There are two different topics here.
There is the topic of whether fully functional brand new self-driving cars area
good enough. They probably are.
Then there is the topic of whether 10 year old highly electronic including
self-driving cars, improperly maintained, are good enough. They probably are
not.
Christine
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Peter Martin
Sent: Thursday, 7 July 2016 10:46 PM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Re: OT I hate it when I am this right
Warren and others. Just a small point about what may be a very large
difference.
Consider the average reaction time of human driver in an emergency setting.
Compare with possible reaction times in computer-controlled cars.
Assuming you're travelling at 80 kph - 100 kph, the human driver's reaction
time (seeing a danger till starting to hit the brakes) represents a travelled
distance of between 20 and 30 metres, even assuming relatively fast reaction
times.
I think it's fair to say that with entirely feasible designs, that distance for
an automated vehicle can be closer to -- what, 1 to 5 metres, conservatively?.
(Is that unreasonable, given computer-controls?)
Given the laws of physics as we know them, actual braking time differences
after the reaction period may well be similar.
All else being equal, I think in an emergency, I might rather be in the car
that started braking 15 to 20 metres earlier..
-Peter M
On 7 July 2016 at 14:00, Warren Lewington <wjlewington@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Yeah. I was in the automotive electrical trade when the electronics and
computer revolution hit. And didn’t it hit. Really hard. It made my start in
the technical writing career I’ve had possible though. So I never complained
about it.
What I do remember is the myriad problems auto electricians made money out of
over the years engineers and manufacturers took to learn how to design and
manufacture electrical and electronic connections and devices that could
genuinely cope with vehicle environments.
And reliability. Well, in motor racing, the fuel injection, ignition and other
electronic systems we were starting to use were woeful. But they improved. So
did everything in fact. Bosch, Delphi, Delco, Mitsubishi Electric, Yazaki,
Nippon Denso, and some others, all contributed to the developments and push
forwards that leaves us with cars today that are unbelievably reliable compared
to what we had available in the 1980s even.
To that extent, my trade is dead. Except in niche areas where my skills are
still in some sort of demand.
Autocars are coming. Sooner than we think. They’ll be, neither perfect nor
without failures. But they’ll be, for most drivers in cities: godsends. I’m fed
up with city driving. I HATE IT. Getting into my personal transport, telling it
where I want it to go, and letting it take me there while I read a book, do
some work, write a post to austechwriter? Sounds awesome to me.
But I’ll not separate myself from my Mazda MX5 – because I love driving cars
fast, in the right places, and I was good at it. And I sort of still am.
Warren.
PS: Australia has the highest rate of people killed by motor vehicles per one
hundred thousand, after America. Our car death rate is higher than America’s
firearm death rate per one hundred thousand people.
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of LIVERANI Petra
Sent: Friday, July 01, 2016 4:10 PM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Re: OT I hate it when I am this right
Very sad. More information on the crash. Ironically, it seems that the driver,
Joshua Brown, had posted a video in May saying how the autopilot function had
saved him from an accident.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-01/tesla-driver-killed-while-car-was-in-on-autopilot/7560126
It seems that although the autopilot function isn’t perfect (and this is very
much emphasised by the company) the Model S is still a very safe car. Accidents
have been reported in Model Ss where it is surmised the occupants would
normally have died but didn’t. The supposed saving of their lives, however, was
nothing to do with autopilot. The trouble is that even if Tesla say that you
should always have your hands on the steering wheel, etc, it will be virtually
impossible for drivers to maintain normal concentration and in a lapsed moment
when autopilot fails they could have an accident. Unfortunately, in the
improvement process lives will be lost and I’d say it is more likely than not
that it will never achieve 100% safety … but that’s hardly unexpected.
Presumably, autopilot will save more lives than it loses.
Petra Liverani
Technical Writer / UX Designer
TMC Systems Development
Operational Systems
Infrastructure and Services
Transport for NSW
T 02 8396 1617 | F 02 8396 7950 | M 0401 023 961
25 Garden St, Eveleigh NSW 2015
Use public transport... plan your trip at <http://www.transportnsw.info/>
transportnsw.info
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Christine Kent
Sent: Friday, 1 July 2016 3:43 PM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: OT I hate it when I am this right
http://www.breitbart.com/news/tesla-driver-killed-on-autopilot-mode-probe-opened/
--
Christine
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