Self-driving cars to be allowed on UK roads this year

[Deleted member 35268]

Self-driving vehicles could be allowed on UK roads by the end of this year, the government has said.
https://www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-56906145.amp

Is anyone else fearful of being hit by a self-driving car ?
I am.

With a spate of recent stories of Tesla mishaps (which are usually disputed and explained away), I wonder how many fatalities will arise before the technology is deemed as fatally flawed.

I might be wrong.

 

[Twilkes]

I bet a cyclist is more likely to be hit by a human driver than an automated driver, but the automated driver will be held to much higher standards.

Rather bizarrely, I would feel more uncomfortable being driven by an automated car than the thought of being overtaken by them!

 

[Domus]

Lawyers must be rubbing their hands together. I can imagine the insurance claim. "My client did not crash into you, The Ford motor company sold a car with a flawed chip". "My client was a passenger"

 

[matticus]

Lawyers must be rubbing their hands together. I can imagine the insurance claim. "My client did not crash into you, The Ford motor company sold a car with a flawed chip". "My client was a passenger"

This might be the final straw for the headline pedants*:
CHILD KILLED BY SPEEDING CAR
- "It wasn't a CAR that hit him, it was a driver!"
- "Well actually it was one of those new self-driven thingies ..."
- "aaaaaaargh .... "

*Wonderful well-meaning folks, fighting a lost cause, sadly.

 

[Paulus]

Watch this space----I don't believe that anytime soon there will be driverless vehicles allowed on our roads.
Only when all vehicles have this function would it be safe to be on the roads.
The software would have to be so specialised to detect all manner of road users from cyclists and horses to pedestrians and vehicles of all shapes and sizes.
This, I suspect is an article put out by the manufacturers of such vehicles to try and get more funding and put pressure on the government to allow them to go ahead.
As the article says, Motorway use only and the Max. speed would be 37mph.

 

[CXRAndy]

I use my Model S with FSD autopilot a lot on motorways. Its very relaxing with variable autocruise and lane guidance and selection. I look at it as a driver aid, with extra 'eyes' monitoring front, back and sides all at once. The variable automatic autocruise is the best feature in my opinion.

 

[HMS_Dave]

37 mph top speed on the motorway? That's going to end well...

 

[Eric Olthwaite]

I am confident that the next death of a cyclist as a result of a computer malfunction will lead to much greater advances in cyclist safety than the next death of a cyclist as a result of a human malfunction.

 

[byegad]

I use my Model S with FSD autopilot a lot on motorways. Its very relaxing with variable autocruise and lane guidance and selection. I look at it as a driver aid, with extra 'eyes' monitoring front, back and sides all at once. The variable automatic autocruise is the best feature in my opinion.

My Toyota Corolla Touring Sport has adaptive cruise and lane guidance. As you say it helps but is not safe by any means to leave to itself. For one thing the lane guidance sits the car about 2 feet to the left in the lane for my liking, or mental comfort!
The adaptive cruise control is amazing, having used normal cruise control for a decade or so, I've found the adaptive control pretty good, except if left alone it will brake the car quite hard if the car in front turns left, even when the lane ahead is clear. A quick touch to disengage the system until you are past the turning car then re-engaging the system solves that. The automatically brisk acceleration back to speed on a dual carriageway or motorway as you indicate and change lane to overtake a slower car is brilliant.

 

[Drago]

I see the Mail are wrongly proclaiming how people will be able to check their emails or play on their phones while driving, when in actual fact drivers will still need to be alert and ready/able to assume instant manual control if required.

This kind of narrative scares me. Autonomous driving could, jn general, be good for us cyclists, safer soeeds around bicycles, no class passing etc. However, if the popular mass media are already telling drivers they can be reading their emails, or doing their crochet, then on occcasions where things do go wrong they will go very badly wrong as a consequence.

The technology in isolation is actually quite good, but throw idiot human beings into the mix...

 

[Alex H]

I see the Mail are wrongly proclaiming ......

Surely Not!!!

 

[T4tomo]

As the article says, Motorway use only and the Max. speed would be 37mph.

Thats all we need middle lane clogged up with self driving cars and Honda Jazz's doing 37mph

 

[Brandane]

37 mph top speed on the motorway? That's going to end well...

They will be doing well to manage to keep up to that speed on most of the UK motorways.

 

[byegad]

37 mph top speed on the motorway? That's going to end well...

Exactly. I know of one case where the police stopped, charged and escorted a driver from a motorway for driving at 40mph.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Some time ago I read something that said that some auto systems on cars had trouble distinguishing cyclists as they look like walkers from some angles
but react and move differently

Has anyone seen anything saying they have got round this - and/or tests avoiding cyclists specifically??