Google may roll out 9,000 autonomous electric taxis in Manhattan

[RubberToe]

Looks like we get a glimpse at where Google will strike first with their technology:
Log In - The New York Times

And a video of people "driving" the new cars:
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/05/27/the-google-car-takes-a-step-away-from-boring/?action=click&contentCollection=Technology&region=Footer&module=MoreInSection&pgtype=article

9,000 autonomous vehicles replace 14,000 taxis, reduce wait times from 5 to 1 minute, and reduce cost from $4 per mile to $0.50 per mile. Looks like there is some money to be made here...

If your son or daughter was considering a future career as a New York City taxi driver, now might be the time for them to reconsider their career options.

RT

P.S. No mention of Tesla though

 

[ZsoZso]

Green car reports also has an article about these 2-seater driverless EVs:

Google's Electric, Autonomous Test Car Looks Happy, Has No Steering Wheel

 

[silentlibrarian]

I'm a big supporter of self driving car but I can't help but wonder, suppose the self driven taxi passenger got into accident inside that google car, what are the chances that passenger wouldn't try to sue google so they can extort some money from the unfortunate accident.
After all, this is murrica :biggrin:

 

[Doug_G]

I think a self-driving car would have to be 1000X safer than a human driven vehicle before most people would accept it. Fortunately that might not be so difficult!

I think the bigger problem will be inclement weather, and various other "edge cases". It's hard enough for a human to navigate a blizzard; it must be really difficult for a computer. Will the sensors work? Can it find the lane? How will it handle slippery conditions and deep snow? Etc.

 

[yobigd20]

manhattan has got to be the worst city in the US to roll this out first. I would love to see one of google's autonomous vehicles try to navigate through traffic and various obstacles like random construction and sinkholes. in NYC, if you want to change lanes, you literally have to cut somebody off and trust that they won't slam into you. there's no way this will pass any kind of 'safety' algorithm.

 

[Cosmacelf]

I agree about driving in NY. And you are directly competing with all those yellow cabbies. Think they won't want to ding a few google cars from time to time? Run them off the road? This will be ugly!

 

[Stoneymonster]

If you thought the uproar from Taxi companies over Uber was bad.....

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

I agree about driving in NY. And you are directly competing with all those yellow cabbies. Think they won't want to ding a few google cars from time to time? Run them off the road? This will be ugly!

Better obscure the license plate and wear a disguise because you know the Googlecars will have hi-def cameras.

Could be a good test of the software.

 

[Jsvette56]

I'm living in Amsterdam this summer (left my S plugged in back in San Jose). There are numerous Leaf taxis running around the city and have a goal to have 500 on the street by 2014. Also, I've seen many Tesla's, Volts, misc. EVs and even electric boats around the city as well as the Tesla dealership and was told they've sold 1500.

 

[AC1K]

I think a self-driving car would have to be 1000X safer than a human driven vehicle before most people would accept it. Fortunately that might not be so difficult!

I think the bigger problem will be inclement weather, and various other "edge cases". It's hard enough for a human to navigate a blizzard; it must be really difficult for a computer. Will the sensors work? Can it find the lane? How will it handle slippery conditions and deep snow? Etc.

humans are limited to visual input only (and really crappy visual at that, our eyes suck compared to a lot of other species), computers do not have any restrictions, they can use lidar, radar, optical, sonic, anything or all at the same time and process that information about a million times faster than any human being.

 

[skdave]

If the drivers have a union the city will bring this to a halt in 10 seconds..

 

[yobigd20]

humans are limited to visual input only (and really crappy visual at that, our eyes suck compared to a lot of other species), computers do not have any restrictions, they can use lidar, radar, optical, sonic, anything or all at the same time and process that information about a million times faster than any human being.

if (god forbid) you only have 2 choices (sorry, this is a horrific scenario but it is to prove a point). imagine for some reason the car cannot stop in time and it has only 2 choices. hit a child(save adult), or hit an adult(save child). which would it choose? which would you choose? (think I,Robot) can you live with that? you can program rules, but you cannot program this type of intelligence.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

if (god forbid) you only have 2 choices (sorry, this is a horrific scenario but it is to prove a point). imagine for some reason the car cannot stop in time and it has only 2 choices. hit a child(save adult), or hit an adult(save child). which would it choose? which would you choose? (think I,Robot) can you live with that? you can program rules, but you cannot program this type of intelligence.

Computer Programmer: s_target = outcome(s_child) > outcome(s_adult) ? s_adult : s_child;

Lawyers: whichever is cheaper

Doctors: whichever results in the better probable medical outcome.

Bleeding Heart: save the poor, innocent child!

Economist: hit the kid already

 

[Johann Koeber]

With great power comes great responsibility (SM)

How do you solve these questions with a human driver. How does the human driver solve these situations. Are they taught in driver's ed?