Drive Cam- Why we can't have self driving

[blturner]

I caught this easily by hitting the drive cam button many seconds after it happened. I wonder what a self driving car would do here. I was well over in the lane as soon as I saw the tractor and congestion. Clear over to the line and ready to go further.

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[gregtay]

The answer is probably "slammed on the brakes". I have Supercruise on my Escalade... and it is awesome. Hands free driving for hours, even pulling the boat. BUT... just because your hands are not on the wheel doesn't mean you aren't actively driving with your brain. You have to stay engaged. The GM system is pretty good at watching you and flashing lights when it thinks you aren't paying attention (can be annoying... but honestly, it is right most of the time)

 

[Donald Stanfield]

Yeah I wouldn't trust the self driving without being ready to take over at a moments notice. That's why I don't have an issue with lane keep assist because that isn't good enough to drive for you but it's still enough of a help on long drives to take some of the fatigue away. Since you still have to be involved enough to supervise it keeps you engaged. My brain is all that's needed and if GM's system can do it good enough by eye tracking that would be better so long as you cannot cheat it.

If you still need to watch the road and the car won't drive if you stop watching it probably is the best system but full autonomous driving will only work if every car is using it. I'm a sci-fi nerd and self guided transportation is pretty much a central theme in all decent future depictions. It only really seems to work or make sense when all the cars are operated by one central computer or that every car is networked.

The only way it's safe is when all the cars know what the other cars are doing. A system like this would maximize safety while actually making transportation faster and solving congestion. Networked vehicles could operate in much closer proximity at faster speeds and allow for passing and merging in the most ideal efficient way. In some ways networked cars and central computing would be easier than a car that can consider every eventuality but the processing power required is probably more than currently exists.

 

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I'm way too scared to try using Driver+ in my area. All the other a*holes on the road ruin it for everyone. ?

 

[Inhisname]

The answer is probably "slammed on the brakes". I have Supercruise on my Escalade... and it is awesome. Hands free driving for hours, even pulling the boat. BUT... just because your hands are not on the wheel doesn't mean you aren't actively driving with your brain. You have to stay engaged. The GM system is pretty good at watching you and flashing lights when it thinks you aren't paying attention (can be annoying... but honestly, it is right most of the time)

I was in one of those Escalede's and it BLOWS AWAY the system in my Rivian. Hell, I can't even trust the GPS to get me to my house! It tries a route that is 17 minutes longer at the wrong exit (I'm 7 miles from my house, and with Waze it's 8 minutes from the correct exit) and even tries when I'm within 2 miles of the house to get me to turnaround and follow it's directions. I WISH that Rivian would adapt what you have in your Escalade!!!

 

[azbill]

I have Blue Cruise in my Mach E and it is also way ahead of D+. Although I would call it D-, lol.

I see many driverless cars in Phoenix, both Waymo and Cruise (GM). LIDAR makes a big difference in perception capability.

 

[blturner]

Currently Rivian Driver+ will not work on any 2 lane highways. So it was not an option here. Once the other driver crossed the line I was at his mercy. It all happened pretty quick. I knew from experience that the driver probably saw me and predicted that I would get over and not hit him.
If I had been centered in the lane we would have both lost our mirrors. Slamming on the breaks would not have worked as the distance when he crossed was too short, and even if the Rivian stopped he would still have hit me.
If I had been in a self driving F-150 centered in the lane, there would have been about 6 inches of overlap throwing me into the ditch and him into the truck or tractor.

 

[s4wrxttcs]

Does Blue Cruise or Supercruise even work on undivided highways like this? Tesla's Autopilot would limit the speed to +5mph over the limit on undivided highways.

I believe Tesla's FSD will work without the speed restriction so it would be interesting to see how its Vision only system would handle this situation.

All these systems are level 2 where the liability is on the driver so with all of them your expected to take over when you see a situation like this unfolding.

I would be really surprised if any manufacture offers truly autonomous (as in SAE Level 3, 4 or 5) driving at highway speeds on undivided highways within the next 2-3 years. Something like the OP's situation unfolding is a good example of something the car has to handle. It's not that its hard to perceive and anticipate what will happen in that example, but that they're are so many examples. Society also has to be willing to accept that people will die as self-driving cars evolve. I don't think society is at that point yet.

MB is the only one in the US that sells a vehicle capable of L3 driving, but only at traffic speeds (under 40mph) and there has to be a vehicle in front of you (like actual traffic and not cruising down the freeway at 39mph). I believe its only available in Cali, and Nevada.

 

[azbill]

Blue Cruise works hands free on mapped divided highways. It works on any road or street with hands on, including auto steering. It does not recognize stop signs or lights, in that case you have to take over. It has an 80mph hard limit for speed.

 

[zefram47]

After a Driver+ / HWA event I had a couple days ago it's clear that Rivian has a long way to go. I was on an interstate with two lanes that turned off onto another interstate with a gentle curve. The left-most turn lane also could continue straight, but I was in the right-most that had no choice but to continue on to the other highway. At no time did HWA give a disconnect warning or otherwise indicate to take control. There were no other cars around at the time and the lane lines were very clearly marked. I allowed the truck to get to a point where it would've crossed the line dividing the two turn lanes before taking over, but the truck was very clearly NOT going to make the turn and seemed like it would've kept on going straight through both turn lanes and seemingly into a bridge abutment since by that time it couldn't have stayed on the original highway at all. I was pretty surprised how bad it was in this case since everything was marked well. I'm not sure if it would've made any difference, but I did not have a route programmed into the navi.

 

[sub]

I would titled this "why we need to require all vehicles to be self-driving."

Human drivers are pretty bad. That guy is way more than a little over the line. My Tesla has done some pretty dumb stuff, but it has never been that far off the mark.

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