Why you have (probably) already bought your last car

Taffy7hfa

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Surely ride hailing driverless cars are just an alternative form of public transport for the same group of people that use it now, brilliant ! but as with anything that has no obvious owner, irresponsible users would likely ruin it for others. Who will clean the up the vomit (or worse) left over from the night before ? oh, I forgot.. the cleaning droid.
For the majority of motorists cars bring a level of personal freedom that will not be given up for a travel app.
 

ajlsl600

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It allows for the concept of on demand vehicles. Extending the concept of leasing into driverless cars allows the idea of pools of driverless vehicles available on demand to subscribers. The amount paid could reflect the class of vehicle or you could subscribe to multiple classes of vehicle as your requirements dictate. This could mean that on the weekend you have access to an estate car for tip runs. Week days a small commuter car and for long distance a large S Class style vehicle. These could be charged by the mile/hour/day as required. As the vehicle is driverless you just call up the required vehicle using an app on your phone.
Far fetched? Well cost of ownership should be dramatically reduced as you would no longer have a vehicle sitting doing nothing 90% of the time - you only pay what you use. The car becomes a utility charge. Think it won't happen? For those in IT look at AWS and the whole infrastructure as a service model where you can add or remove IT capacity at the click of a mouse (for those not in IT trust me - it's happening and this year I was made redundant as the company I worked for moved everything to AWS and no longer had need of IT staff). The move to AWS style cloud based systems has happened extremely quickly - in just 5 years there is an estimated 80% of businesses now operating at least part of their IT in the cloud from virtually none 5 years ago.
Are car manufacturers looking at this? Too tight they are. JLR (I have a contact there) is looking at exactly this idea that no-one will own a car and that driverless cars are the enabler for this. They are pouring development into the technology and anyone spending time in the Midlands will sooner or later encounter one of their test vehicles (they've been conducting live trials on UK roads since November and have made huge progress). I would expect them to have full retail driverless tech available inside 10 years if not less.

The automotive world is about to change dramatically.


lk when the driverless car runs someone over ..WHO is going to be liable ? and i am CERTAIN of one thing .. IT WONT be cheaper, at least not for mr average . it will be like diesel cars ,pushed as a good thing and cheaper,aS SOON AS WE ARE ALL HOOKED THAT WILL BE THE END OF THAT.... you know i am a cynic... bet you my SL..
 

00slk

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I saw the future of cars all being slid along on slot car type tracks on the roads, all electrically operated to go anywhere you want. Similar to the way cars are built in the factories which go along conveyors, every track designed to go anywhere you want. That's what it is in the future, I know I have been there and seen it all, you mark my words in 50 years time there will not be one car that we know, love and drive today anywhere except in an old automotive history museum. And this museum is, oh I can't remember where it is now, but it is definitely not easily accessible and is totally sealed off and under cover as not to have any unfortunate incidents like exhaust gases leaking into the super clean atmosphere!! Every year the museum opens for what they call a 'blast from the past' which involves a good few of the exhibits being started up to give people a feel of what it was like to live with V8 rumbles and intoxicating exhaust fumes from the years 1886 to 2039! I've been to this museum and it is all rubbish, they tried to make out that it was 1,2,3,4,5,6,8,10,12 and 16 cylinder petrol and diesel engines used in most motor cars and trucks were the cause of our ruined world and global warming, and then they gone on to say that the Greenies saved the world! Oh by the way The Greenis rule the world now. Dear oh dear. There are even more problems if you go even further into the future, carbon poisoning, fume pollution, electrical deaths and many other's like pedestrians being hit by flying pilot-less moving people pods. Actually pedestrians aren't allowed outside there designated dome conveyorways in the cities. It's really an eye opener seeing the future, it's no more safer than it is now, so chaps, get out now and enjoy burning gas, smoking those tyres, do your bit for the environment, help global warming, I am and really enjoy the warm top down driving..............Ohhh, I smell coffee..........My bed is so comfy...............
 

M80

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I've not read all the responses so maybe this has been considered.

Where will the tax revenues come from to fund our abusing Gov't's if we're not buying fuel?
The cost saving incentive soon disappears if everything else has to be taxed at a much higher rate to compensate.
 

LostKiwi

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I also know the inherent difficulties that driverless cars have. Roads are identified via solid white lines and/ or kerbs. THe whole system falls apart where the white lines are dirty and there are no kerbs
You do know Land Rover are currently developing an autonomous off road capability and have announced their intention to release it to the press? I'd say that demonstrates a fair level of confidence that not only can they overcome the issue with recognising diryy or missing white lines but go several orders of magnitude further to recognise terrain such as grass, water, ice, snow, mud, sand and rock.
 

bembo449

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landrover are currently suspending production for 14 days due to a 40 odd percent sales drop in China
 

Blobcat

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landrover are currently suspending production for 14 days due to a 40 odd percent sales drop in China
It will give them time to correct all the undocumented features in all the one's they sold...:rolleyes:
 

ajlsl600

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You do know Land Rover are currently developing an autonomous off road capability and have announced their intention to release it to the press? I'd say that demonstrates a fair level of confidence that not only can they overcome the issue with recognising diryy or missing white lines but go several orders of magnitude further to recognise terrain such as grass, water, ice, snow, mud, sand and rock.


lr !! the 4x4 put into production after farmer johns MF rolled into a shed and he thought leaving the shed on top might keep the water out.! lk. i had to look at calendar to see if it was april 1. no chance of that working in the next lifetime..
 

