# Glad to have found this forum



## Highlander712

So, I started doing Ubereats last April, and was actually surprised at how much I enjoy doing it. I do have a full time job, but thus far, the pros have outweighed the cons. (Although, like everyone I am sure, I have had THOSE days) 

But, since I have started, I have encountered certain people, that keep telling me this job is about to vanish because of the driverless vehicles. Now to be honest, at my age, I have heard all sorts of futuristic predictions that never came true. (I even remember when I was a cashier as a teenager in the 1990s, they said that job would no longer exist by 2000 and you see how well that worked out) 

But, I have been searching around on the web, about this BIG plan that Uber has to go driverless in the near future that everyone keeps telling me about. So far, I have not found anything but some idle speculation in articles here and there. 

What do some of you think ? What have you heard? Me personally, I do not think we are about to become a driverless nation anytime soon, But hey, this orange cat in the profile pic has never been good at predicting the future


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## SpinalCabbage

Travis used self-driving cars as a gimmick to scam investors. Oddly enough his scam actually fueled interest in the area and some remarkable achievements have been made. But, in my opinion, my grandkids may see true autonomous vehicles on the road, but I probably won't.

Everything above is just my opinion.


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## Highlander712

SpinalCabbage said:


> But, in my opinion, my grandkids may see true autonomous vehicles on the road, but I probably won't.
> 
> Everything above is just my opinion.



Yeah, I was just now browsing the other threads. I had no idea that there was a bit of investor manipulation going on there, but that is sure what it sounds like. 

I tend to agree, that driverless car future is just something that everyone talks about, but that is about it.


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## Kurt Halfyard

Don't hold your breath on Auto-Taxis in Urban markets. Self Driving passenger trips (UBER) in any significant % of rides given, is still likely 10 years away (+/-2 years), easily, mainly due to regulations and liability laws.


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## Amos69

10+-20 years away.

No one is close, and once someone is it will take a decade to actually get wide license.


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## Highlander712

Amos69 said:


> 10+-20 years away.
> 
> No one is close, and once someone is it will take a decade to actually get wide license.


You know that is a good point, and something else that people, including myself, have not considered. Even if they COULD pull something like that off, it is not like one week we are driving, the next week the world goes driverless.


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## _Tron_

Rumors of my birth have been greatly exaggerated...


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## The Gift of Fish

Highlander712 said:


> So, I started doing Ubereats last April, and was actually surprised at how much I enjoy doing it. I do have a full time job, but thus far, the pros have outweighed the cons. (Although, like everyone I am sure, I have had THOSE days)
> 
> But, since I have started, I have encountered certain people, that keep telling me this job is about to vanish because of the driverless vehicles. Now to be honest, at my age, I have heard all sorts of futuristic predictions that never came true. (I even remember when I was a cashier as a teenager in the 1990s, they said that job would no longer exist by 2000 and you see how well that worked out)
> 
> But, I have been searching around on the web, about this BIG plan that Uber has to go driverless in the near future that everyone keeps telling me about. So far, I have not found anything but some idle speculation in articles here and there.
> 
> What do some of you think ? What have you heard? Me personally, I do not think we are about to become a driverless nation anytime soon, But hey, this orange cat in the profile pic has never been good at predicting the future


My full time job is safety driver for autonomous vehicles. It's my job to make sure the vehicle doesn't crash into people/other vehicles/trees/etc while it is out driving around, practicing and collecting data.

What I can say is that autonomous vehicles are nowhere near full autonomy. At the same time, they are 95% there. Contradiction? No, because the last 5% of the problem is exponentially harder to solve than the first 95%. The cars can drive fine along streets where there are no vehicles blocking the way, no construction, no workers directing traffic, no confusing (for a computer) intersections etc etc etc. However, add any or all these things plus others into the mix and they don't work.

Recently when the car was driving, it got confused by something and crossed over the center line into oncoming traffic lanes, then gave up and disengaged itself, coasting uncontrolled towards the nearest wall.

