Nissan's Autonomous Car Now Road Legal In Japan 205
Daniel_Stuckey writes "The current test vehicle uses what Nissan calls its 'Advanced Driver Assist System,' which isn't fully autonomous, but rather can be thought of as a really advanced cruise control system. According to the company, the system can keep a car in its own lane, while automatically changing lanes to pass slower vehicles or prepare to exit a freeway, which it can also do automatically. Along with that, the car automatically slows for congestion, and — most impressively in my opinion — can automatically stop at red lights. In other words, the car isn't fully automatic in that you can't simply type in a destination and have it do all the work, but the bulk of driving load is taken care of. Curiously, Nissan's goal appears to be to take sloppy human drivers out of the equation to eliminate road fatalities."
Now it just remains to be seen... (Score:5, Insightful)
Now it just remains to be seen if drivers will continue to pay attention to the road, or if it becomes so autonomous that people start slacking (more) behind the wheel. It really won't work to have a car that drives itself 90% of the time and then expects you go randomly jump in for the last 10%. Still, nice to see this tech getting closer to reality.
I am all for it (Score:4, Insightful)
I cannot wait until we have automatic driving cars! I love to drive as much as the next guy. Hell, I am the go-to car guy among my friends and family. But I hate sitting in traffic to and from work. It is the same every day. I would love to be able to sit back and relax.
So long as I can still take my Jeep out on the weekends in manual mode, you'll hear no complaints form me.
Re:Now it just remains to be seen... (Score:5, Insightful)
That's what worries me. The transition to fully automatic cars needs to be essentially 100%, or at least 99% with a "pull over and stop moving" for the remaining 1%. Otherwise I would've be surprised if fatalities went *up* due to drivers taking a nap/getting drunk/reading a book and failing to notice when they need to take back over.
Re:Curiously? (Score:5, Insightful)
Hell, in Miami they still drive.
Re: Curiously? (Score:2, Insightful)
This actually worries me, the natural inclination will be for people to stop paying attention while driving. Then when the sutuation has surpassed the cars ability, nobody will be in control and an accident could happen. At that time, it will be assessed as the "robot's" fault and may set back adoption of what is likely to be a safer form of driving.
Re:Now it just remains to be seen... (Score:5, Insightful)
I dont think that is true at all.
Of course it is not true, because the entire premise of the GGPP's objection is false. Self driving cars do not expect the human driver to "randomly" jump in. If the SDC calculates that it cannot make the best decision, it will prompt the human to take over. If the human does not respond, the SDC will either continue if it is reasonably safe to do so, or pull over and stop. The people designing these systems are not morons.
Re: Curiously? (Score:2, Insightful)
I'd worry less about abuses by the gov't, and more about unintentional actions by the car.
The story says it will pass slower traffic. Great. But will it detect that guy you've seen in your rear view mirror switching lanes doing 40mph faster than you? I see a great chance to have a multicar accident just on that one thing.
It's not all that unusual either. I've seen quite a few close calls, where exactly that has happened. Either he takes the grassy median, or the other car swerves back.
If it can't figure out that he's back here, but you did based on observation, now you're going to have him rear ending you, and one of you hitting the slower car(s).
I wonder how it will handle unusual activity, like a car running a stop sign on a perpendicular road, or something not quite car sized like a dog, large bird, child, or object falling off another vehicle. I've seen wheels come off of cars; big rigs throw the tread off a wheel; a rock truck break a driveshaft, part of which went bouncing down the road behind him; and other various things that shouldn't have been on the road. If people get use to the car doing the driving, they *won't* be doing the driving themselves. They'll become more reliant on the fact that the car can do it for them.
Re:Curiously? (Score:3, Insightful)
In Texas they become presidents!
Re: Curiously? (Score:4, Insightful)
The problem is the large percentage of people who *think* they're "perfectly capable drivers", but are not.
And no matter how capable you are, a computer has a faster reaction time.
Re: Curiously? (Score:5, Insightful)
But will it detect that guy you've seen in your rear view mirror switching lanes doing 40mph faster than you?
Yes. And it will almost certainly do it better than almost any human driver.