Lyft Plans Self-Driving Taxi Fleet By 2017 (bgr.com) 77
An anonymous reader writes:
Lyft hopes to launch a self-driving fleet of taxis as soon as next year, according to reports, arriving in the market years before Apple and Google. "There will still be a human 'driver' in the cars, as mandated by law for the time being," writes BGR, adding that eventually the driver will become obsolete. "But said human will be there solely in the event of a malfunction. Otherwise, Lyft's new vehicles will drive themselves."
Meanwhile, Fortune writes that most analysts believe it will be four years before Apple gets a car on the road, though they're moving in that direction and even hired a Tesla executive last month. They add that both Apple and Google are now eyeing at least 400,000 square feet of Bay Area real estate to use in the development of their self-driving fleets.
Meanwhile, Fortune writes that most analysts believe it will be four years before Apple gets a car on the road, though they're moving in that direction and even hired a Tesla executive last month. They add that both Apple and Google are now eyeing at least 400,000 square feet of Bay Area real estate to use in the development of their self-driving fleets.
As Apple shows ... (Score:1)
Doing it first, doesn't usually mean you get it right.
Apple makes good ideas with shitty implementations and make them not suck.
Tesla and the others will have the Windows CE implementation until Apple gets theirs in front of the public, and then they'll be an android copy of the apple car that .... works ... sorta ... but you'll be tracked 100% of the time by malware because no one other than Apple will treat you as the customer, everyone else will treat you as the data mining product.
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Jobs is dead... you can get his dick out of your mouth now
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And if Apple hadn't brought the GUI to the world, we would be arguing this thread over some stupid ass ASCII forum.
Apple didn't invent the GUI. Other companies, including Apollo [wikipedia.org], had GUIs before Apple. X Windows was available for Unix workstations about the same time the first Mac was sold. What made Apple different was that their computers were affordable, and available to normal people. But that would have happened soon anyway. Amigas with GUIs were available soon after, and were even more affordable. GUIs were an idea whose time had come.
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And by copied, you mean Apple bought the rights to it by paying with Apple stock. And if Apple hadn't brought the GUI to the world, we would be arguing this thread over some stupid ass ASCII forum.
Let's see Apple's competitors just select some great research out of the thousands of research projects that are created per year -- it's like picking a needle from a haystack. But since they're incapable of that, they'll just wait for someone else to do the work before they steal it.
And by copied you mean that Microsoft legally licensed rights from Apple for UI elements in Windows. See, we could do this all day. And yes, we would have had the GUI as Microsoft also visited Xerox PARC and learned the same concepts.
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Apple xeroxed it from elsewhere. (Score:3)
Google copied the entire iOS
Huh? Nope. Google bought a small start-up founded by former Google employee and which back then was already working for a Java-based Phone OS.
(Java was very popular for making software on feature- / smart- phones)
They just happen both to have been unveiled around the same time frame (2007).
Under the hood, they share nearly nothing:
- Android is a new beast, using a Linux kernel, but running an entirely new user-space, mostly based around a Java-like platform, instead of the regular GNU userland.
(again very
Jesus fuck grow up dorks. (Score:2, Insightful)
"Self-driving" crap is not beyond prototype stage in very specific easy-to-handle road environments where results are reported by the businesses that stand to gain from it.
The moment even one independently performed and reported test is carried out negotiating the streets of New York, London, Manila and a snowy mountain in the north of Madrid, I'll start to take this shit seriously. Until then, it's just another case of the Press Release replacing the Journalist.
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I don't care when you will take this shit seriously. I do care when Lyft will take this shit seriously.
That said, The summary kind of inflates what the article says, which in turn kind of inflates what the Wall Street Journal article it references says.
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How about your kids driving? Would you feel more secure about sending your newly-licensed 17-year old out driving or riding in a car with an AI with a 99.99999% accident avoidance rate?
Everything thinks they're a great driver; some of them even might be. But they forget about the average driver.
