
Baidu’s self-driving cars begin public test in Wuzhen, China - becewumuy
https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/17/baidus-self-driving-cars-begin-public-test-in-wuzhen-china/
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hesdeadjim
There is so much talk in the current rhetoric about the US losing its
dominance in science and technology. But it is a tad myopic to not be excited
about a country of a billion people pushing the boundaries of what is
possible. It is not a zero sum game and we will all benefit.

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ThomPete
How? How do the uneducated in the rust belt benefit? And perhaps more
importantly when?

I agree that technology for society in general make us better of over time,
but society consists of individuals who don't necessarily benefit from this.
In fact 12 million jobs are in danger of being lost to automated cars. How are
they going to benefit from that?

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JulianMorrison
People used to have jobs walking behind horses in fields, while the horses
pulled ploughs and so forth. Pretty stultifying, dawn to dusk staring at
horse's ass. A generation from now, manual driving will be viewed as
maddeningly dull makework for human drones. Hours of staring at roads with
instant death the punishment for dozing off? Wouldn't do it if you paid me.

I'd have said, hopefully the world gets basic income and then a full leisure
society sorted out. But honestly, not feeling optimistic right now. The
Trumpoids and Brexiteers voted to get their makework back. They won't get it,
the economics will make sure of that. But they probably will get unemployed.

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serge2k
> hopefully the world gets basic income and then a full leisure society sorted
> out

Your job is gone? Here just have money.

Dignity? Oh no see you don't need that. Just have money. What will you do all
day in a world where people derive a lot of purpose from jobs and your basic
income isn't enough to just do what you want? ummm... we could legalize pot.

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JulianMorrison
Dignity? So you think economic coercion and slavery-with-a-choice-of-masters
(or the non-choice of none, and starvation) is somehow dignified?

A leisure society is being able to do your vocation. It's about hackers being
able to hack without needing a "day job" and without trying to squeeze what
you want to do into the leftover energy after spending your day on makework.

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dtnewman
I worry about the regulatory aspects of getting self-driving cars off-the-
ground in the United States. It is inevitable that self driving cars will make
mistakes and people will be injured or killed as a result. It is also
inevitable that people will be injured or killed as a result of _people_
driving cars. But in the long run, it's virtually guaranteed that self-driving
technology will result in safer cars and fewer driving deaths. Computers can
respond quicker, communicate well with other computers (hopefully) and they
don't get drunk.

It's a fact of life that while accidents from ordinary drivers go unnoticed
(ironically _because_ they are so frequent), car crashes from self-driving
cars will get covered extensively by the media, at least for the short term.

All this means that it will be a tough regulatory environment for self-driving
cars in the US. In China, the government has more power to create regulatory
policies around self-driving cars that take a long-term view without having to
worry as much about lawsuits and other concerns.

Perhaps the fear of seeing the Chinese companies "getting there first" with
self-driving cars will be an impetus for US regulators to create policies that
are encourage the development of self-driving cars.

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rfghsfgt
The issue is that self driving cars are naturally _worse_ than human drivers,
and the only way to ensure that only the _good_ self driving cars get on the
road is regulation.

Like flying, if anyone could build an airplane and fly it, flying would be
more dangerous then driving. It's the FAA which keeps these things in check.

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swiley
Actually, in the US anyone is allowed to build small aircraft and fly them
completely unlicensed. (provided it's not at night or over a populated area)

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whazor
In Asia, to say it gently, people follow less rules... Baidu is going to have
a hard time, as people take advantage when you are driving carefully.

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seanmcdirmid
Beijing could just mandate that the ring roads from 6AM to 10PM are self
driving only, like they already ban trucks during that time. The cars will
also have cameras galore, and who knows...if they are owned by the state (or a
taxi company), they might as well just report bad human drivers to ensure good
behavior.

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EGreg
How come no one has figured out that these self driving cars can be tested
with light soft and fuzzy tops which only look like real cars, so if they
crash into something, even at high speed, they wouldn't hurt anyone and
couldn't be sued for a lot? They could then skip to testing much more daring
maneuvers on higher speed than they would otherwise.

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VeejayRampay
Unless I'm missing something the car needs to have an engine, that's heavy
enough to kill people, even at moderate speeds, no?

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hx87
Not if you go all-electric. Motors are light, batteries are heavy, but battery
packs give you much more packaging flexibility than an ICE engine.

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akira2501
To an extent, but at those current draws, you do need integrated cooling in
your battery packs.

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cuantos
People who worry about the risk of accidents should also take into account the
risk of falling behind technologically and economically. I'd argue that the
latter would cause (or fail to prevent) far more deaths. If China wants to
lead the world on this then more power to them. Maybe the US will step up
their game in response.

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goldenbeet
People worry about accidents as if we aren't already causing thousands of
accidents every single day. SDCs are inevitably going to reduce that danger.

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intrasight
Here in the US, self-driving cars will cause some challenges on the legal
front.

In China, lacking the rule of law, it'll just be a calamity.

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neves
Don't forget that they hired the guy behind Google's self driving car, Andrew
Ng: [http://venturebeat.com/2014/07/30/andrew-ng-
baidu/](http://venturebeat.com/2014/07/30/andrew-ng-baidu/)

Does it takes just a hire to compete against all Google's patents?

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goldenbeet
Andrew Ng wasn't really the brain child of Google's car. That honor goes to
Sebastian Thrun.

