
Campus Shuttles Want to Speed Ahead in the Autonomous Vehicle Race - dthal
http://www.citylab.com/commute/2016/03/campus-shuttles-speed-ahead-in-the-autonomous-vehicle-race/474687/
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steven777400
The arguments the article lays out in favor of testing early autonomous
vehicles as campus shuttles are compelling, and the reasons against not nearly
so.

We expect a driver to provide certain services only because they happen to be
there; like an elevator operator, toll booth operator, or person directing
traffic, there's really no problem operating without them. You could easily
put a "Call" button in an autonomous shuttle (as is seen in elevators) to
cover most of the corner cases that need human intervention.

I think this test market is a great plan.

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ams6110
One thing a driver does is monitor the vehicle for trouble. Fights, vandalism,
etc. I think particularly on a college campus you're still going to need some
kind of authority figure on board who can at least call for help if something
inappropriate or criminal is happening.

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jzwinck
Then perhaps the autonomous shuttles should be deployed in some country where
university students do not vandalize vehicles nor fight on them. Such places
do exist, and perhaps they deserve to reap the benefits.

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mc32
It's not always the student body who do the robing, but outsiders; on the
other hand, drunk students do occasionally make very poor choices when it
comes to showing romantic interest.

Multiple video (with anti-vandalism hardening) lenses as well as two way radio
(and speaker) should be able to handle most troubling cases with some central
office dispatching campus police if things go downhill quick.

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FreedomToCreate
Interesting to see two YC companies that do the exact same thing in
consecutive cohorts. Beside that point though, this is very different from
normal autonomous cars. The path is preset and guided using GPS and the cars
can avoid people using Liar. They avoid dynamic path planning and they have no
need for traffic laws which explains the 2017 to market time.

I am skeptical on university campuses adopting this. Get on a bike people.
Golf courses and retirements homes, well those may have use cases.

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raywu
This is an awesome vision. Perhaps you're right about university campuses. But
in addition to golf courses and retirement communities: business campuses,
airports, amusement parks, the list goes on.

Which is the other YC co?

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spike021
The problem with autonomous shuttles on campuses, especially
university/college campuses, is that people who are walking can be very
unpredictable, and doubly-so if they are listening to music with headphones.

I had a student job where I would drive our golf cart all over campus and it
was awful at times when there would be many students out during class change,
arriving on campus, or leaving. People don't pay attention or they take
chances on their bikes/longboards.

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ergothus
Very true - but a big appeal about autonomous vehicles is that they can (or
will) perform better than most humans in these situations.

Human drivers are not immune to these problems, and campus drivers are just as
prone to human error.

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dsfyu404ed
Will it drive itself through the car wash after it gets puked on?

