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Self-driving cars: Motorists will not be liable for crashes and can watch TV behind the wheel, government says

Are you in favour of self-drive cars?

  • Total voters
    44
girasol said:
So, you'd still have to go through the whole expensive process of getting a driving license to go on them? I love driving and I'm not sure I fully trust them, so I wouldn't be in a rush to get in one of them. Probably too old to adopt this new fangled tech ;)

I recently got a courtesy car after someone hit my car and it had cameras for assisted parking and it also knew what the speed limit was in most roads I was on... Useful, you'd think, but it felt spooky and intrusive. Was happy to get my "dumb" car back and manage parking and keeping to speed limit on my own.
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Was it reporting this information back to anyone? Because otherwise I don't see what's spooky or intrusive about having more angles to see outside of the vehicle, or having speed limit information readily to hand.
 
pseudonarcissus said:
But if it’s a no fault collision, your comprehensive policy pays out. So if the old codger has a heart attack and crashes into you, that’s hardly his fault, so his insurance will not pay out..it will be yours.
They are banking on the total number of crashes reducing. People with third party fire and theft policies will be screwed .
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TPFT policies have been consistently more expensive than comprehensive ones for years in my case.
pseudonarcissus said:
Presumably, if the insurance companies think there is a fault in the driverless technology of a particular manufacturer, they will band together and try to reclaim their losses
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and/or stop insuring those vehicles
NoXion said:
Was it reporting this information back to anyone? Because otherwise I don't see what's spooky or intrusive about having more angles to see outside of the vehicle, or having speed limit information readily to hand.
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I find the talking spooky, I switch it off on my satnav apps as it distracts me, if it wasn't frowned upon I would probably gaffa tape my passenger mouths too.
 
As a slight aside, the costs of insurance repairs have gone through the roof over recent years eg where once a dent in a bumper could be quickly knocked out or cheaply replaced, a modern bumper has got parking sensors and cameras in it. Certainly similar issues with wing mirrors that auto fold and defrost or have even been replaced with cameras.
 
hash tag said:
As a slight aside, the costs of insurance repairs have gone through the roof over recent years eg where once a dent in a bumper could be quickly knocked out or cheaply replaced, a modern bumper has got parking sensors and cameras in it. Certainly similar issues with wing mirrors that auto fold and defrost or have even been replaced with cameras.
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My Dad had a wing mirror knocked off by a bus. The cost was double what my old banger is worth. Probably double what my old banger is worth with a full tank of petrol.
 
hash tag said:
When visiting clients to help them amongst other things, I have a first aid kit and this. It is not possible on a bike.
www.mobilitysmart.co.uk

Mangar Elk Emergency Lifting Cushion

Mangar are a manufacturer known for developing superb patient lifting equipment, so much so that the Mangar Elk Emergency Lifting Cushion is used by most UK Ambulance Trusts.
www.mobilitysmart.co.uk www.mobilitysmart.co.uk
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What percentage of shifts involves carrying heavy inflatable cushions? Could one not rearrange the shifts a bit so that you dont need to use cars every time.
 
toblerone3 said:
What percentage of shifts involves carrying heavy inflatable cushions? Could one not rearrange the shifts a bit so that you dont need to use cars every time.
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NO. It is impossible to show any pattern as to what day or what time of day people fall. I can recall going out to 12 or more calls on a night shift which is hellish. On the other hand, I can barely recall a night shift when I have not been out. Also,, we can regularly be out on one call and get directed straight to another. There is no way we can avoid using cars.
Maybe I should not admit this, but being a typically lazy bastard, I use the manga rarely, it's a faff. I use it as a last resort, out of necessity. There are colleagues who, even in pairs, will take it on every shift, it is the safe sensible option.
 
hash tag said:
NO. It is impossible to show any pattern as to what day or what time of day people fall. I can recall going out to 12 or more calls on a night shift which is hellish. On the other hand, I can barely recall a night shift when I have not been out. Also,, we can regularly be out on one call and get directed straight to another. There is no way we can avoid using cars.
Maybe I should not admit this, but being a typically lazy bastard, I use the manga rarely, it's a faff. I use it as a last resort, out of necessity. There are colleagues who, even in pairs, will take it on every shift, it is the safe sensible option.
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Looks easy enough to carry on an e-bike (which may be unsuitable for various other reasons tbf).
 
8ball said:
Looks easy enough to carry on an e-bike (which may be unsuitable for various other reasons tbf).
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A manga is one part of the kit we carry. It just ain't possible not to drive. Can colleagues even ride a bike and would they want to? When I started the job I was a reasonable rider clocking up about 250 miles a week. I have many a bikers tale of accidents to tell. I could not have done it by bike, no way.
 
