprehensive. How long will it take before somebody hacks it and tells a car full of people to veer into a semi-trailer?

If there is one thing I'm sure of it's this: humans will never cease finding new and terrible ways to kill one another.

its already happened they hacked the jeep twice to make a point and they had to recall 1.4million cars.

I think we could be running full automation now BUT the issue is not everyone would have it and therefore create risk. If there was the ability to make everyone convert to automated it would make it safer

It's just a computer that knows maths and has a GPS