I don't know how many years it will take to solve the problems, but at the pace development is going, another 10 at least is my guess.


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## Sonny06

At some point it might happened there is already a company in China that have those kind of cars. But honestly would you trust an IA to drive you around while there is human driver on the road? Personally I won’t, there is to many factors that is in place, snow, storms etc it’s a big thing. And I think that most of the pax won’t trust it.

Now that said, delivery might have a huge hack at some point. Amazon already thought about drones etc think about it if they find a way to delivered package with enough infrastructureit will be a big game changer forevery delivery company. You need 1 employee over 100 drone for exemple. Huge money saver.


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## _Tron_

Sonny06 said:


> Now that said, delivery might have a huge hack at some point. Amazon already thought about drones etc think about it if they find a way to delivered package with enough infrastructureit will be a big game changer forevery delivery company. You need 1 employee over 100 drone for exemple. Huge money saver.


That will work good right up until the day a drone accidentally drops a laptop or a case of wine on someone's head.


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## Sonny06

_Tron_ said:


> That will work good right up until the day a drone accidentally drops a laptop or a case of wine on someone's head.


Probably I’ve thought about it it might happened


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## Stevie The magic Unicorn

I think self driving cars are going to happen in 2 years, 2 years from flying pigs.

Because if we are worried about pig shit landing on our heads self driving cars running minority children over won't be such a big thing.

ANd I say "minority children" because apparently these things have an easier time spotting the little white kids than the minorities. So that's stating facts, not racism.


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## Stevie The magic Unicorn

Study finds a potential risk with self-driving cars: failure to detect dark-skinned pedestrians


The findings speak to a bigger problem in the development of automated systems: algorithmic bias.




www.vox.com





If you’re a person with dark skin, you may be more likely than your white friends to get hit by a self-driving car, according to a new study out of the Georgia Institute of Technology. That’s because automated vehicles may be better at detecting pedestrians with lighter skin tones.


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## Amos69

The Gift of Fish said:


> My full time job is safety driver for autonomous vehicles. It's my job to make sure the vehicle doesn't crash into people/other vehicles/trees/etc while it is out driving around, practicing and collecting data.
> 
> What I can say is that autonomous vehicles are nowhere near full autonomy. At the same time, they are 95% there. Contradiction? No, because the last 5% of the problem is exponentially harder to solve than the first 95%. The cars can drive fine along streets where there are no vehicles blocking the way, no construction, no workers directing traffic, no confusing (for a computer) intersections etc etc etc. However, add any or all these things plus others into the mix and they don't work.
> 
> Recently when the car was driving, it got confused by something and crossed over the center line into oncoming traffic lanes, then gave up and disengaged itself, coasting uncontrolled towards the nearest wall.
> 
> I don't know how many years it will take to solve the problems, but at the pace development is going, another 10 at least is my guess.


Sounds like our Telluride. Kia's strong level 3 is very close to 4 Handles freeways and open road greát.


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## The Gift of Fish

Sonny06 said:


> But honestly would you trust an IA to drive you around while there is human driver on the road?


That's an important point. I was driving my own vehicle the other day on the freeway when a car joined from the entrance ramp. I profiled the car (old Chevy Malibu) and therefore predicted imminent stupidity. Sure enough, the driver hit the gas and swooped left fast across two lanes of traffic, including the exact space my car would have been in if I hadn't profiled him/his vehicle and braked as soon as I had spotted him.

Profiling other cars and drivers is something that you have to do in order to avoid accidents. SDC can't do that.


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## Taxi2Uber

Highlander712 said:


> I have encountered certain people, that keep telling me this job is about to vanish because of the driverless vehicles.


You said you were an UberEats driver.
You have to distinguish between driverless food delivery and driverless people delivery. Two different animals.


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## Stevie The magic Unicorn

Also i think after the introduction of food delivery drones that the Hunting hawk will take over for the Pitbull as the "hood rat's" pet of choice.












