Mercedes Benz gains level 3 autopilot computer driving in Nevada. A first.

[iamwhatiseem]

Until a malfunction with the car in front leads to a massive accident because of the line of cars behind it doing 300 mph...

Computers have at the very least 1000 times the accuracy of a human, with reaction times infinitely faster. When anti-lock brakes first came out - people said the same thing. When computer chips were first put into cars to adjust/read numerous conditions in the motor - people said the same thing.
Now, due to those chips, a car can go 100,000 miles without a single mechanical problem.
Think of targeting systems in smart bombs. In the first few years accidents happened. Today, smart bombs accuracy is within 1 foot of the target.
New technology will always have bugs and problems. But after it is perfected it can and will improve auto safety to virtually no accidents period. That day will come. Sonner than later.

 

[White 6]

This will eventually be every car

I suspect you are correct. I am just in no hurry and would hate to be the victim of a failed experiment, to advance mankind, after I am gone.

 

[JOSweetHeart]

How many planes crash per year due to computer malfunction/error? How many cars crash per year due to driver (human) error/malfunction?

I don't know, but if computer systems have to be re-booted frequently enough, is it really worth it for them to be in charge of certain things that a person can do themselves? Leaving certain things all up to a computer might only make the drunks and drug addicts swim in the pool of their choice even more and what if the computers were to freeze up on those drivers while they are having their good time?

God bless you always!!!

Holly

P.S. I was in a drive thru just earlier today and before the food could be paid for, I had to wait because the cash register had to be restarted because it had completely quit on the workers. To me, a car should not be in a situation like that more than it already may be.

 

[Couchpotato]

I don't know, but if computer systems have to be re-booted frequently enough, is it really worth it for them to be in charge of certain things that a person can do themselves? Leaving certain things all up to a computer might only make the drunks and drug addicts swim in the pool of their choice even more and what if the computers were to freeze up on those drivers while they are having their good time?

God bless you always!!!

Holly

P.S. I was in a drive thru just earlier today and before the food could be paid for, I had to wait because the cash register had to be restarted because it had completely quit on the workers. To me, a car should not be in a situation like that more than it already may be.

How many planes to you hear about dropping out of the sky due to any reason let alone computer failure each week?

How many car crashes can you hear about in your local area every morning by turning on drive time radio.

 

[JOSweetHeart]

How many planes to you hear about dropping out of the sky due to any reason let alone computer failure each week?

How many car crashes can you hear about in your local area every morning by turning on drive time radio.

It doesn't matter how many have happened already and how many have not. Making a computer do more of what could be done by an actual driver could only add to the list that is already out there.

God bless you always!!!

Holly

P.S. I guess that the big question is this: If an accident is going to happen, do you want it to be because of a computer or a real person?

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Is there a greater chance of a human being a moron and driving too fast or too close for conditions or for a computer to do so? Is there a greater chance of the human panicking and doing the wrong thing if and when the car loses traction and starts to skid or the computer? Is there a greater chance of that single accident causing a multiple car crash due to errors made if the human or a computer is driving the cars around the car having the accident?

Hard to say really. The media will sensationalize accidents in autonomous vehicles more than they will human accidents that result in death. I just Googled it and in 2016, 102 Americans died on the road each and every day in this country. How many of them made it to national news?

When I bought my first computer I had no idea how to even turn it on, so I bought a Macintosh for Dummies book to learn how to use it. The author suggested never buy software with a zero on the end. The zero indicates it's the first copy of the application. He advised that instead of buying Artworks 2.0, sit tight and wait for version 2.1 or 2.2. 2.0 is the first version and regardless how much testing is done, they will always find problems when that app is sold to millions of people. When all the bug are reported and fixed, that's version 2.1 and 2.2. That's the version you want to buy.

It's the same with self-driving vehicles. Even if they perfect the tens of thousands that may be on the road today, it will be a different story when they are out by the tens of millions. Only then can they get all the bugs out and we find out the results; version 2.2.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

As far as self-driving cars......
I would rather take my chances with that one in a million potential glitch.....

Rather than the millions of drunk and or distracted drivers at one time.
But to each his/her own. You'll have to decide for yourself.
I can't WAIT !!!!

Or for instance I have to take my mother everywhere, not that I mind. But she never had a drivers license in her life. If we had perfected autonomous vehicles, she would be able to go shopping, to the doctor, to church when she felt like it without having to arrange for a ride with me. Sometimes I can't take her on a specific day or time because I have a lot of medical problems of my own, and I'm always in the clinic or hospital.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

It doesn't matter how many have happened already and how many have not. Making a computer do more of what could be done by an actual driver could only add to the list that is already out there.

God bless you always!!!

Holly

P.S. I guess that the big question is this: If an accident is going to happen, do you want it to be because of a computer or a real person?

Nearly 43,000 Americans died in car accidents in 2021, and that's up 10% from 2020. Can computer driven cars be any worse?

 

[Couchpotato]

Hard to say really. The media will sensationalize accidents in autonomous vehicles more than they will human accidents that result in death. I just Googled it and in 2016, 102 Americans died on the road each and every day in this country. How many of them made it to national news?

