
Self-driving cars are bullshit - KKKKkkkk1
https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/16/combat-wheelchairs/#car-wreck
======
kgin
People will be arguing that "true self driving is impossible" for decades
after we've all been already happily riding around in cars without steering
wheels.

Level 4 self-driving with remote assistance will allow "driverless" cars in
the next decade. Over time, the cars will need to phone home less and less.
It's possible that even in 100 years, there will still be one single remote
assistance center in operation for the 1 in a million situation that the
computer still can't handle.

By the time that last remote assistance center closes, nobody will even care
about debating whether self-driving cars are bullshit or not.

~~~
m463
All new technology is overestimated in the short term and underestimated in
the long term.

Sort of like speech recognition... it was going to be big! and then it really
couldn't understand as well as people thought... and it sort of fell out of
the limelight. But quietly it started to be used for phones and now it's
pretty much here.

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grandmczeb
> according to its own IPO filings, Uber can only be profitable if it invents
> fully autonomous vehicles and replaces every public transit ride in the
> world with them.

Where specifically does it say this?

~~~
fancyfredbot
It doesn't say this.

~~~
grandmczeb
It’s annoying someone as prominent as Cory Doctorow would spread such obvious
BS.

------
DarmokJalad1701
[http://www.bretswanson.com/wp-
content/uploads/2016/02/Flying...](http://www.bretswanson.com/wp-
content/uploads/2016/02/Flying-Machines-Which-Do-Not-Fly-graphic-
NYT-1903-headline-2.0.pdf)

[http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/arts/1920editorial...](http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/arts/1920editorial-
full.pdf)

~~~
kanox
This will indeed age very poorly.

The article is also of poor quality, making lame swipes at ride-sharing and
electric cars as well.

------
morpheos137
It just shows how out of touch with reality the "mainstream" media is. For
years reputable publications like NYT, WSJ, The Atlantic, were heralding the
arrival of driverless cars. And yet there is really no engineering basis for
them at present. Before we can have driverless cars we will need something
akin to AGI.

~~~
uniqueid
To expect a majority of journalists to recognize this sort of hype is
unreasonable. Most people here on HN (not I, to pat myself on the back) were
equally, perhaps more, credulous about self-driving cars. If a tech forum like
HN called it wrong, anyone could.

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MurMan
"the more cars you add, the more road you need, the more spaced out everything
gets, ..."

Disregards the promise of Connected and Autonomous Vehicle (CAV) technology.

[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S209575641...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095756418302289#:~:text=Connected%20and%20automated%20vehicles%20\(CAVs,the%20efficiency%20of%20transportation%20systems).

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neuralRiot
The greatest problem of this technology is the very auto makers who is
salivating at the idea of being the first one to release a fully autonomous
car that would be compatible with the existing infrastructure including other
manually driven cars, pressuring the engineering teams, i’m not sure the
technology will be mature in the next 15 years.

------
Ckfu
Hmm hn usually shadowban you less swear words..