Craiglxviii

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You do know Land Rover are currently developing an autonomous off road capability and have announced their intention to release it to the press? I'd say that demonstrates a fair level of confidence that not only can they overcome the issue with recognising diryy or missing white lines but go several orders of magnitude further to recognise terrain such as grass, water, ice, snow, mud, sand and rock.

Right. Yes, I'm aware of it although I don't know the technical details, but I'll ask, I have a few ex colleagues involved in the project.

My basic understanding of the difficulties goes something along the lines of this.

If there's a clearly defined road- fine. Technology can cope.
If there's no road- harder, but technology can scan the ground well enough to predict a path. Critical point- speed is slow.
If there's a poorly defined road- double plus ungood. Technology that can scan the ground at off road speeds really struggles.

The issue is that when offroading, the difference of 6"-1' or so here or there doesn't usually make a huge difference particularly when the difference between grass, mud, snow, ice, sand and rock is quite evident when one looks at radar returns (actually, many sands are invisible to radar and that's a serious issue, ask the RAF Tornado crews who flew on GRANBY). The problem occurs when one steps the speed up and the difference in sensor pictures down... clear kerb to broken kerb to jagged verge, at 60mph, with 6" between proceeding at speed and gashed open sidewalls.
 

davemercedes

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However good the AI gets I have to admit that I'm not really looking forward to driving on the road where driver-less vehicles are allowed to run. No doubt that will also nudge another big hike in our "normal car" insurance policies - not because of increased risk but just because they can!
 

LostKiwi

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The issue is that when offroading, the difference of 6"-1' or so here or there doesn't usually make a huge difference
It can actually make a huge difference - even to the extent of whether the vehicle remains on its wheels or rolls over and plays dead.

As anyone who has been rock crawling will know vehicle placement on severe ground is critical. A rock in the wrong place can as easily slice a sidewall as be missed and in this case there are a lot of rock edges to look for and randomly placed, not just conveniently by the edges of the road. Similarly rutted mud lanes a few inches will make the difference between progress or getting stuck. A pothole on an inclined surface can be enough to take the centre of gravity outside the vehicles track resulting in it rolling over.
I'm sure the AI will require intervention long before the last scenario but ruts and rocky trails are a real hazard that can require precision placement.
 

Taffy7hfa

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If AI is now so advanced and sophisticated, why are airline pilots still required to taxi, take off and land a plane ?
auto pilot has been around since the 1950s but still appears to have limited use. if Airlines (and presumably their insurance underwriters ) don't trust AI to taxi a plane why should it be trusted to drive a car ?
 

LostKiwi

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McDonald

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When my elderly father gave up driving, he'd been doing it badly for some years. He was 92 when his confidence gave out. He lived a mile away from the nearest shop - without a car it was unreachable. I'm sure that necessity put him in the drivers seat for the last 10 years of his 75 year driving career.

Driverless cars may be a boon when we get old.
 
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When my elderly father gave up driving, he'd been doing it badly for some years. He was 92 when his confidence gave out. He lived a mile away from the nearest shop - without a car it was unreachable. I'm sure that necessity put him in the drivers seat for the last 10 years of his 75 year driving career.

Driverless cars may be a boon when we get old.
Agree on that last point. I hope to have another 20 years of safe driving but I know I won’t have to worry about what happens after that (if I live that long!)
 

Yugguy

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Although humans can make mistakes they also have the ability to recognise and correct them. Computers are literal and will act on incorrect input, happily driving you into that oncoming car because its sensors report nothing there.
 

davemercedes

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I get frustrated (like most of us) at the ever-increasing cost of motor insurance, road tax and fuel. But now with each year going by I'm paying more for decreasing mileage so taking up McDonald's posting, I do wonder if an on-demand driver-less vehicle service would not only provide ongoing independence but it might turn out to be fractionally cheaper for low mileage users. There would also be one or two fringe benefits - currently, if I take SWMBO to our local pub to eat I have to limit myself to 1 or 1.5 pints - but if I was being driven I could really let my hair down and drink two! Of course, that's ignoring the worry that by the time we do have this form of transport taxes to replace the huge fuel tax income will be replaced by other rampant increases and the cost of a beer or glass of wine in a pub will probably go up to a tenner!

btw: Presumably, automated cars won't break the speed limit so there'll also be a lot of additional taxes required to make up the loss of government revenue c.£78M in 2016 so it must be over £100M now. Then eventually there will be the cost of removal of the redundant equipment... And there's only one bill payer - us!
 


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