Why scam uber and DD for free food when you can just buy a hunting hawk trained to still other people's food.

That's also not taking into account the possibility of wild animals stealing from your porch either.










Bear caught on video stealing package from La Verne porch


A furry thief was caught on video stealing an Amazon package right off a family's front porch in La Verne earlier this week.




abc7.com







Once the animals "discover" that the robots have tasty treats in them wild animals may take to "hunting" them as is their natural instinct. Just as bears scavenge from trash (and apparently amazon packages).








If drones and package drops become more common we may find wild/stray animals becoming more and more of a problem.


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## FLKeys

As far as Uber Eats goes I don't see driverless cars working. That would require the customers to get off their butts and walk out to the car to get their food.

Isn't that how Uber Eats originally started? Drive to house, customer meets you at car??? How many customers meet you at the car these days? I know in my area it is very rare.


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## UberPotomac

Highlander712 said:


> So, I started doing Ubereats last April, and was actually surprised at how much I enjoy doing it. I do have a full time job, but thus far, the pros have outweighed the cons. (Although, like everyone I am sure, I have had THOSE days)
> 
> But, since I have started, I have encountered certain people, that keep telling me this job is about to vanish because of the driverless vehicles. Now to be honest, at my age, I have heard all sorts of futuristic predictions that never came true. (I even remember when I was a cashier as a teenager in the 1990s, they said that job would no longer exist by 2000 and you see how well that worked out)
> 
> But, I have been searching around on the web, about this BIG plan that Uber has to go driverless in the near future that everyone keeps telling me about. So far, I have not found anything but some idle speculation in articles here and there.
> 
> What do some of you think ? What have you heard? Me personally, I do not think we are about to become a driverless nation anytime soon, But hey, this orange cat in the profile pic has never been good at predicting the future


I don’t know your age but you shouldnt be worry on the replacement from SDV for a few years and then , to people get used to. We cannot still provide affordable healthcare , maintain bridges and roads or affordable housing . Do you really think we will be that efficient to delivery take out or provide transportation services ?


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## Highlander712

FLKeys said:


> Isn't that how Uber Eats originally started? Drive to house, customer meets you at car??? How many customers meet you at the car these days? I know in my area it is very rare.



I am going to say 99% of mine have the instructions to just be left at the door, so my area is pretty much the same.


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## UberBastid

I live in a very, um, interesting 'neighborhood'.
Very rural. People who enjoy their privacy.

I have a next door neighbor (about three miles away) who loves pheasant hunting. 
He has a drone that he rigged up with a thin cable that tows a flag ... his kid flies the drone around and he practices shooting at the flag being towed.
He told me once ... "Anything under a hundred feet over my property is going DOWN."
I believe him.

.


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## goneubering

Highlander712 said:


> So, I started doing Ubereats last April, and was actually surprised at how much I enjoy doing it. I do have a full time job, but thus far, the pros have outweighed the cons. (Although, like everyone I am sure, I have had THOSE days)
> 
> But, since I have started, I have encountered certain people, that keep telling me this job is about to vanish because of the driverless vehicles. Now to be honest, at my age, I have heard all sorts of futuristic predictions that never came true. (I even remember when I was a cashier as a teenager in the 1990s, they said that job would no longer exist by 2000 and you see how well that worked out)
> 
> But, I have been searching around on the web, about this BIG plan that Uber has to go driverless in the near future that everyone keeps telling me about. So far, I have not found anything but some idle speculation in articles here and there.
> 
> What do some of you think ? What have you heard? Me personally, I do not think we are about to become a driverless nation anytime soon, But hey, this orange cat in the profile pic has never been good at predicting the future


Don’t worry about driverless cars. It’s a fun fantasy from some people but very difficult to do in real life. I think Uber finally faced SDC reality and sold their self driving division.


