
Ask HN: Why aren't remote human drivers a thing? - s_r_n
I saw an article today where Steve Wozniak said he didn&#x27;t think autonomous cars would come to fruition during his lifetime. However, I have not read very much about any sort of innovation around a system that uses human drivers to control vehicles remotely. Why isn&#x27;t this idea being explored more?
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icedchai
Connectivity in general. You need a 100% reliable, low latency, high bandwidth
connection. Milliseconds matter in an emergency.

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MS90
The USAF is able to deal with latency issues when controlling and targeting
drones on the opposite side of the planet, though I do believe they use local
people with line of sight connections to handle takeoffs and landings.

I don't see why something like their systems couldn't be applied here. Well,
other than the fact that you'd need the resources (see: cash and massive
satellite network) that the USAF has...

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shoo
Reaction time requirements are probably much more forgiving for drones --
don't need to suddenly brake or change course due to the movements of other
tightly packed drones around you during the daily commute

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TheEndless
Maybe because it still requires a human to be occupied during the task, and
they also don't have physical safety stake in the activity. I don't think I'd
feel quite at ease if a driver over the Internet had my fate in their hands.
Also that brings up the fact that latency and failure of wireless
communications could mean death.

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udayrddy
I do not see any use case with it. If I have to remote control it, I would
rather control directly. Isn't the whole purpose to make use of your time on
other works instead of driving?

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jolmg
Maybe the idea is that as soon as you're detected to be sleep, a driver from
some company gets alerted and takes over your driving until you wake up.

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thecrumb
Tunnels? Overpasses? Trees. Thinking about how many times my satellite radio
fades out.

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tdeck
They are a thing. This company is doing it with trucks:
[https://www.starsky.io/](https://www.starsky.io/)

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raztogt21
no skin in the game for the remote driver

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wingerlang
Imagine driving a car over Skype

