Would You Buy a Self Driving Car?

I agree with others about 10 years from now, but I'm thinking in 10 years, or so, my kids will be driving me around. I'll leave the decision up to them.

DISCLAIMER: Google has been ditching their ugly, silly little gumball machine self driving cars.



I don't know for sure if they're getting rid of all of them but I do know that they selected the
Chrysler Pacifics minivan for the next phase of testing. They are using technology by Waymo.

(Waymo equipped Chrysler Pacifica autonomous minivan)



We own a fully loaded Chrysler Pacifica minivan, and it's handicap accessible, supplied by Aero Mobility through the VA.
Scuttlebutt on the street is that the VA is very interested in the idea of fully autonomous minivans for some of their disabled vets, as it would allow them to reduce some of the fleet of Secure Transportation vans which require a staff of drivers.



The Pacifica is already about 90% there as regards autonomous driving, thus it is easily adapted to Waymo's technology and hardware, so in a couple of years it might just boil down to a hardware add-on and a software update, provided the Waymo/Pacifica tests prove successful.

For vets like my wife, who is used to driving herself but a little bit nervous about adapting to the new van, this could be a boon. I currently chauffer her around ever since we got rid of her old Dodge Caravan (which she did use to drive) but I know she wants to regain her independence again.

I really love to drive but the Advanced Cruise Control in our van sure takes the stress out of stop and go rush hour traffic.
I suspect a full auto Waymo feature would make commuting in rush hour a real pleasure.

PS: On a side note, I blew the doors off a BMW 325i this morning. Not kidding, that damn van SMOKED that little German sedan. Miss Ruby sure does have some ponies under that hood

Did I mention that I really do enjoy driving?

Mycroft said:

I agree with others about 10 years from now, but I'm thinking in 10 years, or so, my kids will be driving me around. I'll leave the decision up to them.

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Just remember, in high tech, "every year is a decade".
It's surprising how fast progress moves.
The first VCR's cost 3500 bucks...five years later most of them were under 400 bucks, five years after that they were mostly under a hundred bucks.

Checkerboard Strangler said:

Just remember, in high tech, "every year is a decade".
It's surprising how fast progress moves.
The first VCR's cost 3500 bucks...five years later most of them were under 400 bucks, five years after that they were mostly under a hundred bucks.

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And then they were gone...

Well my answer is yes but thats on the assumption that IF they are available to the public then most of the bugs are worked out.
In reality I do not think they will be widely available in that time frame. So when ever they come out, yes i would of course consider it and would probably only use it on long trips.

Mycroft said:

And then they were gone...

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Yeah, they were...the official lifespan of the home VCR was 1973 - 2016 officially but most people generally accept that VHS was dead in the water by about 2008 at the latest.
Hey, 35 years? Not too bad.

If the world had accepted D-VHS, I suspect the format would have been able to stick around till about 2020 or later.
D-VHS was instantly capable of recording and playing digital 1080HD and had the technical capability of working in 4K resolution with some prodding.
But it only ever found use for movie production dailies screening, a very niche market.
Here's my old D-VHS deck...I actually have to use it about once every six months when some actor needs it for footage of some old movie for their demo reels. It also serves as an excellent VHS and S-VHS deck as well.



I also still have a Sony HVR-1500 HDV cassette deck, still tons of professional broadcast HDV material floating around!

Only if everyone else has one.

I drive standard-transmission cars. Never owned an automatic-transmission car. Unless I become physically disabled and thus incapable of driving, I will stick to driving myself and my family in standard-transmission cars. I have more control in them. I don't trust technology, especially new technology and I don't want to pay premium prices for capabilities which I will never likely use. I like to be in control when I drive and I would not trust a self-driving car to negotiate high winds, heavy rains, snow drifts or buttery snow on the roads and black-ice under northern weather conditions. I'll opt out thank you.

Cheers.
Evilroddy.

Evilroddy said:

I drive standard-transmission cars. Never owned an automatic-transmission car. Unless I become physically disabled and thus incapable of driving, I will stick to driving myself and my family in standard-transmission cars. I have more control in them. I don't trust technology, especially new technology and I don't want to pay premium prices for capabilities which I will never likely use. I like to be in control when I drive and I would not trust a self-driving car to negotiate high winds, heavy rains, snowy conditions and black-ice under northern weather conditions. I'll opt out thank you.

Cheers.
Evilroddy.

Click to expand...

I also have a standard transmission for control purposes. I almost died in an automatic once when it decided to change gears while I made an emergency lane change to avoid a collision. I don't mind the option being on a car so my kid can get mom to the hospital in an emergency or something, but I prefer to control the vehicle I'm in. Guess I'll just have to keep 2 cars.

TTB said:

I also have a standard transmission for control purposes. I almost died in an automatic once when it decided to change gears while I made an emergency lane change to avoid a collision. I don't mind the option being on a car so my kid can get mom to the hospital in an emergency or something, but I prefer to control the vehicle I'm in. Guess I'll just have to keep 2 cars.

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TTB:

Yikes! Glad you made it through.

Cheers.
Evilroddy.

Only one person killed, who walked across traffic at night.

Most of the airliners you fly in are self driving too.

110% would buy one, I absolutely hate driving. I am also an early adopter of technology though.

Once they solve the issues, sure.

I could have an hour or more extra a day to do stuff if I wasn't driving.

And plenty of people have longer drives, I think.

I'll wait until the beta-testing is complete and the bugs are worked out. Having said that, I recall reading somewhere there are self-driving 18-wheelers in operation in Europe. I believe Tesla is the manufacturer.

Nope. I would not.

phattonez said:

In the next year or so? No way. In the next 10 years when the technology is solid? Probably. I'm a late adopter of most technology.