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The idea that you'd prefer a greater risk "just in case" you're in a collision, because you'll feel better about it if you were in control, is not a rational position to take. If the self-driving cars are genuinely and significantly safer than human drivers, the rational decision is to get over your phobia and switch to a self-driving car when you can afford one.
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We have much higher safety standards for purchased products then we expect for ourselves. This is a good thing. Of course some products can be abused and in that case they aren't safe (power tools, birth control), but that doesn't apply here because we are not interacting with the car or being expected to use it in a certain way, only sitting in it.
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If 1:1,000,000 is lower odds than the thing I was doing before, yes, I would buy that toaster. We're not discussing people that currently don't need transportation buying self-driving cars, but people who already are doing something to meet their transportation need. If that something is more dangerous than self-driving cars, then it is irrational not to switch, given the opportunity.
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Re: Jesus fuck grow up dorks. (Score:2)
Somehow, though, nearly all of them make it to and from work every day without even a fender-bender.
Right I'm sure that has nothing to do with the fact that those cars are driven by humans and not machines.
There's hope for entrant class workers (Score:2)
Sure, it's boring, but I can, like, look into a second job working on line for $55 an hour!
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Actually, in the beginning, they will probably have real taxi drivers behind the wheel . . . just in case the system goes entirely tits up, and they need to get the passenger to the destination.
But, gee Wally, won't this be like IT workers training their H1B and offshore replacements? The soon-to-be-unemployed taxi drivers babysit their replacements . . . ?
Re: There's hope for entrant class workers (Score:2)
Actually, in the beginning, they will probably have real taxi drivers behind the wheel
Geez, let's hope not!
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Actually, in the beginning, they will probably have real taxi drivers behind the wheel . . . just in case the system goes entirely tits up, and they need to get the passenger to the destination.
But, gee Wally, won't this be like IT workers training their H1B and offshore replacements? The soon-to-be-unemployed taxi drivers babysit their replacements . . . ?
No. If the AI fucks up and kills some people, the "not-driving driver" will be the patsy, and get blamed for everything.
This is a giant FUCK YOU to every person who has used their own vehicle for Lyft (or Uber). I know people who have bought new cars simply because of the 'car-newness' requirements of Uber."
Wow, what a way to piss-off the people who got you where you were, by letting you externalize your costs onto them. Now, as a thanks — You're all fired. (Not 'fired', as they are all 'contracto
Tough Way to Make a Buck (Score:1)
Curious (Score:2)
Possibly invented by the now out of work ex-drivers.
While everyone is concentrating on the technical aspects of the driverless vehicle revolution, I see precious little about the human aspects.
Even aside from the destructive folks making a mess out of the vehicles, what about preferences? There are otherwise normal people who h
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I asked this very question a couple months ago in a thread and people insisted there would be smell sensors and cameras so that the car could drive itself somewhere and clean itself before being used again.
Sure. Many public buses already have cameras observing the passengers. Security cameras are also common on elevators. If someone soils or damages a car, the car can drive itself somewhere to be cleaned or repaired. The cost will be billed to the credit card of the passenger who caused the damage, with the camera recording kept as evidence in case they dispute the charge.
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So, what are you going to do if they book it with a pre-paid credit card and wear a mask?
The same way that existing rental car companies handle it: They refuse to accept pre-paid cards.
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I asked this very question a couple months ago in a thread and people insisted there would be smell sensors and cameras so that the car could drive itself somewhere and clean itself before being used again.
Sure. Many public buses already have cameras observing the passengers. Security cameras are also common on elevators. If someone soils or damages a car, the car can drive itself somewhere to be cleaned or repaired. The cost will be billed to the credit card of the passenger who caused the damage, with the camera recording kept as evidence in case they dispute the charge.
You figure they will have a camera trained on every passengers crotch? As well, there will probably be minors flashing the cameras so that Lyft is recording kiddie porn.
See - we can all play that game.
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You figure they will have a camera trained on every passengers crotch?