Seems obvious to me why cars would be extremely useful in such situations. You can stow a lot more gear in a car than you can on a bike (electric or otherwise), and it will be better protected from the elements, and easier to secure against opportunistic theft.
 
Of course there will be some people whose jobs require them to use cars, but this does not make asking questions about the way that work is set up including shift patterns a waste of time. To be honest reducing negative environmental impacts may not always be the top priority among people in the hard-pressed public sector of health and education. But its still worth asking questions.
 
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I have little interest in the currently almost-viable version of self driving cars. However, bring on the day when the driver can be allowed to be drunk or get a nap, and I’m in. Fast forward further to a future where non-AI vehicles are banned, and cars can become teeny-tiny little pods, (with no fear of collisions causing harm, minimum sizing can become very small indeed).

But I’m not giving up having my own car. It may be true that most cars are only travelling 5% if the time (mine is much less than that), but those journeys are not evenly distributed over 24 hours. Currently, I need to be at work by about 8-8:15am. I dunno what proportion of school kids and adults have to travel between 7-9am daily but it’s… Quite A Lot.

Similarly, when I leave work, dead on my feet at 6.45pm I might have missed the worst of the rush hour, but it’s still about three times as busy as it is, say, at 10pm. So what do I do about getting to work on time? How much standing in the wind and rain is reasonable in the evening? And yes - I know people manage on public transport but (a) I’m disabled and standing causes me serious pain, and (b) I go without other things some consider essential so that I can run a car of my own. I will do so even in a self-driving future, if I’m allowed to.
 
hash tag said:
Doubtful. The cushion is quite a large the, the compressor smaller but heavy.
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Yeah, I was thinking of something a little beefier than that anyway, but sounds like there's more to your kit than that and a few other bits.
Was just a thought.
 
spanglechick said:
I have little interest in the currently almost-viable version of self driving cars. However, bring on the day when the driver can be allowed to be drunk or get a nap, and I’m in.
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Until that point I can't see them being a massive thing. They've shown that in cases where the system panics and passes back to the driver there's a significant delay while the driver assesses everything and you're often buggered at that point.

I think the 'minimal pod' idea is further off still.

My current estimate for proper self-driving cars that need no human assistance is a shade after 2050.
 
NoXion said:
Was it reporting this information back to anyone? Because otherwise I don't see what's spooky or intrusive about having more angles to see outside of the vehicle, or having speed limit information readily to hand.
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Dunno, it was a hire car. My insurance policy offered me a choice of having a box monitoring my speed for a premium reduction (which I said "no thanks" to) - so maybe this car has similar.
 
scifisam said:
Can you not accept that maybe hash tag knows his job better than you do, and it is one of the jobs that needs a car?
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I think your overlooking that this wasn't initially about @Hashtag specifically it was the implication made by another poster that ALL district nurses needed to use cars. That Is what got me started.
 
I wonder, instead of autonomous cars which take up the same amount of space and use the same amount of energy as normal cars, why not get a single large vehicle that can carry dozens of passengers at once? Instead of expensive and potentially fallible self-driving tech, these vehicles could be operated by a single professional driver. Then people who don't want to drive could still get where they need to be and traffic and pollution would be greatly reduced.

For longer distances and on routes where large numbers of people need to travel, multiple large vehicles could be connected together and controlled by a single human operator. They could even be given special metal roads to run on, to increase speed and energy efficiency and to keep them separate from the rest of the road network.

As these innovations would benefit the general public rather than just private individuals, they could be funded from general taxation. This would create beneficial economies of scale and ensure that transport services were available to all, regardless of economic or social status.

Ah, forgive an old fool his impossible pipe dreams. Of course it's much more important that the business cunts in their audis can finally watch porn on their way to work.
 
SpookyFrank said:
I wonder, instead of autonomous cars which take up the same amount of space and use the same amount of energy as normal cars, why not get a single large vehicle that can carry dozens of passengers at once? Instead of expensive and potentially fallible self-driving tech, these vehicles could be operated by a single professional driver. Then people who don't want to drive could still get where they need to be and traffic and pollution would be greatly reduced.

For longer distances and on routes where large numbers of people need to travel, multiple large vehicles could be connected together and controlled by a single human operator. They could even be given special metal roads to run on, to increase speed and energy efficiency and to keep them separate from the rest of the road network.

As these innovations would benefit the general public rather than just private individuals, they could be funded from general taxation. This would create beneficial economies of scale and ensure that transport services were available to all, regardless of economic or social status.

Ah, forgive an old fool his impossible pipe dreams. Of course it's much more important that the business cunts in their audis can finally watch porn on their way to work.
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Autonomous cars use more energy as they are driven by many more computers and have many more cameras and sensors all of which use energy.
A vehicle to cover dozens of passengers; if a private car the insurers would not like it, or it is a bus.
 
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