Self-driving shuttles are coming to the University of Michigan
This is pretty darn cool...
While I think the wide-spread use of autonomous vehicles is still long, long ways away, this is a very positive step towards it and I am very happy to see UM is in the middle of it all.
https://www.engadget.com/2017/06/21/self-driving-shuttles-university-of…
Cool! Now when a student inevitably gets hit for wandering into the street with a, "but I'm a UM student and we have the right of way at all times and are immune to thousands of pounds of fast-moving metal" attitude, there will be far less driver guilt! Unless these self-driving cars have human emotions and are self-aware, in which case it will soon rule the world...
have to dodge 3-4 medical students a week on the medical campus. They have zero regard for traffic laws or themselves.
I always want to stop my car, get out and scream, "having the "pedestrian right-of-way" will not save you when my large SUV plows your stupid ass over."
I have no doubt there are two sides to this, and lots of a-hole drivers on campus. But man, I creep through campus when the students are in town (I worked on Central Campus for 8 or 9 years, FYI), and it's still really hard. You get to that corner at East U and State, and even if you're going 4 mph and have your head on a swivel, you're still going to encounter a student leaping out between two parked cars. You slam on the brakes, and they stare at YOU like you're going 75 while texting. It's annoying as shit...
Don't disagree, but logic & prudence would suggest that the person not enveloped in 2,000 lbs of metal should be the person more alert, simply becasue if they screw up it could be their life or limb. Legal liability is always that the pedestrian has the right of way, but as a practical matter, I'm not sure most folks should be willing to risk their life or limb just because they'd win a legal battle. "Right" is not the same thing as "Happy."
But it seems like the attitude of a lot of the students around the central campus is:
to a few mouthy jaywalking students around town.
The nicer the car, the easier it will be to collect after the lawsuit.
What makes you think that having human emotions and being self-aware are keys to ruling the world?
the current available parties and their asinine selections of candidates......
I am probably going to be writing in "UM autonomous bus" for President for the rest of my life.
Because you touch yourself when no one is looking. That's why.
I'll own touching myself when no one is looking. But I also touch myself when people are looking. I go full Divinyls.
So I'm not buying that explanation.
Relevant story (bro?):
Back in my undergrad days (early 2000's), I was walking back from a UM home game that just finished a few minutes earlier. I was on the sidewalk along Hoover street, which was mostly full of other people also leaving the game. There were a few cars queued up in the street, all of them basically crawling along the way as best they could. I heard somewhere behind me one of the cars start honking a bit, clearly in frustration. I didn't pay it much attention and kept going (being on the sidewalk). Less than a minute later I hear a noise and look to my left, just in time to catch this car plowing into the back of a group of about 3-4 people. They were right in the middle of the street and the car was only going 10-20 mph, but still they all basically bounced off the car in various directions. The car slowed to a crawl (I assume the driver and at least one passenger inside, from what I saw, looked to see if the people were ok) and then proceeded to continue on to the intersection of State street and leave. I and about 10 other people were able to catch the plate ID (easy since it was an out-of-state plate and a very unusual custom plate ID). Ambulance showed up very quickly and police several minutes later, and we all stuck around to give statements. The group of people were a few guys and a girl (all students from what I could tell). The guys looked like they were ok, but the girl had some significant injuries to her leg and/or ankle - taken away in ambulance. Time passes and I get a call from AAPD asking if I would testify in court (conveniently sceduled during my final exams the next semester). More time passes and on the day before trial I get another call saying the defendent made a plea bargain: I don't need to testify and can take my exams on time. Story over, right? Years later I read/hear about a prominent name of someone connected to the program that rings a bell - it takes me a minute, but I recall exactly where I saw that name: the same defendent from the trial. And to this day, this person is still there in a very public role. Not to say that justice wasn't served (I'm sure the victims got a nice payout), but this should have been felony level hit-and-run.
Long story short (too late), everyone needs to just follow the rules - safer for all.
I've always been fasinated with the legal implications of autonomous vehicles.
Do we know what happens if this thing runs over a kid, breaks his leg - who is at fault? Can the kid sue the U, software company, etc?
And, living not far from Morth Campus, I am not sure the autonomous buses could be any worse than those manned by human drivers.
What if an autonomous car cuts you off? How do you flip it off? I assume you'd have to do so in binary. "HEY ASSHOLE, 01100110 01110101 01100011 01101011 00100000 01101111 01100110 01100110."
And not the medical or central campuses.
If medical or liberal arts students want one, they can build it themselves! :)
that North Campus students typically end up working for their Central Campus counterparts.
They'll be told to do it.
I'm going to ride this as soon as it's available. Looks like not until fall though.
It''d be nice to have these things going 24/7 so when us poor engineers are leaving the Dude at 4 am, you don't have to wait around forever for that taxi service (assuming that's still a thing)
Though I don't think it said how exactly these things run. With all the hacking stuff going on globally, I'm leery of how susceptible self-driving vehicles are to getting 'hacked'
Media Union. i will never call it "the Dude" - that name is reserved for Lebowski.
The technology may not be impressive, but the implementation is still cool and it's a great opportunity to study using autonomous vehicles for public transportation on public roads.
Don't put your life in the hands of a robot!!!
Well, you know how it is in research engineering....teething issues, that kind of thing. Either an adjustment to the sensors or a much larger human being has to stand there before we test it again. It's definitely one of those two things.
Has the world reached the point of diminishing returns with regard to technological advancement? Is a self-driving shuttle a "good thing" and/or a development to be applauded? Is innovation mere for innovation's sake really innovative at all, or merely gratuitous?
I don't know anymore.
I have a ten year old right now, and his future..... frankly his future looks pretty bleak. He was not born into wealth and is from a historically working class-middle class family going back generations. I am not quite sure what to tell him. Invent some shit, fast. Become a doctor. That is about it. I can't see him on my life or my father's life. I don't think that life will exist 20 years from now.
It seems like that is the fundamental question at issue in the political divide in the country. How to cope with how quickly society is changing and what that means for future generations. You have the "turn back the clockers" v. "redistribution of wealthers." Except for the fact that you cannot turn back the clock and that redistribution of wealth has historically only resulted in more intense and widespread poverty than the inequality it purports to address.
So, usually I just shrug..... and start drinking early.
was speaking yesterday about 4 hour workdays and/or the potential of WWIII being the outcome of automation.
The government will have to get involved to re-balance.
why all of the political discord is so frustrating right now. There is an obvious and inevitable problem on the horizon, coming fast, and instead of trying to look at it as a problem that people need to work together to solve, most people are simply calling each other names because the problem does not have an easy solution and is a real genuine threat to everybody. That is scary, and it is kind of understandable why people are beginning to freak out a little bit.
Making sure the children of coal miners are educated in automotive cybersecurity is.
Too political?
hurtling down the road whilst eating a Big Mac is some sort of advanced driving system.
Or that guy who just drank eight beers and hits the road.
should not have anything to do with directing a car (but it does).
Respectfully, you're wrong. The new NVDA chipsets are incredibly powerful and don't drink.
The efficiencies to be wrought from automation and, in particular, AV, are immense. Ten years from now you'll be able to hail an AV from an Uber-like app and it will be at your door in a few minutes. Transportation as a Service.