That is unnecessary. The person renting the car is responsible. That is how it already works with rental cars, and with Zipcars [zipcar.com], which are pretty much exactly analogous to this situation. This is already established law.
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You figure they will have a camera trained on every passengers crotch?
That is unnecessary. The person renting the car is responsible. That is how it already works with rental cars, and with Zipcars [zipcar.com], which are pretty much exactly analogous to this situation. This is already established law.
And for the basic person who perhaps hasn't done anything illegal, such aschange a child's diaper and leve the soiled diaper on the seat?
There are examples of what I'm talking about already - unattended public restrooms. A vehicle with a driver can at least clean up. Not that I'm familiar with cab driver's lives, but I do suspect they have to clean up the cab interiors fairly often. And if the cab has to head back to HQ every hour, that's missing fares.
Or is this some sort of slashdottian solution w
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And for the basic person who perhaps hasn't done anything illegal, such as change a child's diaper and leave the soiled diaper on the seat?
They get charged a cleaning fee, and then they are more careful next time.
This is exactly how it works now with short-term car sharing services, such as Zipcar, and GoCar. It is the renter's responsibility to leave the car in an acceptable condition for the next passenger.
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It's also the same situation with automated public rail systems as well. Or subways. Or monorails. Somehow, they're running just fine and not covered in poop.
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It's also the same situation with automated public rail systems as well. Or subways. Or monorails. Somehow, they're running just fine and not covered in poop.
The New York subways? There's a poster here that compares Windows to the smell of piss in them. Always there, and nothing you can do about it.
And last time I was in one, it did have that bouquet.
For rather small values of "just fine" and your enjoyment: Warning - this is a small part of a lot of videos of people urinating on subways.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
This is what some people
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So tell me, what if you are the second or third person after shitty diaper person?
You call the company and tell them about the problem.
Look, there are many companies ALREADY DOING THIS. Zipcar, GoCar, and other companies rent cars by the hour, completely unattended. If you really believe that you have discovered some fundamental flaw in their business model, then feel free to short their stock, and then wait for them to go bankrupt, which according to you should happen any minute. Once you have cashed in your shorts, you can come back here, post a picture of your yacht, and say "I tol
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So tell me, what if you are the second or third person after shitty diaper person?
You call the company and tell them about the problem..
Good to see that you are accepting of shit on the seat. I do not want to get in to a vehicle and find it in the first place. Other people have no issues with it.
Which brings up the question - Does fecal matter?
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It's simple, if the car stinks, you don't get in it, I expect there will be a way to report such things. Smell sensors also a possibility, I'm not an expect on shit detection.
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Do you seriously think that Lyft would deploy cars that don't video-record every second of interior and exterior activity from multiple angles, indexed against the full contact information of each user?
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Do you seriously think that Lyft would deploy cars that don't video-record every second of interior and exterior activity from multiple angles, indexed against the full contact information of each user?
As I wrote in another post, they could inadvertantly record kiddie porn as well. As well, if someone decided to take a piss, they better have cameras trained on all passenger's crotches. They could have a side business of selling the resulting porn to online companies.
Seriously, the fact that so many are focusing on technical issues to the questions is just proving my point that everyone is ignoring the human issues.
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As I wrote in another post, they could inadvertantly record kiddie porn as well.
The same is true for every security camera in the world. Yet there are tens of millions of them, including in many taxis. How is this any different? Hint: it isn't.
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You can already rent a car and shit in it and avoid darkies if you are so inclined. I don't see why you would want to do either, but whatever floats your boat.
Whooshes. Using driverless vehicles as latrines is not something that many people at all are going to do. But unless humanity has underwent some massive change, yeah, there are someweirdos out there that will. Some people are just like that. Maybe angry at the world, who knows. Even without purposeful vandalism events, there are people who have pets or children who aren't that good about cleaning up after themselves. Hell, there are people who change their children's diapers on top of restaurant tables. A
Car sharing (Score:2)
There's already precedent with car sharing (car that you can quickly pick up for a short ride, while never interracting with any human being) :
- The company needs anyway to have the full billing information of their client (of course, you need to *bill* them for the ride).
