Google aren’t the only people with an interest in self-driving cars. But Lexus, perhaps with an eye to the public’s nervousness about the idea is promoting layers of automation to reduce accidents.
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Lexus highlights autonomous, “perceiving” car to reduce on-road fatalities
Company says cars that can sense their surroundings will crash less, save lives.
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I hope it doesn’t swerve around a blowing piece of cardboard.
This would be why people are so reluctant to trust self-driving cars.
Despite the fact people are actually far more likely to do that.
I’ve not done that 3 to 4 times already, although my foot was headed for the brake the first time.
+James Drury I wonder if it can distinguish between a blowing piece of cardboard, and a blowing piece of plywood.
I had a 3′*5′ sheet of plywood fall off the back of a pickup in front of me at 70mph and get kicked up to a near vertical postion from the truck’s vortex shedding while I was riding home on my motorcycle a few months ago. Looked for all the world like a like piece of cardboard other than seeming rigid, and not having time to swerve around it, I had to rev, dump clutch, and loft and punch my front wheel (and a bit of my right boot) through it. The impact was hard enough to set the rear wobbling and nearly cause a tank slapper when I set the front down after stabilizing the rear with a dash more throttle. Ended up taking a tiny chunk out of the edge of the front wheel itself and slightly warping a front rotor.
Certainly would’ve been more damage and and a definite accident in the car, so the distinction is very important.
Don’t get me wrong though, I’m very much in favor of self driving cars, I just would like to know more about their capabilities, especially in the chaos of heavy traffic.
Yeah, although a Freightliner woulda shrugged it off. I’ve had a Reel of fiber optic cable roll across the midbarrier at me and I had to swerve that time.
You are def lucky.
+James Drury Definitely some luck, but also more than a few years of experience riding motorcycles in heavy traffic. If I weren’t an experienced rider, it would definitely have taken me out. I also have some weirdness in my primary visual cortex which tends to let me process and react to visual information quicker than most, but I’ll count that in with luck.
Troll time
At least in the UK, Lexus drivers need all the support they can get. Average accident rate, 13.3%. Lexus driver, 21.1% The sooner Lexus drivers are not allowed to drive, the safer we’ll all be.
http://insurance-news.tiger.co.uk/tiger-co-uk-reveals-britains-safest-drivers/
Wouldn’t they just buy a different type of car?
I was referring to having computers drive for them
Something odd about those numbers too. The variance is huge. 10% for Fiat but 23% for Porsche??
And whoever that one guy is driving a yellow Daewoo… I want him to drive me around from now on.
Yeah… and why are red Saab’s so safe compared to any other colour :-S
Still interesting stats… I wish they’d tell us the sample size.
Black, silver, and grey seem fairly broadly more likely to be in an accident across most brands. I wonder if it’s a visibility issue, with people more likely to hit the car because they don’t see it as easily since it’s closer to the color of a lot of types of paved surfaces and blends in. It also looks like luxury brands in general are more likely to be in wrecks. I know around here they tend to be driven both more aggressively and less attentively.
My wife used to have a black car and I often wondered that actually. I know that until they put their lights on they really aren’t nearly as visible.