Autonomous Self Driving Spotted in NYC

[Longdoggy]

I was walking back from lunch and saw this BMW parked and two guys fiddling with some electronics. The BMW had the cylindrical contraption on the roof spinning around at a very fast rate. At first I thought it was some 3D/VR type car capturing data, but did not quite look like a 360 image setup. It was definitely not Google Earth.

So I had to ask the guys. The one guy had a thick foreign accent, the BMW had euro plates.

I said that it's a very cool concept; his reply was to wait five years.
Things to come...

My reply was, "I love my BMW, but I love driving it. Autonomous Driving kind of takes away from that Ultimate Driving Machine effect".

[insanecoder]

I hope they develope software robust enough to avoid bikers and skateboarders and the crazy taxi drivers in NYC.. I seriously doubt 5 years is enuf for that!

[overcoil]

Has anyone gotten a survey from BMW asking opinions on self driving ?

[mkoesel]

Originally Posted by ScottSinger

Has anyone gotten a survey from BMW asking opinions on self driving?

I did. However, my personal robot assistant filled it out for me and sent it back before I ever saw it. Amazing, right?!

[Chihuahua]

Originally Posted by Longdoggy

My reply was, "I love my BMW, but I love driving it. Autonomous Driving kind of takes away from that Ultimate Driving Machine effect".

I'm OK with BMW adopting autonomous driving, I can't think of a major car manufacturer that isn't developing it other than some of the exotic manufacturers. I look at autonomous driving on a BMW the same way as cruise control; it's there if I want to use it, but I can also elect not to.

[Maynard]

Personally, I think that they should subsidize this to encourage adoption by as wide an audience as possible. Anybody that isn't really into driving would be better off letting the computer drive, and it would make things safer and more regular for those of us who do. Of course, the early learning curve will be a bit scary (like for airbags and antilock brakes - clearly superior now, but early on they were probably making things more dangerous).

[aerostar]

Originally Posted by Maynard

Personally, I think that they should subsidize this to encourage adoption by as wide an audience as possible. Anybody that isn't really into driving would be better off letting the computer drive, and it would make things safer and more regular for those of us who do. Of course, the early learning curve will be a bit scary (like for airbags and antilock brakes - clearly superior now, but early on they were probably making things more dangerous).

I think it would really be tough to implement properly without having *every* group contribute.

Bikers and the random stopped cars all over the place will be a nightmare for this to program.

And...the pedestrians... oh god.

[Maynard]

Yeah, the other big downside I see is when they mention that we only use our cars 4% of the time. Auto-drivers will mean a kind of traffic congestion that we haven't even considered, even if it is orderly and well-regulated.