There's a greater or equal chance the computer is going to drive to fast or close for conditions as a human? Um no. The computer doesn't make decisions good or bad, it just does what it's programmed to do. There's no way a properly functioning computer to do anything but that. The computer doesnt think to itself hmm, I have a 4x4 so the rules of safe driving in the snow don't apply to me. It doesn't think I'm 5 mins late to work so I'm willing to risk my and everyone around me's life to make up that 5 minutes. It cant. It wont.

There's a greater chance the computer panics and does the wrong thing than a human or even an equal chance? Seriously? Computers dont panic. The software/algorithm that it's using might be off when it's calculating what to do but it wont panic and do the "wrong thing" according to the program. A human is as likely to panic as not. And the computer will be able to figure out the right thing to do and do it far faster than the human. It's just a math problem. A

When I bought my first computer I had no idea how to even turn it on, so I bought a Macintosh for Dummies book to learn how to use it. The author suggested never buy software with a zero on the end. The zero indicates it's the first copy of the application. He advised that instead of buying Artworks 2.0, sit tight and wait for version 2.1 or 2.2. 2.0 is the first version and regardless how much testing is done, they will always find problems when that app is sold to millions of people. When all the bug are reported and fixed, that's version 2.1 and 2.2. That's the version you want to buy.

It's the same with self-driving vehicles. Even if they perfect the tens of thousands that may be on the road today, it will be a different story when they are out by the tens of millions. Only then can they get all the bugs out and we find out the results; version 2.2.

It will be better. As I said the problem self driving cars have is dealing with the irrational and crazy shit the human drivers are doing and reacting to that chaos. Eliminate the human part and 95% of the problems disappear.

 

[Couchpotato]

It doesn't matter how many have happened already and how many have not. Making a computer do more of what could be done by an actual driver could only add to the list that is already out there.

God bless you always!!!

Holly

P.S. I guess that the big question is this: If an accident is going to happen, do you want it to be because of a computer or a real person?

So it's harder to drive a car than fly a plane? That's odd since all it takes to get a license to drive is being 16 and passing a 20 min road test. I can assume you can get a pilot's license out of a gumball machine?

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

It will be better. As I said the problem self driving cars have is dealing with the irrational and crazy shit the human drivers are doing and reacting to that chaos. Eliminate the human part and 95% of the problems disappear.

Assuming that computers are infallible which they are not. For instance I got a message the other night my system needed to be updated. After the update, the computer kept restarting and restarting. Finally I had to go to bed. The next day it was back to normal, but even the brand new update was defective.

I drove a truck for decades. Years ago you could drive a truck for years without needing a repair. The government forced manufacturers to make trucks run cleaner which requires several computers. They are in the shop all the time now. Some computer goes haywire and it takes a technician to figure it out.

One time my truck didn't start in the morning. The mechanic came out and no luck. They towed it to the dealership and worked on it for weeks. Couldn't figure out the problem. Finally the dealership sent it to Freighliner, the manufacture of the truck. They couldn't figure it out either. When I got the truck back over a month later, they threw an entire new engine in the thing.

I think we are a long way from home to give any amount of trust to a computer. Some day? Yes, it will happen, but it will take years of improvements, trial and error, and perhaps someday we may be able to trust them with our lives. As for now, I trust myself more than any kind of electronics.

 

[Couchpotato]

Assuming that computers are infallible which they are not. For instance I got a message the other night my system needed to be updated. After the update, the computer kept restarting and restarting. Finally I had to go to bed. The next day it was back to normal, but even the brand new update was defective.

No one said they were "infallible" but they are certainly less fallible than humans in this particular instance.

I drove a truck for decades. Years ago you could drive a truck for years without needing a repair. The government forced manufacturers to make trucks run cleaner which requires several computers. They are in the shop all the time now. Some computer goes haywire and it takes a technician to figure it out.

One time my truck didn't start in the morning. The mechanic came out and no luck. They towed it to the dealership and worked on it for weeks. Couldn't figure out the problem. Finally the dealership sent it to Freighliner, the manufacture of the truck. They couldn't figure it out either. When I got the truck back over a month later, they threw an entire new engine in the thing.

I think we are a long way from home to give any amount of trust to a computer. Some day? Yes, it will happen, but it will take years of improvements, trial and error, and perhaps someday we may be able to trust them with our lives. As for now, I trust myself more than any kind of electronics.

That's the problem. People like you who think they can do these things "better than a computer". You're just patently wrong. Beyond the fact that your ability to focus and take in and integrate stimuli is far limited compared to a computer your ability to react to that information is far inferior as well. Not to mention that you will never have the information about and from cars mile ahead of you on your same route that a self-driven car would have. The self-driven car would be able to avoid even being in the situation to deal with the accident you think you're better suited to handle. The problem is the metric for success for a self driven car will be skewed by the fact that it has to deal with idiot humans and their irrational, irresponsible, and chaotic driving. That's the biggest hurdle they have. The insane part of it is we will have to advance the tech far beyond what's required to deal with our failings than if we just let the cars do the driving.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

No one said they were "infallible" but they are certainly less fallible than humans in this particular instance.




