Pennsylvania is going to start allowing “platoons” of up to three autonomous trucks or buses following a human-driven lead vehicle. The only concern seems to be what to do if human car drivers choose to insert themselves between the platooning vehicles.
Driverless taxis are already operating on public streets in these two places, although for now their range is limited and they still have “safety operators”. Once this catches on, I have a hard time imagining how fixed-route bus services could continue to compete. If I ran a public transportation system I would be trying to get innovative on flexible routes right away.
Fresh Air has an interview with John Markoff, author of Machines of Loving Grace.
Markoff, the author of the new book Machines of Loving Grace, points out that artificial intelligence plays a role in many of our lives — sometimes without our even realizing it. “I have a car that I bought this year … that is able to recognize both pedestrians and bicyclists, and if I don’t stop, it will,” he says. “That’s a very inexpensive add-on that you can get for almost any car on the market now.”
Looking ahead, Markoff predicts further advances in driverless-car technology. He also foresees a generation of computer chips that don’t require batteries; instead, they would run on sunlight or vibration or sweat.
“In the next five years … this [computer chip] technology will fan out all around us and create applications we can’t even think about today,” he says. “They’ll be used for robotic sensors. They’ll be made to make robots more mobile. And they’ll be used to do a million other things we can’t even conceive of, and it will continue to transform our society.”
The Onion has an important article on driverless cars and hit and run:
According to engineers, the driverless car features an advanced Culpability-Evasion System, which rapidly utilizes front, side, and rear-mounted cameras to determine whether the other vehicle involved in the collision sustained any visible scrapes or dents and survey the area for eyewitnesses. Technicians confirmed that the self-driving vehicle’s onboard computer calculates within several microseconds of the crash if its own actions are to blame, and if it finds it is at fault, it then initiates a strategy to floor it and speed onto a major roadway before the police arrive.
Saying the vehicle’s automated hit-and-run ability represented the culmination of years of effort, Toyota sources explained that the car had experienced a number of setbacks in early development, including its repeated failure to desert the scene of even small dings, scratches, and rear-end impacts…
“Now, it has the ability to put some distance between itself and the crash site by driving for 25 straight miles in any direction before it finally pulls over into a fast food place parking spot to gather its composure,” continued Durmont.
I have a couple additional technologies that would add even more value to this system. First, a string that I could tie around my middle finger, which would lift it automatically at any careless pedestrians who stray into my path if my car needs to make an aggressive turn while the “walk” signal is out. And in the occasional situations where that is not 100% effective, a small tank of water to wash the pedestrian blood and brains off my car before they have a chance to corrode my paint job. Studies have shown that the blood of children walking to and from school, in particular, can be quite acidic.