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It's hard to argue with this. I understand the circumstances that make a human a crappy driver. I'm not comfortable not knowing what might make my car go HAL 2000 on my ass.

SoulFire77 said:

Sure, half the time they can't install the brakes or the airbags correctly, they fudge emission controls, and they can't EVER build one that can make it through the warranty period without some sort of problem... So, yeah, I'll trust them to build one that can drive itself across a bridge in busy rush hour traffic, no problem!

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I hate to be skeptical, but there's just been too many serious disasters lately with exploding grenade airbags from Honda, to involuntary acceleration that causes the gas pedal to floor it to 100 mph from Toyota. I'm with you; they should learn how to make non-defective cars first before expecting us to believe they can make a self driving car that isn't going to malfunction.

truthatallcost said:

I hate to be skeptical, but there's just been too many serious disasters lately with exploding grenade airbags from Honda, to involuntary acceleration that causes the gas pedal to floor it to 100 mph from Toyota. I'm with you; they should learn how to make non-defective cars first before expecting us to believe they can make a self driving car that isn't going to malfunction.

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Oh, please! You don't "hate to be skeptical!" lol

truthatallcost said:

There have been several high profile crashes involving self driving cars now. Some have resulted in death, while others have injured motorcyclists and pedestrians. Would you buy one of these self driving cars if they went to market in the next year or so?

I personally don't ever see myself owning one. I like to be in control when I drive, and don't trust Google or any other company to do a better job driving than I can do myself. Some people today seem to place all their faith in technology companies, I however don't.

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IMO it doesn't make a whole lot of sense for anyone to own an autonomous car given the current infrastructure. They'll require far too much maintenance, calibration, software updates, etc.. for a layman to take on. They make much more sense as a sort of a 1-2 year disposable vehicle which will of course require a far more aggressive duty cycle to have a favorable ROI. This strongly argues for more of an automated taxi type model where you're paying per trip and the cars run 24/7, never need to park etc... This may change if we're willing to have autonomous only infrastructure, but the required complexity of systems driving in unstructured environments is going to greatly limit deployment.

Perhaps someday.....but not yet.

ecofarm said:

When enough people supply private vehicles, it would become a buy-in deal. Free driverless Ubers with subscription or very cheap. People will only own fun cars and drive them rarely. Everyone will recognize a driver car from miles away, it will be the only antique on the road.

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This will not happen.

I can't leave my purchases in an Uber while I shop at the second store.

You also can't leave any kind of valuable in a taxi or an Uber when you go somewhere.

What you suggest would require American culture to change completely.

Northern Light said:

Nope, I wouldn't set foot in one until many years of refinement of the tech.

There should always be at least one passenger in the vehicle who can do a manual takeover if necessary and drive the car. Computer malfunctions do happen.

I think the only way a self-driving economy would work is if most or all people are doing it. As long as there are autonomous drivers on the road there will always be unpredictable variables that computers can't compensate for.

I also just love driving. Sometimes I just go for a drive for the hell of it.

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Even if this comes to pass, you should always think "hack".

Mason66 said:

This will not happen.

I can't leave my purchases in an Uber while I shop at the second store.

You also can't leave any kind of valuable in a taxi or an Uber when you go somewhere.

What you suggest would require American culture to change completely.

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Population density is all that's required, and that will (no doubt whatsoever) happen. Can't leave stuff in a light rail, but those appear wherever density permits.

Checkerboard Strangler said:

DISCLAIMER: Google has been ditching their ugly, silly little gumball machine self driving cars.

I don't know for sure if they're getting rid of all of them but I do know that they selected the
Chrysler Pacifics minivan for the next phase of testing. They are using technology by Waymo.

(Waymo equipped Chrysler Pacifica autonomous minivan)

We own a fully loaded Chrysler Pacifica minivan, and it's handicap accessible, supplied by Aero Mobility through the VA.
Scuttlebutt on the street is that the VA is very interested in the idea of fully autonomous minivans for some of their disabled vets, as it would allow them to reduce some of the fleet of Secure Transportation vans which require a staff of drivers.

The Pacifica is already about 90% there as regards autonomous driving, thus it is easily adapted to Waymo's technology and hardware, so in a couple of years it might just boil down to a hardware add-on and a software update, provided the Waymo/Pacifica tests prove successful.

For vets like my wife, who is used to driving herself but a little bit nervous about adapting to the new van, this could be a boon. I currently chauffer her around ever since we got rid of her old Dodge Caravan (which she did use to drive) but I know she wants to regain her independence again.

I really love to drive but the Advanced Cruise Control in our van sure takes the stress out of stop and go rush hour traffic.
I suspect a full auto Waymo feature would make commuting in rush hour a real pleasure.

PS: On a side note, I blew the doors off a BMW 325i this morning. Not kidding, that damn van SMOKED that little German sedan. Miss Ruby sure does have some ponies under that hood

Did I mention that I really do enjoy driving?

Click to expand...

Just a question. When the vehicle stops by itself, who is responsible if you get rear ended for a sudden stop?

Evilroddy said:

I drive standard-transmission cars. Never owned an automatic-transmission car. Unless I become physically disabled and thus incapable of driving, I will stick to driving myself and my family in standard-transmission cars. I have more control in them. I don't trust technology, especially new technology and I don't want to pay premium prices for capabilities which I will never likely use. I like to be in control when I drive and I would not trust a self-driving car to negotiate high winds, heavy rains, snow drifts or buttery snow on the roads and black-ice under northern weather conditions. I'll opt out thank you.

Cheers.
Evilroddy.

Click to expand...

Your location brings up an interesting point.

Will a self driving car be able to handle the extreme cold and ice conditions of Canada?

I have seen videos of cars sliding around on ice.

What will a self driving car do in that situation or would it even know it is on ice?