That's the problem. People like you who think they can do these things "better than a computer". You're just patently wrong. Beyond the fact that your ability to focus and take in and integrate stimuli is far limited compared to a computer your ability to react to that information is far inferior as well. Not to mention that you will never have the information about and from cars mile ahead of you on your same route that a self-driven car would have. The self-driven car would be able to avoid even being in the situation to deal with the accident you think you're better suited to handle. The problem is the metric for success for a self driven car will be skewed by the fact that it has to deal with idiot humans and their irrational, irresponsible, and chaotic driving. That's the biggest hurdle they have. The insane part of it is we will have to advance the tech far beyond what's required to deal with our failings than if we just let the cars do the driving.

Well I think my driving record would say you're wrong. Drove all my life without an accident except those that were the fault of other people. The last near 30 years of my career was driving a tractor pulling a 53" trailer through all weather conditions here up north.

I haven't worked in three years but still maintain my perfect driving record in my car. No points on my license, no CSA 2010 points (You'll have to look that one up) when I retired.

So to say that computers are better than ALL drivers is simply incorrect. It depends on the driver you're talking about really.

 

[Couchpotato]

Well I think my driving record would say you're wrong. Drove all my life without an accident except those that were the fault of other people. The last near 30 years of my career was driving a tractor pulling a 53" trailer through all weather conditions here up north.

I haven't worked in three years but still maintain my perfect driving record in my car. No points on my license, no CSA 2010 points (You'll have to look that one up) when I retired.

So to say that computers are better than ALL drivers is simply incorrect. It depends on the driver you're talking about really.

It's not a matter of how good you are you (and no human) has the capacity to do what a computer can do in this regard. There are a great many things that humans can and likely will always be able to do better than a computer. But there are things that a computer can do better than a human. There's nothing you or I can do about that.

 

[Canon Shooter]

A car is a tool. Nothing more. Let's me get from point a to point b very quickly and efficiently without running. Outside of that it's a very large and expensive hunk of metal and plastic. I've never understood people's fascination with driving or why driving car A is more "fun" than car B. If I can get to where I want to go WHEN I want to and not have to drive, Im on board.

What kind of car do you drive?

 

[Couchpotato]

What kind of car do you drive?

I have a Tundra as my personal vehicle and drive my F250 when I’m on company business

 

[evenflow1969]

Nope.

First off, I simply enjoy driving too much to give that task over to the car.

Second, safety is still an issue:

According to the NHTSA, "the agency linked 392 crashes to partial self-driving and driver assistance systems in the 10 months between July 1st, 2021 and May 15th, 2022. About 70 percent of those, 273, were Tesla vehicles using Autopilot or the Full Self-Driving beta."

Five of those accidents were fatal.

NHTSA: 'Self-driving' cars were linked to 392 crashes in 10 months | Engadget

Then there's the question of who's to blame in the case of an accident...

Lol, I will never trust a machine over myself for driving.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

It's not a matter of how good you are you (and no human) has the capacity to do what a computer can do in this regard. There are a great many things that humans can and likely will always be able to do better than a computer. But there are things that a computer can do better than a human. There's nothing you or I can do about that.

Someday, probably, but light years away. I believe it was Uber that was experimenting with the autonomous vehicle until a deadly accident and then they gave that up. Prior to that the cars kept stopping because the computer couldn't figure out the situation and the fare had to drive the car the rest of the way.

It's just like trucks. They came out with a computerized truck, but all it could do is go straight. In our lifetime and probably the next few generations a computer can never operate a tractor-trailer like a human. Too much figuring out, too many situations a computer could never handle. A computer can't smell or see smoke coming out of a brake chamber.

Don't get me wrong, like I said when it's finally perfected it would benefit a lot of people.

 

[2aguy]

The first of it's kind to be solid enough to gain approval.
Level 3 is a car that drives itself, but will automatically alert a human sitting in the drivers seat to takeover if certain road conditions etc. are not met.
Designed for real world use, where a driver can go on trips and the car will do most of the highway driving itself without your attention.

Mercedes-Benz Gets Approval to Deploy Level 3 Driving Tech in Nevada

Mercedes-Benz is the first automaker to receive regulatory approval to launch a Level 3 driver assistance system in Nevada.

www.thedrive.com

I think it would be time better spent creating interactive computers that would keep cars from colliding in the first place as a human drives them........I wouldn't trust a car or truck on its own. I think a system that determines threats around the vehicle and alerts the driver would be better...........maybe automatic collision avoidance that wouldn't necessarily need the driver to engage......

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

I think it would be time better spent creating interactive computers that would keep cars from colliding in the first place as a human drives them........I wouldn't trust a car or truck on its own. I think a system that determines threats around the vehicle and alerts the driver would be better...........maybe automatic collision avoidance that wouldn't necessarily need the driver to engage......

They have stuff like that already and it seems to help. But I always tell people the best way to avoid an accident is leave plenty of safety distance between you and the car in front of you. It's worked for me all my life and people I gave that advice to.