# This video shows us the ad infinitum problems with Self Driving cars



## Oscar Levant (Aug 15, 2014)

I've never had a disagreement with SDCs, for 99% of road driving.

But, there will be variables, unpredictable things that occur that won't be in the
database, temporary road changes, blockages, etc., that will cause the car
to hang in limbo.

Now, of course, the car just puts it into the database so it won't happen again and
the Waymo roadside assistance kicks in and help is on the way.

Thing is, as far as I can tell, there will always be an infinite number of these variables,
temporary things that happen that confound the system. Because of this, how is there ever going
to be a viable service such as a driverless Uber or taxi?

Here is rider in a driverless Taxi, and the fun begins @ 12:28 into the video where the car, after a long pause, goes haywire

Thing is, I've been on this forum since 2014, and they have been talking about these driverless cars for that long, as if Uber were going to get rid of drivers very 'soon', but it never happened. My guess is that it is for the simple fact that where the digital realm is controllable, the analog realm is not in it's infinite randomity.


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## forqalso (Jun 1, 2015)

It good the car stops when it is confused. How many accidents have been caused by human drivers that continue when confused?


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## Oscar Levant (Aug 15, 2014)

forqalso said:


> It good the car stops when it is confused. How many accidents have been caused by human drivers that continue when confused?


But it's blocking traffic, and it is doing much longer than it would have had their been a human behind the wheel. the argument isn't always about immediate injury, blocking traffic isn't a good thing.


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## forqalso (Jun 1, 2015)

Oscar Levant said:


> But it's blocking traffic, and it is doing much longer than it would have had their been a human behind the wheel. the argument isn't always about immediate injury, blocking traffic isn't a good thing.


It’s always better to stop and avoid an accident. This car stopping itself because of a software issue is no different than a conventional car stopping because of a mechanical issue except the driverless car corrected itself and didn’t need to wait on a tow truck.


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## JeanOcelot0 (Dec 30, 2020)

It seems that nobody was worse for the wear; this is a glitch that is not a problem. Obviously, the non-standard nature of construction zones is what caused the problem, and indeed, I would think that setting up construction zones could be done in a more standard way, thus making it easier for the bot to get through it.

In any case, so long as the number of glitches like this remains low, it still is more cost-effective to have the bots hustling, with ants on standby to get the bot out of the glitch. The name of the game is to reduce the ant-hours.


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## JeanOcelot0 (Dec 30, 2020)

Oscar Levant said:


> But it's blocking traffic, and it is doing much longer than it would have had their been a human behind the wheel. the argument isn't always about immediate injury, blocking traffic isn't a good thing.


That's a political decision as to how much interruption would be too much; I would think that the current level of interrupt is far lower than the level at which it would be politically untenable. Also, this is a case in which the taxi firm could work with law-enforcement so that a cop would be quickly dispatched to make the problems of folks driving around smoother.


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## forqalso (Jun 1, 2015)

https://automotivemap.com/agero-breakdowns-study-2019-2641343006.html


69 million car breakdowns in the US each year, the people that fixate on a few glitches in new technology remind me of the guy saying, “get a horse” to the broke down Model T owner.


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## _Tron_ (Feb 9, 2020)

forqalso said:


> It good the car stops when it is confused. How many accidents have been caused by human drivers that continue when confused?


Maybe about as many as have been caused by drivers that _don't_ continue. Stopping is hazardous because traffic is not expecting it. With so many drivers speeding, tailgating, and looking down at the phone in their lap, stopping unexpectedly is more of a danger than ever.

When I have to stop fast in traffic the first thing I do is go to the rearview mirror and prepare a Plan B in case the driver behind me is distracted.

Autonomous cars that are programmed to stop may be the best Best Practices a brainless machine can come up with, but those cars are going to spend an inordinate amount of time in the body shop getting their rear ends undented.


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## Stevie The magic Unicorn (Apr 3, 2018)

Let’s look at it like this.

it took 3 humans to get that self driving car to his destination. That emergency roadside guy?

they need 2 people in that roadside car. 1 to drive the vehicle they came in and one to drive the sdv (because you need a non sdv to drive support or else it would get stuck in the same problem the first vehicle did.

So that is 3 people working for waymo to get that SDV moving, not 1 not 2… 3!


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## 25rides7daysaweek (Nov 20, 2017)

Oscar Levant said:


> I've never had a disagreement with SDCs, for 99% of road driving.
> 
> But, there will be variables, unpredictable things that occur that won't be in the
> database, temporary road changes, blockages, etc., that will cause the car
> ...


You know this isnt even the future teslas can do that right now is you pay em a bunch of extra money for the software..and they dont burst into flames from whatever or getting rearended..


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## Slim Shady (Feb 4, 2018)

If you look at the history of lab developed robots, you'll be amazed how much they are advanced in just ten years.

Look at the virtual assistant AI that acts like your girlfriend. It is very scary because they are almost like human already, right now. They have emotions, their own personality, they are self aware of their gender etc.

10 to 15 years from now, humans dating with other humans will be significantly less. Once you have the self sufficient AI, it's really not hard to install it in a robot. It'll probably be as expensive as a brand new car at that point but the tech will be there if you have the money.

Same goes for health. AI managed smart home technology will move to medical. Imagine an AI managed chip acting like a very advanced pacemaker constantly monitoring your vitals, ready to interrupt when there's a health issue. High blood pressure, diabetes, hearth attacks maybe even cancer will become a thing of the past. At one point the lab computers fully running on AI will be so smart that they'll be able to tell us what to do to reverse our age. 

You can't run before you learn to crawl. Once you have the foundation it's not really hard to build upon it. You need time and data, just lots of it.


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## JeanOcelot0 (Dec 30, 2020)

Slim Shady said:


> Look at the virtual assistant AI that acts like your girlfriend. It is very scary because they are almost like human already, right now. They have emotions, their own personality, they are self aware of their gender etc.


Like Joi?


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