Have you never ridden a train or flown on an airplane?

Every once and a while, people have seizures.

Every once in a while, people get too drunk too drive.

The question is which option is safer and mitigates risk. Human drivers don't have a great record in that department.

There is really no reasonable argument to be made that roadways full of humans are more safe than roadways full of driverless vehicles. Driving has become way way safer in recent years as traffic casualties have dropped from Way too high to still to high but better. The reason for the drop is, you guessed it, technology. My minivan beeps at me when a car in front of me gets to close or when I drift out of my lane. My Dad's car keeps a safe following distance automatically. Technology is mitigating human stupidity on the roadways and this is the next step.

When my internet goes down, it is always the modem losing connection to the internet at-large (ISP issue like DelBobcat mentioned) rather than the device I'm using disconnecting from the router in my house that provides wi-fi coverage. Likewise, I have wearable devices (fitbit, smartwatch) that connect to my phone via bluetooth and these devices are incredibly reliable in staying connected.

That's a very important distinction to make.

I think a lot of people envision every driverless car connecting to some server on the other side of the country via a satellite or cell-phone tower like you connect to the internet now. There will be tracking on that level (and data privacy there is certainly an issue that makes this libertarian cringe) but for the safety of driverless vehicles the more important "communication" is going to be your car's "short-range" chatter with the cars on the road next to you. That communication isn't going to go through a 3rd party, that'll be the computer in your car recognizing the car next to you and talking to it directly. That is very reliable.

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I have no doubt there is going to be a large number of people who are against driverless vehicles and fight them every step of the way. I don't care to debate the merits of driverless cars with each skeptic. If you don't think this is happening though, you're wrong. They're coming.

So when multiple cars hit patches of black ice on a freeway at 60 or more mph they'll all instantaneously know what to do? Your premise above is that of normal driving conditions. My concerns, are black ice type events, where the best and most optimized technology can't solve the problem at hand. And I'm basing my opinions of having worked for the largest automaker, being involved in AI for almost a decade and having driven on black ice as part of R&D.

Yeah....that's why my Kawasaki Councours 14 still calls my name everyday.

http://motorcycle.com.vsassets.com/blog/wp-content/upload...

Munches miles in great comfort and does so very efficiently. Getting behind those Harleys (affectionately known in the Hocking Hills as "Rolling Milwaukee Roadblocks") is never very much fun.

As far as the mindless back roads. ...my Concours prefers State and National Highways and scenery to mind numbing Interstates every day, every mile...and really appreciates human input and sensory feedback. They can have the self riding Harleys....I'll passionately enjoy my big Connie.

Nice bike! You'll need to bring that thing to US 129 "The Dragon" in my neck of the woods. Actually other areas around here are also great rides, Cherohala Skyway among them.

I am always surprised how this conversation seems to always trend towards driverless vehicles being forced on the masses(e.g. you'll never take my steering wheel away!!). No one is saying they want to! If you want a driverless car you will be able to buy one or summon one whenever you want. I don't think anyone is saying driverless cars are going to replace every car on the road, that's simply not feasible. You can have your street rod or your motorcycle, you'll actually be safer driving those too. We all win here.

The what-if scenarios can be bounced around all day, and I'm confident those with skin in the game are considering all of the ones we can think of and many more. My car has weather dependent features already, why couldn't the car remove auto-pilot as an option under certain weather conditions? Rain sensing wipers, temperature dependent auto on/off at stops, 4-wheel drive mode, etc. are already features on my car from 2014 and those aren't really anything that new. In 10 more years who knows what is possible, but I'm excited to find out.

I'm not buying that a human automatically reacts better in a black ice scenario than a computer. You essentially have no control in that scenario so how does that even matter? There are things that are going to continue to cause crashes in automobiles no matter what you do, weather included. The idea is to produce a positive effect in the overall rate of accident occurrence as well as overall safety. Again no one is saying it will be perfect or there will never be a driverless vehicle crash. Even improving from full speed collision to a fender bender would be a huge life saver.

Ha been on the dragon, cherhola, back of the dragon, brp, and many of your roads. A lot of the guys down there see the OHIO sticker on the bike and start asking about Ohio 555 and Hocking hills motorcycle roads.


EDIT For locals Athens Co Tourism touts the motorcycle crowd. After living in Chicago I could not understand "weeehhndy" till I figured out "wiiiiindy" with a long I.... http://athensohio.com/category/ohios-windy-9 /

I wonder how self driving cars figure into the roads in Athens county and around where the "unwashed masses of the flyover states" and highly enlightened locals in Athens still navigate at speeds slighty faster than the tourists.

Don't know what made driverless vehicle stories so hot,but there's another article in the business section of today's The Record (www.northjersey.com ) about them.

The article talks about Honda's timeline (2025) for introducing a self driving vehicle.

There is a very wide variety of sensors out there. Some are based on "sight" but there are a lot of different types used in these cars. One of the most interesting IMO (and something applicable to cars with human drivers) is radar that can detect living objects over hills, behind trees, around the bend etc... Some of my scariest moments driving have come from deer jumping in front of my car on some hilly back-road. I can't wait for my car to brake for me. I read an article recently that one company had sensors capable of detecting most animals but was having issues detecting Kangaroos because of their jumping motion. The technology isn't perfect (yet) but that is night and day ahead of where we were just a few years ago.

I also think it is interesting a lot of infrastructure improvements are not entirely necessary but will go a long way towards making this run smoother. For example most traffic lights will be connected to the web as well allowing them to exchange info with vehicles. Lots of possibilities to save people a lot of time with "smart" traffic lights. The technology advancements in driving will drastically change road infrastructure whether any one individual personally has a driverless car or not. I think Athens and Ohio University should be keeping these types of things in mind before spending significantly on parking or vehicle infrastructure that may very soon be obsolete.

I think the same sensor technology will dramatically reduce motorcycle and bicycle deaths and accidents. Having a car that senses the location of a motorcycle or bike — and adjusts on its own instead of relying on the human eye to pick one out and the hand-eye coordination to be quick enough to avoid a collision — will be a giant leap forward.