Robot cars to hit Blighty in 2015

can't wait

So many benefits to a driverless car. Driverless cars waiting at traffic lights can communicate with each other and the lights so that they all set off as soon as the light turns green rather than having to wait for the car in front to get away. Cars on motorways can drive closer together all communicating with one another. Cars can drive with maximum fuel efficiency all the time. Cars can drive places overnight when the roads are less busy whilst their passengers sleep. Cars can drop you off then go and find a parking space which they looked up online. The car park can pack cars in because entry and exit times can be booked so cars can be placed into spaces according to when they need to leave or move themselves around in the car park as required, nobody needs to open doors so cars can be parked very close together. All this and the car can take you home from the pub. The potential of driverless cars is huge.

BSOD

If they've got blue windscreens I'm staying indoors.

No change there then!

For many years when driving in the UK and other parts of the world, I have noticed cars negotiating roads and traffic apparently without the presence of an actual driver so I thought it had always been permitted.

I wonder will there be a requirement for the car to have an occupant with a licence or will the car have to pass a test?

I'm looking forward to the riderless bicycle.When that is introduced I won't have to bother with those infuriating bicycle clips and riding through puddles that send mud and water splashing up one's backside. I won't have to bother with being run off the road by lorry drivers that seem to do it for sport either as I can let the bike go off wherever it pleases and just concentrate on walking the dog.Maybe one day there will even be robotic dog leashes and I will be able to just stay in bed while it takes the dog for a walk.The future looks more exiting by the minute.

I hope the on-board software will be a tad more reliable than Win8, else picture all the gravestones engraved with variations on 'Passed away whilst trying to reboot...

Driverless vehicles for towns? Aren't they called buses?

Save all the costs - a DC is not going to be cheap - by banning cars completely from the cities and boost public transport so that people really don't need them.

That will never happen of course - the government would lose the revenue streams from road tax, speed cameras, congestion charges, fuel tax as well as all the other pointless fines levied on the easy targets of car drivers. Safety? Bullshit - only 0.5% of all deaths in the UK in 2009 were caused by road traffic accidents (http://www.racfoundation.org/assets/rac_foundation/content/downloadables/road%20accident%20casualty%20comparisons%20-%20box%20-%20110511.pdf). No, it's definitely the revenue they are protecting, not the driver.

Supposing they did follow my suggestion, hell, they might have to start concentrating on the real issues of cancer, heart disease, drugs and crime instead, but those are too much like hard work.

Am I the only one who does not believe this hype about driverless cars?

This happened a few weeks ago. I was driving along a 60mph road. Ahead of me was a lorry parked in the opposite lane. Of course I see this ahead and start slowing down. Presumably an AI could do that too, I'll give it that much.

I notice a workman is standing in front of the lorry holding a pole that says "STOP". So of course I stop, and knowing the implications of this I leave enough space for traffic coming the other direction to pass. My human brain has learned this pattern of "workmen managing traffic" and I know on the other-side of the lorry is a workman holding a "GO" pole.

What would a driverless car do though? Would it stop and leave enough room for other cars to pass? Or would it ignore the pole and continue going through at 40mph only to break sharply when a car from the other direction pulled into it's lane? Then what? The driverless car presumably isn't going to reverse. So it's blocking the traffic. So the meat in the driver seat has just shit themselves and is fumbling to regain control.

I've said it before. If modern AI were really capable of driving a car then WHERE IS THE FRICKIN AI in simpler settings?

The dearth of decent AI in video games speaks volumes about the true capability of AI today.

Did they try that test where...

a motorcycle filters in between two of the buggers at 60mph when they are doing 30?

I will.

I'll also try the 'kicking-the-wing-mirror-off' critical appraisal technique I use sometimes too.

Wonder what it will do.

...Robotic cars are set to prowl THE STREETS of Britain...

The Gods must smiling on me!!!! There's no chance then of them invading South Shropshire! How's it going to stay in its lane when there IS only one? ... and that combine headed towards you is not going to back up! How will it identify and locate a 'hedge nudge' to snuck into while the darnn thing goes past? ... if it gets out of that unscathed ... just watch out for the caravan of novice horse riders mincing down the lane around the next corner! Hey! Who are they going to wave at and thank as you drive carefully by... taking due regard for the VERY soft shoulder and the puddle YOU know doesn't hide a pothole and is very shallow.... have these things got side scan radar fitted? Perhaps there will be a market for guided tours of the urban areas by us country bumpkins to see these wonders of modern technology that can't tell a quagmire from a horse doo! Good luck guys..

Disabled Access and Robotic Cars

Hello

This is great news esp for elderly people of members of the disabled community :)

I hope that the project will also consider designing wheel chair accessible robotic cars in the future?

Sonia

The name Austen now belongs to a Chinese car maker. It could soon reappear on Britain's roads.