- When the next customer enters the car, they'll notice the stupid things done by the predecessor, and they'll call customer service to complain.
- Customer service assigns the shit-discoverer to another (hopefully clean) car
- The soiled ca
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All of your self driving perfection is ignoring the fact that ATM's get held up - and they have cameras, public restrooms have issues. Somehow some way this taxicab that won't have money is somehow immune.
It's like a no shit moment when I point out an issue, and yes
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Again, Car sharing (Score:2)
Are you also saying tht unattended places are immune from people bustung or messing them up? Is this going to be different from other unattended places?
All of your self driving perfection is ignoring the fact that ATM's get held up - and they have cameras, public restrooms have issues. Somehow some way this taxicab that won't have money is somehow immune.
On the other hand, fully unattended car-sharing [wikipedia.org] DOES [mobility.ch] ALREADY [flinkster.de] EXIST [autolib.eu] OUT-THERE [tellis.ch] (and that's just the few with which I have personnal experience), and none of them have reported the chronical "people-taking-a-dump-in-cars" problems that you are afraid of, despite being as unattended as ATMs or public toilets.
I'm not throwing imaginary technical solutions at you. I'm speaking how things are currently happening out there on the street.
Yes it is going to be different from unattended places and - in the case of
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Why would a computer care?
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Why would a computer care?
Assuming that the question is about neighborhoods to avoid, of course the computer wouldn't care. But the people who take the cab's might. I know a woman who lives in a gated neighborhood, has a saferoom and an ADT system and she's still fearful of people. Especially you know.... those people. Throw in a touch of racism, and now you have a group of people who won't use the services because they don't want to be in a driverless vehicle in a part of town they are afraid of.
And now you have a problem. Look
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The less deliveries you have in an area, the less financially viable it is for the deliverer to deliver to that area. I don't like Amazon, I've even boycotted them, but I can see why they might be delivering to areas that order more.
Re: Curious (Score:2)
the structural integrity of the vehicles interiors
If you're concerned about the tensile strength of the carpet fibers, you'll be reassured to know that it actually increases as the dirt and grime accumulate...
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the structural integrity of the vehicles interiors
If you're concerned about the tensile strength of the carpet fibers, you'll be reassured to know that it actually increases as the dirt and grime accumulate...
I suspect that after a while, the interiors of these vehicles will be a little like the interiors of some modern police cars in the back seat. barriers to anything but the rear seating area, and all of that area being constructed of extruded polyethylene so that they can just remove and hose it out at the end of the day.
human drivers should leave. now. (Score:2)
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Seriously, they should leave NOW.
Ummm... why?
I don't think most people drive for lyft/uber as a long term option, and there's little career development.
So, if it works for you now, why not continue doing it until there's something better for you.
And it seems highly doubtful there will be mass replacement of drivers in complicated/messy city driving for quite a number of years.
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Because "social justice" dictates that these drivers should certainly be supporting the right of indolent, rude cab drivers to earn excessive profits for cab owners while doing minimal work with no competition.
Of course we should be protecting the buggy whip manufacturers at every opportunity. Didn't you get the memo from the Luddite Committee?
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That does not make sense (Score:2)
A self driving car with a human "supervisor" makes no sense at all.
That would be like being a driving teacher, always anticipating what the car/student is going to do, contemplating if that makes sense and being ready to correct faults of the student and danger coming from other drivers/cars.
That is much more challenging than simply driving the car yourself and have the car have some active safety features like pedestrian and sign recognition and distance warnings etc.
I certainly would not use such a taxi .
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As under the law with self driveing cars you need to have extra training and other stuff
I use Tesla Autopilot almost everyday. I have had no extra training. What law am I breaking?
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"Finger's gonna kill me."
Austin ballot (Score:2)
Will be interesting to see what if any effect the recent failure of uber/lyft to buy regulations in austin will be.
well then this won't matter (Score:2)