Would you purchase a Self Driving Prius?

I only voted no because I like hypermiling my Prius. However, I guess I would find a self driving car rather convenient option when I get so old and decrepit (e.g. Hugh Heifner) that I can't physically drive a vehicle. I also agree that a self driving car would likely be a safer car only because it eliminates the risk of human error ( the Washington DC Metro area has some of the worst drivers in the country) - I would think car insurance companies would love to get human drivers off the road . .

 

Not if the car has a mind of her own...IMHO... Creator of the technology should take the hit for the bugs...

 

In the olden days was that called a chauffeur?

 

'But officer, I didn't steal the Prius, it kidnapped me.'

 

"And it was speeding....really officer, I didn't do anything!"

 

I wouldn't allow it to buy me, if that's what you mean.

 

I read an article predicting that baby boomers will overwhelm public transportation in the near future. They didn't take in to account the possibility of autonomous vehicles. Once we gain trust in self-driving cars, I think they will catch on. I would be more interested in a smart grid hybrid that could power my house during power outages but maybe the self-driving thing will interest me in twenty or so years.

 

Hmmm. Who da thought....

 

One thing is sure, self driving software can pack cars in close distance, and the effect is save more gas than hypermiling.
And because of the low wind drag, transmission will be optimized to provide most efficient constant small power to the wheel, just enough to keep up with regulated cruise speed.

 

uh....NO!

Between the zero-speed transmission, the Electro-lux "feel-no-evil" steering, and two digit zero to sixty time....it's already close enough to mass transit in the driver participation department.

At least I still get to actually steer my G3...well....kinda.

PURCHASE a self driving car????

No.
Freekin.
Way.

 

Some people here are drivers, and some are techno-geeks. I fall into the latter category. I would buy one just to play with the technology (not to mention the thought of not having to drive to work thrills me to bits) Also I can guarantee you any commercially available self driving car will have a 100% manual mode as well.

PURCHASE a self driving car????

Hell.
Yeah.

 

Self-driving would be a nice "I'm tired, get me home" safety feature. But I have seen LKA tests recently and it failed on brand new road, so I'm not sure how full featured self-driving car would behave.

GBC_Texas_Prius mentioned public transport. I think that it is one of the first businesses to get profits from self-driving cars. It would be very easy to increase density of public transport grid without very high human costs. And that is the first area where I would see those cars.

As RaZa said I would like to "test drive" (??) such car from geek point of view, but I actually like to drive and not in the market for SDC

 

Consumer grade LKA is incredibly dumbed down and intentionally stupid to keep people from taking their hands off the wheel as cars are not ready for this yet. LKA on my car is more like a drunken sailor driving style feature. It's enough to help you nudge your car to stay in the lane so very little input on the wheel is needed by the driver, but it's by no means programmed to keep itself in the lane all on it's own. (it could however, but as I said it very intentionally does not)

 

If Al Gore ever gets wind of this discussion, we'll have a whole new environmental problem. I can imagine the headline, "Packed traffic alters global wind currents."

 

It would bring a whole new meaning to terms like program crash and BSOD.
In ultra dense urban areas, or with very young (or very OLD) drivers then self driving cars would probably be a very good thing.
If I were forced to live in an urban area myself and had more than a 15 minute drive to work then I might even let HAL drive on the interstate from time to time.
I'll still hold off paying for this 'feature' until it is government mandated. Since I'm an old fart I'll probably be taking a dirt nap before this happens. I do plan on giving the kiddos a POA before I pop positive for geezer, and I've instructed them to incapacitate my cars/motorcycles (they will probably be trikes by then) when I get to be a danger to society.
Where I live it's mostly people who are in their teens and twenties that need to be driving 'self-driving' cars...

 

No. Wait HELL NO! If you don't enjoy or want to drive take a bus, taxi, etc.

 

With all of this technology working for us, it seems that we're about to dispense with the requirement for more than a few well-tained humans in the workforce. There won't be a need for self-driving cars when the cyber-linked robots, that replaced humans, accomplish the support requirements of a contracting and an obsolete human population. If your vision becomes the future of mankind, I fear the consequences when the current human workforce is downsized. In the meantime, I elect to rank claims that technology will replace human innovation as 'science fiction.'

 

LKA is a very rudimentary technology, without all the "smarts" of a true self-driving car.


Comparatively, I remember it being reported that the Goolge Self-Driving Prius has had fewer incidents than the Insurance National Average accident rate.

One news report of it rear ending another Prius... though Google stated/claimed it was being driven by a human at that time.... and in another instance a self-driving Prius was rear-ended by another vehicle at a stop-light.


Either way, the future is coming:
In August 2012, the team announced that they have completed over 300,000 autonomous-driving miles accident-free, typically have about a dozen cars on the road at any given time, and are starting to test them with single drivers instead of in pairs. Three U.S. states have passed laws permitting driverless cars as of September 2012: Nevada, Florida and California.


The current problem, is that the self-driving cars have about $80,000 worth of equipment and sensors. And the lifespan of these sensors is not up to par with "automobile-grade" longevity.

We're probably still at least 10 years out for an "affordable" self-driving car, completely dismissing legal, insurance, car design, and manufacturing hurdles.