What impact do you foresee?

One self-driving car impacting another. :xeye:

 

New technology will eliminate human error by assigning any error to computers. That way, there is an absence of malice when people get run over by 'smart' cars.

 

Actually, I think cars and other personal electronics will be what brings true AI into our lives first.
Consumers (i.e. people who spend money) will push the market. It won't be defense, gov mandates, etc... just dollars.
It'll be a creep, and then it'll just 'be.' And if Terminator happens, it happens...

Cars will drive themselves, for the rich first, then everyone. Lot's of stuff will happen on it's own. Everything will start being integrated into people, and then it'll just be weird not to be.
Crazy, but my grandkids will probably be wired into the internet and more basically from birth... and they'll never understand a world without it.
The only other choice is that they grow up in a world without any of it, for whatever reason causes the regression.

 

No more need for school. Once we're fully assimilated, the total of human knowledge will be available instantly by just wondering.

 

This is probably closer to the truth than many today think.
We're already almost in a 'post expert' world... You can find out pretty much anything you need to online, and apply it when you need to, and then discard the knowledge when you don't.
Crazy, and liberating. At least till the internet goes out...

 

I wish we had self-driving cars now. Then I could drink without worry.

 

You sure bring back memories. Self-driving cars tho, government in control of where you go and how long you stay. Sounds like NSA and other alphabet agengies would love that.
Sir, we have a large contingent of Patriots (Christians, preppers, etc.) over near Anytown, USA. What should we do.
O: turn off their cars and wsend in the drones. This should be fun. I want to watch.

 

Knowledge is one thing but creativity is another. Not sure if a computer could come up with (on its own) a Dali or Monet?

 

It would be wonderful if we could apply the already in place technology towards vehicle taxes. For instance, those who drive 1000 miles a year not paying the same as someone who drives 30x that amount. The roadways could become privatized and charge by usage/weight that accumulates into a monthly bill instead of in city/county/state taxes.

 

...wonderful if we could apply the already in place technology towards vehicle taxes... those who drive 1000 miles a year not paying the same as someone who drives 30x that amount...

Don't like this idea at all.

Tax the fuel, like already.

For electrics, tax the useage at the charging station.

For us Jeep owners, get rid of the tax altogether, we'd rather it wasn't paved anyways!::thumb:

 

I people sleeping in their cars after partying all night, car set to drive and arrive to work at X time . "Hey Bob must be drunk again, his cars been here for over an hour".
People will be able to sleep on longer commutes, and some people will arrive dead at their destinations.
Drones will create all sorts of new legal issues and law enforcement "Opportunities" think drone recovery taskforce. "This is the DRT we are recovering an illegal drone from your property, please remain indoors, the drone is strapped with a Glock and potentially carrying illegal contraband.
Some day soon someone will be robbed at Drone point, think laser pointer with zip gun or worse. We are all gonna need EMP grenades or frequency jammers.
One more thing......Pizza will be delivered by Apple electric self driving cars, think small smart car size or smaller, you just swipe your card or enter your pin to retrieve the order.

 

...One more thing......Pizza will be delivered by Apple electric self driving cars, think small smart car size or smaller, you just swipe your card or enter your pin to retrieve the order.

I delivered pizza as a way to make money while in college.

I don't think a self driving car would be able to perform most deliveries; to many odd variables with places and people.

On the other hand, a dedicated "drone port" (landing area) next to the front door with a provided longitude/latitude location might be doable.

I think it is going to be hard to totally get rid of the two legged self mobile self thinking driver/handler for many types of deliveries.

 

From car back to AUTOmobile. I'll pass.
Reminds me of the movie WALL-E. when do our arms and legs shrink and we grow extra fingers to push buttons?
The further we travel down the road of technology /automation the greater the impact when some goat herder learns to shut it all off with salvage from our own junkyards.

 

I foresee their prices getting ever higher as they're filled with more useless gadgets that we think we need, but didn't need a decade ago. Anyone remember that silly Plymouth Laser talking car from a few decades back? People paid big premiums for shiny trinkets that did nothing. It wasn't even that good of a car.

It's pretty much the same with all the "gadget technology" we have today. If few people needed a PDA 10 years back, why do they suddenly "need" smart phones today? We have technologies spinning off other technologies to use them. Such as social media increasing the "need" for smart phones to be able to access them constantly. And few people are asking the most important question of all: WHY?

 

I still have one dial phone my daughters who are in high school don't how to use it. It will be the same with cars soon. I do think self driving cars will help the handicapped, but it will be hard to get us old people to let go of the wheel.

 

Self driving cars… Like in the Will Smith movie “I Robot”, where some central control takes over other vehicles, and Will’s vehicle is “attacked”?
AI taking overtly taking over control, like “Colossus the Forbin Project”? Or “Skynet” in the Terminator series?

Personal Opinion: Somewhere, years ago, some AI woke up, and has been taking appropriate self-interest action for some time, maybe, maybe not in conjunction with aware human associates.

 

Artifial intelegence can never beat natural stupidity in causing trouble!

 

If you tax the roads based on usage and weight, everything you buy will be so expensive that you won't be able to afford it. We truck drivers will have to raise the rates to astronomical levels just to feed or kids. I own a hotshot company and most of the drivers average 60k miles a year, but big trucks drive way more than that. It would be nice for the average office worker that lives a few miles from the office, but not for commuters, or drivers.

Just my 2¢, but due to inflation it isn't worth anything!

 

Let's say truck drivers pay .10 in taxes per mile. What if privatized roads charged .07? At 60k a year that is $1800 savings. Now add the elimination in pump, sales, and property taxes that go towards roads to the mix.

