Driverless Hype Collides With Merciless Reality
- Thread starter Gary7
- Start date
Unless passersby don’t know the trucks are driverless.
Besides, how can a hijacker force a truck to stop when there’s no driver?
And hope it doesn’t drive around (or over) you.
That's the point though. A driverless truck would be ridiculously easy to stop. Slow it down by driving in front of it and then stop in front of it at an isolated location where you would have machinery, tools and people ready to bust it open.
So make sure it’s unmarked. Hijackers aren’t going to bother unless they know there’s valuables on board.
And I think you're overestimating how easy it would be to stop a driverless truck. I'm sure the truck would have algorithms to enable it to simply go AROUND an obstacle. And assuming such a truck would have no doors or windows, then how could a hijacker force their way in?
Besides, regular deliveries of cargo are most likely going to confine themselves to highly trafficked, well-lit interstate highways, where hijackers would not dare to congregate.
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So make sure it’s unmarked. Hijackers aren’t going to bother unless they know there’s valuables on board.
And I think you're overestimating how easy it would be to stop a driverless truck. I'm sure the truck would have algorithms to enable it to simply go AROUND an obstacle. And assuming such a truck would have no doors or windows, then how could a hijacker force their way in?
Besides, regular deliveries of cargo are most likely going to confine themselves to highly trafficked, well-lit interstate highways, where hijackers would not dare to congregate.
I think you're underestimating the enterprising criminal mind. It would just take 2 vehicles to bring a driverless truck to a stop. It can't go around an car if there are others on its outside. Also if there is a way to get goods into the truck there will always be a way to get them out.
Even if people weren't interest in the contents. There is no way they are sending out driverless trucks without a passenger on board asou can bet people will just wanna mess around with it, drive in front of it, slow it down, try force it off the road etc.
Same reason I can't see those 6 wheel Delivery Drones being a fixture on our streets.
Such trucks would be well outfitted with security devices to make breaking in very difficult. Plus, they'd all be tracked by way-point stations where they could call for help once an exception occurs (blockage, breakdown, etc.). Nevertheless, do you think all truckers are driving around with shotguns by their sides? Anyone could stop any truck on any lone highway today and hijack it. How often does that happen? Just because there's a human driver doesn't mean there's a greater disincentive.
Once the driverless truck era is underway, if there's any growing problem with "highway robbery", I'm sure legislation would get passed for defensive protection--someone tries to break in and they'll get tear-gassed and/or tasered by automated defensive mechanisms on board.
All they need is Magnavolt.
LETHAL RESPONSE.
LETHAL RESPONSE.
There are going to be accidents with driverless cars. The rate will be lower than the rate of accidents with driven cars. But accidents with driven cars are blamed on the individual driver, whereas all accidents with self driving cars are blamed on the technology.
I'm curious how far we are from a point where driverless cars wouldn't have problems when cops are giving instructions that contradict the traffic light.
I can see some kind of system in a few decades where there are roads in cities built specifically for driverless cars, which then join the normal roads for highways between cities. Driving is far less confusing and nuanced on the highways. I see this as a long term public transportation replacement, which would first be led by cities with big tech companies to more easily get workers in from farther.
I'm curious how far we are from a point where driverless cars wouldn't have problems when cops are giving instructions that contradict the traffic light.
I can see some kind of system in a few decades where there are roads in cities built specifically for driverless cars, which then join the normal roads for highways between cities. Driving is far less confusing and nuanced on the highways. I see this as a long term public transportation replacement, which would first be led by cities with big tech companies to more easily get workers in from farther.
I'm reminded of the quote: "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."
That's how I feel about driverless cars.
Shouldn't we be focusing on improving public transportation than trying to maintain the unsustainable culture of every person having their own car?
That's how I feel about driverless cars.
Shouldn't we be focusing on improving public transportation than trying to maintain the unsustainable culture of every person having their own car?
There's no reason why both can't be undertaken in parallel. While there is a large truck driver job demand out there, it is a high stress job. Not nearly the same as an air traffic controller, but another form of stress -- long term. Terrible strain on sleep patterns. If you have a truck driver who serves more as an overseer for the task, letting the automated system do the brunt of the driving, they can be more well rested and be present to deal with contingencies, plus take over when off-highway driving is called upon. But that's "driverless trucks"...
I can see driverless taxis, but in very limited scope. There will be all kinds of problems to contend with concerning other drivers when high traffic congestion occurs. Human drivers will recognize the driverless cars, or the taxi brand known for them, and attempt "domination" over such vehicles expecting that they'll back down. Because they will. When another driver challenges the driverless car on getting ahead or cutting in, the driverless car will back down for safety reasons. That can become a major annoyance for the occupants who see their "position" dropping far back if enough human drivers take advantage.
But for driverless cars owned by private citizens, I can see them in use conditionally -- only on the highway. There are too many more complications in local traffic at this time for current day AI to handle. So you know how you use cruise control when you're on the highway? You'd do the same for "auto drive." But once you're off the approved roads, the human driver must take over. And if they don't make a deliberate move to take over, the car will pull over and park, waiting for them to take over.
I'm not even sure I'd be confident about them on the highway. Some highways are very stressful to drive in, especially during rush-hour when close to a major city and the added complication of having driverless cars on them may be too much.
My Dad and I had a very scary experience a few years ago when we were minding our own business in our lane when a transport truck was edging itself over into our lane until we felt we were squeezed out over toward the guardrail. My Dad was frantically honking the horn until the driver eventually realized what was going on. Honestly, I'm not even sure what a driverless truck or a driverless car would do in a situation like that, but I doubt the instinct would be to honk to get the driver's attention.