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## d'Uber

The Gift of Fish said:


> My full time job is safety driver for autonomous vehicles. It's my job to make sure the vehicle doesn't crash into people/other vehicles/trees/etc while it is out driving around, practicing and collecting data.
> 
> What I can say is that autonomous vehicles are nowhere near full autonomy. At the same time, they are 95% there. Contradiction? No, because the last 5% of the problem is exponentially harder to solve than the first 95%. The cars can drive fine along streets where there are no vehicles blocking the way, no construction, no workers directing traffic, no confusing (for a computer) intersections etc etc etc. However, add any or all these things plus others into the mix and they don't work.
> 
> Recently when the car was driving, it got confused by something and crossed over the center line into oncoming traffic lanes, then gave up and disengaged itself, coasting uncontrolled towards the nearest wall.
> 
> I don't know how many years it will take to solve the problems, but at the pace development is going, another 10 at least is my guess.


I take it you're not streaming movies? Uber car's 'safety' driver streamed TV show before fatal crash: police


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## JeanOcelot0

The Gift of Fish said:


> That's an important point. I was driving my own vehicle the other day on the freeway when a car joined from the entrance ramp. I profiled the car (old Chevy Malibu) and therefore predicted imminent stupidity. Sure enough, the driver hit the gas and swooped left fast across two lanes of traffic, including the exact space my car would have been in if I hadn't profiled him/his vehicle and braked as soon as I had spotted him.
> 
> Profiling other cars and drivers is something that you have to do in order to avoid accidents. SDC can't do that.


Of course, the SDC would not be at fault in this case.


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## JeanOcelot0

FLKeys said:


> As far as Uber Eats goes I don't see driverless cars working. That would require the customers to get off their butts and walk out to the car to get their food.
> 
> Isn't that how Uber Eats originally started? Drive to house, customer meets you at car??? How many customers meet you at the car these days? I know in my area it is very rare.


Drones could drop the price of delivery to below a level that would mean anything (e.g., for someone ordering a $10 meal, an $8 charge is significant); it's a much easier engineering problem to autonomously move a few pounds of non-precious stuff than a human.


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## JeanOcelot0

UberPotomac said:


> I don’t know your age but you shouldnt be worry on the replacement from SDV for a few years and then , to people get used to. We cannot still provide affordable healthcare , maintain bridges and roads or affordable housing . Do you really think we will be that efficient to delivery take out or provide transportation services ?


Uh, if we had ants working in health care, construction, etc. rather than as ants, we'd have a better standard of living.


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## JeanOcelot0

I think what we are going to see early-on is autonomously driven cars used to deliver stuff (if not by drones); these cars can be very light and fragile since they and their cargo would be expendable.

As for delivering humans, I think SDCs could be initially approved for "good weather", non-highly-trafficked-route use - with ants having to work the bad-weather days. This will cause the cost of transportation to be a lot higher on these bad-weather days, and thus greatly reduce any elastic demand on those days, which is something that happens with regular drivers (e.g., folks wait until the rain stops before running errands, etc.). Of course, this will also reduce the supply of ants since a lot of ants will not want to hustle only when it's bad weather.


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## Stevie The magic Unicorn

JeanOcelot0 said:


> I think what we are going to see early-on is autonomously driven cars used to deliver stuff (if not by drones); these cars can be very light and fragile since they and their cargo would be expendable.
> 
> As for delivering humans, I think SDCs could be initially approved for "good weather", non-highly-trafficked-route use - with ants having to work the bad-weather days. This will cause the cost of transportation to be a lot higher on these bad-weather days, and thus greatly reduce any elastic demand on those days, which is something that happens with regular drivers (e.g., folks wait until the rain stops before running errands, etc.). Of course, this will also reduce the supply of ants since a lot of ants will not want to hustle only when it's bad weather.


If it's raining too hard I finish my last fare and pull over. And that's me being scared of the bald tire idiots on the road. Cold weather? yeah I wouldn't leave the house if I stilled lived somwhere with snow on the ground. I have enough troubles walking as it is, icy pavement? yeah no...

Loading a wheelchair in an icy apartment complex parking lot?

screw.. that..


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