Who has to imagine? Remote exploits were successfully demonstrated two years ago that enabled attackers to disable the brakes and transmission or shut off the car (among dozens of less-deadly things like controlling the radio and wipers) from hundreds of miles away.

That hole has been plugged (on vehicles that have the update, which takes 45 minutes to manually apply via a thumbdrive), but the same researchers demonstrated last year that far more invasive control is possible, with the right access. Right now they have to be physically connected to the car to do so, but it's just another cellular/WiFi exploit or poorly secured insurance company dongle away from elevating back to remote control.

 

The security risks to semi-autonomous and fully-autonomous driving vehicles are huge. But engineers and scientists are pretty smart. They will come up with solutions that will work 99% of the time. For the doubters, remember no system is perfect. Even now, several thousand people die on our roads every year from distracted driving and or from making mistakes due to inexperienced driving. The same will hold true for autonomous vehicles (i.e., accidents will happen but fatalities will be far fewer). One can never plan or predict every possible scenario. But these AI systems will learn and improve.

To Och's points about inaccurate GPS, sure there will be situations where GPS signals won't be good, and you won't use the fully autonomous driving mode. Then again, vehicles use other methods to locate in dense urban environments, not just GPS, and cities and automakers are embedding other technologies into our infrastructure to address these concerns.

So, autonomous vehicles may not fully supplant human drivers in 16 years. But it is likely that a significant fraction of vehicles in the first world will be autonomous. Due to this and other developments in ride sharing and public transport, I wouldn't be surprised if most 16 year-olds in the US haven't learned to drive in 2033.

 

Great points. A large percentage of human drivers will get distracted at some point while the autonomous vehicles won't. AI systems are constantly learning and improving at almost a scary rate. Correct on infrastructure roads can have digital way points of sorts that devices/vehicles check in to or ping on a route. Those points can be used to gather other analytics also combine that with smart IP cameras and possibilities seem endless. Internet of Things (IOT) will go far beyond just smart devices like phones or cameras.

 

if you think drivers are distracted now, wait until they're wearing VR headsets.

 

Also you all need to drive into some of the more rural parts of this country. They don't have $$$$$ for new cars, much less self driving cars. Everybody is driving some piece of junk that's at least 10, if not 15 or 20 years old. 16 year olds in that part of the country need to learn how to drive because there is no uber, no trains, cars are the only way to get around. Even if they don't get a car of their own right when they get their license at 16, they'll have one by the time they're 18 or 19, and it will most likely be OLD because that's all they can afford.

Also I don't think car makers like Ford(or even a progressive company like Tesla) are going to build entirely autonomous vehicles because they would be the ones left holding the liability bag when it crashes, not the driver like it is today. The potential liability to the car maker would be so high it could potentially bankrupt them.

 

Exactly. And try other countries, where people are lucky to be able to afford a beat up scooter, much less a car.

This whole self driving car lunacy only works in a perfect world, where the car is brand new with zero mechanical wear and all electronics and computers are in perfect working order, somewhere in a sunny part of California on a road specifically built for self driving cars to take 45 year old lumbersexual hipsters to pick up beard oil from a dedicated Whole Foods store while sipping on their glutten free kale latte paid for by mommy and daddy. In the real world - not so much.

 

You seem upset lol. It will obviously start in CA and make it's way to other states as long as the states approve the use of these vehicles it's not going to be instant country wide or global for that matter. Some countries may never have them at all. There is no perfect world, why such hate and resistance to inevitable technology?

 

Yeah, I could see certain roads (freeways in particular) that were populated by autonomous cars. But too many variables on regular city streets PLUS the litigation possibilities.

Reminds me of the zoomy illustrations of flying cars from the 50's. It demonstrates that just because someone can think up something doesn't make it practical. Remember the flying car concept by a guy named Moeller (I think that's how it was spelled). What a crock, yet the guy got lots of coverage.

 

First of all, my apologies for coming off a little more condescending and snarky than I intended to there... It's a problem I have on forums. Especially after a happy hour and a rough day, heh.

I agree that people have an increasing dependence on technology, and some have cell phone/technology addictions, too. The latter I hope we can do something about, but the former is already an irreversible trend, and one that I'm mostly OK with. Yeah, if the earth is ever hit with giant EMP, we're all pretty much screwed, save for the small percentage of people living off the grid, but as technology continues to improve, it's only natural to become increasingly dependent on it, and for the most part, I think it does better our lives and free up more time for us to enjoy ourselves or pursue productive interests.

 

my son is 1 and my daughter is 7. I showed my daughter how to change oil on a car the other day and I do intend to teach them both how to drive a car, how to drive one with manual gearbox as well as proper driving etiquette

 

What are you going to teach them on...........a Mazda Miata? It's getting harder and harder to find traditional 3-pedal manuals today....even a lot of Miatas are sold with automatics LOL.

 

I was told 2JZ's last forever! You are right; they are getting scarce. However, I'm confident there will be manuals around. supras, soarers, sc300s, s13's, s14's, z32's, z33's, civics, miatas, s2ks, sti's, brz's, toyota minitrucks and tacomas all have a cult following. These cars are built, crashed, parted out, and rebuilt again. I'm sure I'll have no problem finding a suitable candidate

 

There's always motorcycles.

 

yep. my dad and sister ride (honda shadow and grom)

 

GROM!!!