Topic: Auto Tech: Autonomous Cars Will Change Everything

[aquadorhj]

There are other companies busy developing software and systems that will enable vehicles to operate autonomously. QNX, a Canadian company and subsidiary of Blackberry is heavily involved as are Delphi Automotive, Cisco Systems, Continental (they do much more than make tires), Mobileye, NVIDIA (the 3D games people, among other things… makes sense), ...

Actually, not really a stretch to hear Nvidia is involved.  They are after all a semiconductor and chip manufacturer.  Making graphics cards, their specialty is in extreme parallelism: graphics chips are capable of performing thousands if not millions of calculations at the same time, significantly more than conventional processors. I would imagine that any computer that is running an algorithm to drive an autonomous car must be capable of making thousands of complex decisions a second, hence the involvement of a graphics chip manufacturer.

that's little bit misleading, i think.

CPUs perform billions of operations a second and many of it becomes complex, where graphic chips have many parallel pipeline does very simple operations a LOT at a time.

if anything, many complex decisions would be better suited to conventional CPUs.
graphics chips could be useful in mapping the visuals into 3D models perhaps, then use that info to make decisions

[mmret]

Actually image processing and signal processing is often massively parallel and GPUs excel at that.

Some AI related stuff as well but I'm no expert on that front.

[Snowman]

This is all going to end badly. The best place to be in 10-15 years is up north off the grid.

[aquadorhj]

This is all going to end badly. The best place to be in 10-15 years is up north off the grid.

Global warming will have to be super accelerated, if people want to live up north permanently, though...

you should start driving TTRS more often.

[stargazer68]

Will states and provinces enact legislation requiring autonomous cars to be preceded by a man (on foot) with a lantern, warning the public of a driverless car on the road.
Seriously, I can see some legislators trying to require separate roads for the new technology.  Of course, since even maintaining our current infrastructure, much less increasing it, is running into budgeting issues everywhere, there is little chance that a whole new set of roads could ever happen - even if there were some way to make them coexist with our current roads. 

[X-Traction]

This is all going to end badly. The best place to be in 10-15 years is up north off the grid.

Global warming will have to be super accelerated, if people want to live up north permanently, though...

you should start driving TTRS more often.

"Up North" is going to be a helluva mess as the permafrost melts, coastal villages are flooded, and layers of ice in the winter prevent animals from feeding.  Not to mention invasion by all manner of pests from farther south, but no reduction in mosquitos and black flies.

[JohnM]

Microwave emissions.  How much are these cars putting out and what frequencies are they using?   There has to be some pretty powerful radar being used to penetrate snow and look way down the road.  Are we creating a microwave soup in which we are the chicken legs?

Cheers,
John M.

[Gris]

Good article but I loathe the direction the automakers are going towards autonomous vehicles. I love driving so too am grateful that I got to drive my own vehicles, I hope there would at least be an off switch to enable full manual.  The main benefit I see in autonomous vehicles would be so you could do something else in stop & go traffic or to get back home if over the legal alcohol limit.  The same or similar tech will probably soon be used for autonomous robots for various purposes, probably not all altruistic.  Also, with wifi, 4G, etc, they better be totally hack proof or be subject to carjacking, locked in, and held hostage unless the ransom is paid, similar to how some people are being locked out of their own computers unless demands are met.  It's ok if vehicle assists are used as driver aids but when the car takes control, that's very worrisome, particularly when either/or life and death decisions have to be made.  Hopefully enough people will reject autonomous cars they will be a sales flop and of little concern.

[Slow_lane]

I like to drive and at this point not interested in my car driving itself. However I will welcome this in my fast approaching senior years. This technology may help extend my freedom and mobility that comes using my own car when the time comes that my own driving skills deteriorate.

[X-Traction]

Enforcing such measures will be a cinch as you won't be able to operate a car without identifying yourself.  And I will no longer have to pay taxes to fund police services needed to control rogue drivers.

You have that backwards.  Traffic enforcement funds police activity.

What percentage of traffic violations result in fines?  .0001%?  If this is a significant funding source, then why is it used so little? 

Motorists are always complaining that cyclists aren't ticketed enough for not wearing helmets, not stopping at stop signs etc.  If the police fund themselves with tickets, why are they not exploiting the funds presumably available from cyclists?

[rrocket]

Enforcing such measures will be a cinch as you won't be able to operate a car without identifying yourself.  And I will no longer have to pay taxes to fund police services needed to control rogue drivers.

You have that backwards.  Traffic enforcement funds police activity.

What percentage of traffic violations result in fines?  .0001%?  If this is a significant funding source, then why is it used so little? 

Motorists are always complaining that cyclists aren't ticketed enough for not wearing helmets, not stopping at stop signs etc.  If the police fund themselves with tickets, why are they not exploiting the funds presumably available from cyclists?

This is easy.  Let's have the better question...what percentage of traffic violation STOPS results in fines.  Lots.  Go look at any cities budget.  Examine the police budget.  It shows REVENUE. (In years past,  police forces didn't generate revenue).   Guess where the bulk of that revenue comes from?  Yep...traffic stops.

[X-Traction]

Enforcing such measures will be a cinch as you won't be able to operate a car without identifying yourself.  And I will no longer have to pay taxes to fund police services needed to control rogue drivers.

You have that backwards.  Traffic enforcement funds police activity.

What percentage of traffic violations result in fines?  .0001%?  If this is a significant funding source, then why is it used so little? 

Motorists are always complaining that cyclists aren't ticketed enough for not wearing helmets, not stopping at stop signs etc.  If the police fund themselves with tickets, why are they not exploiting the funds presumably available from cyclists?

This is easy.  Let's have the better question...what percentage of traffic violation STOPS results in fines.  Lots.  Go look at any cities budget.  Examine the police budget.  It shows REVENUE. (In years past,  police forces didn't generate revenue).   Guess where the bulk of that revenue comes from?  Yep...traffic stops.

Rather than divert the discussion of autonomous cars into yet another examination of rrocket's favorite subject -- traffic enforcement hate, I've transposed this post to a more suitable one:
http://www.autos.ca/forum/index.php?topic=92289.msg1092198#msg1092198