Robots can get driver's license in Nevada

MarcoD

Kid getting overrun by a car since it was only watching the ball it was running after.

Oh, no, a robot wasn't driving the car. Guess there would be an argument for it since response time might be faster. Then again, the kid was darting out from between two cars anyway. No idea.

Office_Shredder

That's a situation where the robot driver could be superior to a human, because the robot driver has constant 360 degree vision and literally can't fail to notice the kid (barring sensor errors or something) whereas a human driver might not be as attentive

MarcoD

Say you're next to a baseball field for kids. A human driver could, possibly, slow down because he or she knows the situation. A baseball wouldn't track on the sensors, neither would a party moving behind other cars.

It's a trade-off. But I wouldn't let a robotic car drive very fast in suburbs.

CaptFirePanda

[emphasis mine]

I most definitely agree, but mistakes will happen. Whether it's a manufacturing defect or an installation defect, there is always room for error.

What bothers me most about this is the fact that if I cut off a robot driver and it honks at me, will it be hurt when I flip it the bird in my rearview mirror?

The data would likely allow for the robot driver to "know" it was driving past a baseball field and it could slow down accordingly. It would also be limited by posted speed limits and wouldn;t have the urge to drive just a little faster than legally allowed.

AlephZero

I expect it would be programmed to obey speed limits at all times - unlike most human drivers.

SW VandeCarr

That's just an average. Ever been to Las Vegas, Reno? They're cities, just like cities everywhere. The cities are where the cars and darting kids are. Most visitors to Las Vegas arrive by air. When you're in the city, you're not even aware that the city is surrounded by endless miles of desert*. It's not relevant.

* Except when the wind blows sand into the city.

Office_Shredder

It doesn't come standard but should be an option in most mid-line sedans by 2020

mheslep

Indeed:

The engineering on the winning Stanford vehicle in particular was IMO exquisite.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/darpa/about.html

ThomasT

@ dipole,
Actually, I was just joking. Maybe I watch too much scifi.

I think it's a great idea to develop the technology, however I'm not sure why we need (or why there would ever be viable market for) robot cars and/or robot drivers. Aren't there enough people out of work already?

To comment on a few of your points:
It's one thing to put a plane in the open sky on autopilot for a while, but auto traffic is another thing. Lots of variables.

They're on a track.

Doing very limited, repetitive tasks.

A big if. But assuming that acceptable robot driving technology is someday developed, who's going to be able to afford to buy it? Would it put a certain segment of the population out of work?

This assumes that robot cars/drivers are going to be implemented on a massive scale wrt individual vehicles.

A simpler solution to the problem of teen driving is to raise the driving age.

Gokul43201

If we'd bowed to the seemingly unpleasant ramifications of this question every time someone promoted a technological advancement, we'd probably be a population with a 100% employment rate, but everyone would be either hunting or gathering.

ThomasT

You might be right about that. Anyway, I think they're a long way from putting taxi, bus, and truck drivers out of work. Just too many variables for robots to safely handle I think. But I might be wrong about that.

CaptFirePanda

We'll likely see robotic public servants first.

wuliheron

The next republican candidate for president maybe?

SW VandeCarr

Not if the public service unions have anything to say about it, and they do!

ThomasT

Or just servants. Yeah, I can see that. But still, a niche market.

Ryan_m_b

There's also the question of whether or not it would create jobs. It's not a straight jump to self driving cars but the SARTRE project requires people to drive trucks all day up and down main highways. Also there may be the possibility for this to create jobs by making commuting far easier for people e.g if a fleet of public transport self-driving cars was put into operation in an area of transport poverty. This will be aided by the increased speed that self-drive cars have the potential to travel at (IMO) thanks to all the cars driving as one block (no erratic driving slowing everyone down), cross roads replaced by smooth merging (cars turn into spaces made for them) and on major roads speed limits can be increased to whatever the cars can take without the risk of accidents.
I would wager that this falls under a similar thing to AI: once we can do it we'll no longer call it a robot.

ThomasT

I don't think the inability to commute is a major factor wrt unemployment. But automation, outsourcing and offshoring certainly are.

Millions of jobs which were formerly done by American people are now done by computers, or robots, or foreign labor.

As far as I can tell, no matter how this is parsed, it doesn't seem to me to be a good thing. At least not for Americans.