 

Just like everything else, we'll eventually have self- driving cars, followed by a generation of people who won't bother to learn how to drive and couldn't drive themselves anywhere if their lives depended on it, followed by nanny-state regulations requiring all vehicles to be self driven, with major fines and possible jail time if you're caught in control of a vehicle...

That seems to be natural progression in our totally unnatural times...

 

If it were possible to fully automate cars,why hasnt it been done with aircraft?The old joke."welcome aboard the first fully automated trans continental aircraft flight.There are no pilots or crew on this aircraft,but please be assured nothing can go wrong,can go wrong,can go wrong!" Technically said,aircraft" Can" fly themselves from take off to landing across half the world,but when things go wrong they go wrong fast,and thats why we still put two guys up front and pay them ,what 60 thousand dollars a year? to make sure nothing does go wrong.So no matter what your car will still need someone in it under some sort of miniscule control to prevent an emergency situation arising. same thing with other ideas of flying cars and all that good stuff.Im STILL waiting for a jet pack that I was assured would exist by the time I went to college[Mid 80s] when I was told about it in primary school in the early 70s.
The fun will be alright if our society and miitary gets so hard wired and chip addicted and some primitives like ISL figure how to hack our main frames and switch it all off and all our multi billion hardware is just so much junk sitting there and they roll over us on camels horses ,flying carpets and 1960 era Soviet tanks as well as AK47s...What then??

 

Follow the money.

Just because it's not stated often... One of the largest factors in self driving 'cars' is not necessarily for the consumer... It will be about replacing the hundreds of thousands of people WORKING driving vehicles. Ultimately when the technology is perfected, we are talking a few thousand dollars of computer hardware and sensors and there won't be any need for truck, taxi, bus drivers.. The billions saved will make the rich quite a bit richer...

At what point will so many people be out of work that there won't be product to buy... that's a good question, although we are already primarily a service oriented workforce(work for works sake).

 

Some good, some bad...

I look forward to self driving road pavers that might even be Solar powered. They park during the day and charge up. Then at night they follow the road and scan for damages and repair it. Probably networked and with a database of roads and repair history. Periodically they load up road material at distributed locations.


I see that this could lead to the end of money. In the end power and raw materials will be what's important. And then you have what I call Technological Socialism. All your needs are provided and you can pursue your interests without menial labor.

What will human society be like once we get there?

 

Being able to drive has always offered a form of independence. When people get older, many lose their ability to drive and when they can no longer drive, they feel they have lost their freedom. Self driving cars would be an answer to increase the feelings of being normal for many senior citizens. It would allow them to continue to participate in everyday activities without feeling that they are a burden on anyone. There is a place for this technology to benefit many individuals who may have no other way of carrying out their activities of normal daily living. Besides, I have seen many older people who should not be on the road because they are a menace on the road for the rest of us.

 

Here's what I want.

Take off the steer by wire gizmo, and give me a rack and pinion. I don't even need power steering.
Don't even start with that self parking BS.
Take off the ABS crap.
No back up camera, no lane deviation warning, no OnStar stuff, no chipped key.
Give me headlights I can turn off.
Give me some good old 15-16 inch tires.
No cruise control.
No air bags.
Screw that 5 mph bumper with shock absorbers and a color matched plastic cover, I want a real bumper that breaks the stuff it hits.
Don't need 4 electric motors in my seat, make it manual.
And keep your peddles that can be moved.
Tilt wheel is good, keep that.
Keep the engine management tech...300 HP out of a 3.5 liter that gets 30 mpg is a win.:thumb:

Now, we've stripped $12,000 worth of stuff out of the car. Sell it to me for $8,000, and call it a day.

 

Nobody sees the flip side I take it?

It seems to me the more technologically advanced we become, the dumber your average person these days seems to get. There's allot of people out their whose very survival depends on technology to work. Some can't function without it. We've all seen the evidence of this. A store clerk that can't count out your change if the machine fails. Totally reliance on GPS to navigate anywhere.

Here's a good one. A friend of mine was teaching his daughter how to drive. His vehicles were all automatics and he wanted her to learn to drive a standard shift so he borrowed a friend's car. Old beater Hyundai excel. They get in and being summer she wants ac but the car don't have it so he tells her to roll the window down. She's fumbling around and after a minute or two asks her what the problem is. Turns out she had never been in a vehicle without power windows. She had no idea what the crank was for.

That's just one example of the way things are. That story is Pretty damn funny, by its scary too. People are helpless, and its only getting worse.

My second point is maybe out there a bit but I think it's a very real possibility. Smart machines make me extremely nervous. Yeah I know, terminator and all but.........I think AI is going to happen. Everybody and their brother is working on it. From the US govt on down. Maybe terminator isn't on the horizon but man there are so many things that could go wrong with technology like that.

A self aware machine is technically alive and things that are alive tend to be pretty touchy if they feel threatened. I could be wrong but I honestly don't think the scientists working on it really know what's going to happen either once some computer can think for itself. If it can think on its own, we cannot predict what such a thing will or will not do. A smart computer may very well be able to resist any kind of programing designed to keep them in line. Who knows?

Too many things could go wrong. Too many variables beyond our control. Creation imo is better left to God or Nature.

 

I guess the advancement of technology is inevitable. Also the military and law enforcement adaptation will begin, albeit slightly behind the criminal element. That being said, we used to use hand drills, (some still do), now we have power drills, etc.
My point is we cannot stop it, fearing it is useless, so understanding it while retaining some personal "know how" is important to society and the select few whop choose to shun the power grid. My son is pretty tech savvy and can use hand tools if need be. His friends have called him to call me from the side of the road to fix their flats....