Prius flipped four times . . .

Now that the Prius has so many sensors and radar and voice recognition GPS navigation system, parking and lane assists, I wonder how far out is the notion of the Prius incorporating all those technologies together and able to drive one home completely on autopilot without any "driver" intervention except for the initial "Go Home" command?

 

Howard Hefner had a real bad day with a Highway Median.
That's all I see here.

Now if it was Hugh Hefner, and a few Bunnies, I'd want pictures. But as it is. I conclude safety features generally are designed to make vehicles safer, and in general most people do not try to hit either blind pedestarians or highway medians, and one event happening, and the other not....means little to me.

 

Thank you. It is nice to be reminded that we drive one of the safest vehicles on the road!

 

The only people that need radar sensors on the side of their cars are the people that shouldn't be driving. Seriously, think about it. .... .....

I've been driving for a long time, and whenever I make a lane change, I look in my mirror and over my shoulder. As a result of using my eyeballs (which by the way, are HIGHLY evolved / advanced features that have allowed humans to survive for millions of years in the wild), I have NEVER run into anyone (and I have dodged hundreds(thousands?) of drivers that have come into my lane without bothering to look over their shoulder to see if there was another car next to them.

Radar sensors only benefit the people that shouldn't be on the road in the first place.
I have a feeling people are going to stop looking in their mirrors now and just depend on these sensors when making a lane change. Now, they will be able to talknon the cell phone, hold their Starbucks, and not even worry about looking in their mirrors or over their shoulders. True statistic: more people get killed in crosswalks than jaywalking in America. The reason? They don't look both ways - they just walk out. The same will happen with cars - just watch. And, it will probably be the same people. This is a disaster waiting to happen.

 

+1

Unless we have all cars fully automated, or special lanes reserved for automated vehicles, we'll still need to use our own senses to drive. Rolling out one more feature at a time really doesn't solve the problem. I would have a hard time believing lane assist would 100% reliable, and would only lead to more complacency in the driver.

The only way to get 100% reliability (really, 99.999999% should be enough to stave off enough lawsuits for any company involved to stay solvent) is to build something into the road that the vehicles can sense, and they know that all the vehicles around them will also sense, along with accurate collision prediction for any large animals and pedestrians in the vicinity of the road. For any system less than that, you need an alert driver.

 

Only if you ignore their potential victims. It is clearly safer to be near a multitasker with Lane Assist than a multitasker without it.

 

As the UA fiascos have shown, people fail. If there were a perfect method of keeping less than perfect drivers off the road then I'd agree - we wouldn't need any safety automation. But in reality if we can build a system that helps us avoid stupid and potentially costly mistakes - great! I didn't think the reverse camera on this little car would be all that necessary, but now I use it all the time.

- D