37 Replies to “I, For One, Welcome Our New Self-Driving Overlords”

  1. Once these things are on the road, we had best prepare for higher auto insurance premiums. This isn’t going to end well.

    1. Agreed BA.
      The best thing I ever did to my 2006 D’Max….was install SOLID 3/16″ welded A36 steel bumpers both front and rear.. Secured w/Gr 8 Bolting to the FRAME – remember those..?
      Go ahead, “make my day” & tail gate me in duck crossing the rd season….

      As to texting / driving, I, like most, have a mobile phone. I have taught myself that nothing is that important such that it requires an INSTANT response.
      Need to converse..? CALL me ffs.

      Death by code…in a “T”…..lovely.

  2. The next must have thing for your car, after the dash cam, is the autonomous vehicle detector. It just sounds an alarm when it detects a driverless vehicle within a 100 yards of you.

    Maybe paired with a heads up display so you have visual on the bogeys approaching your position and you can take appropriate measures.

    There have been enough instances of pedestrians being run down, walls being hit, other things being accelerated into, that sane people know it doesn’t work, and never will.

    It’s the same reason there will never be flying cars, airplanes will always require 2 pilots at the controls, and there will always be human air traffic controllers.

    1. There have been enough instances of pedestrians being run down, walls being hit, other things being accelerated into, that sane people know it doesn’t work

      Not currently; Tesla’s self-drive is a poor implementation in early beta and should never have been allowed on public roads.

      and never will.

      Wrong. Stoll’s Syndrome again.

      It’s the same reason there will never be flying cars

      There are flying cars. They’re called helicopters.

    2. “…airplanes will always require 2 pilots at the controls..”

      Preferrably Western Ex-Pats….fer damned good reason.
      Far too many aircraft have gone down due to some BS cultural issue between a Capt and a Co-Pilot (Of similar pedigee), being under some form of cultural inhibition to say squat to his “betters”.

      Tis why Emirates & others ONLY uses EX PATS as Captains…or Co-Pilots depending upon Airline. Mostly Asian….

      Sum Ting Wong
      Wi Tu Lo
      Ho Lee Fuk
      Bang Ding Owe
      …excellent examples, if you will recall.

  3. Maybe Teslas will come with a sort of ‘flight engineer’ that airliners used to have; that third person behind the two pilots. Progressives always preach that the Green revolution will create all sorts of new jobs.

  4. Put a paper bag over the terrified passenger’s head or the stupid giant screen.
    There is nothing wrong with missing your turn or your exit. You don’t get a failing grade and or your nuts aren’t cut off but all I see today are f**ktards swerving across 3 or 4 lanes to make an exit, or turning right from the left hand lane or vice versa, or driving 30K too slow in the wrong lane.
    As I was told in the army while driving an Iltis while drinking a beer and smoking, one or the other, Buddy.

    1. You forgot slamming on the brakes in front of you because they MUST use the exit they just drove past.

  5. Looks a lot like what many “Law Enforcement” vehicles use South of the Border today.

    But then surely they are only operated by Highly Trained Professionals!!!

  6. That Tesla infotainment screen appears to be large. It’s great that it’s available in an even larger / upgraded size.

    About 25 years ago there were a few thousand cellular devices in Canada, now, there are about 30 million, really everyone over the age of 10 in the country has at least one except for my 89 and 84 years old parents.

    The majority of auto accidents that make the news coverage will have mentioned if there was a “distracted driver” and I expect it to be stated that “there are so MANY accidents these days”. Which is exactly how a warm day is reported, with the addition of climate change and “we have to do something”.
    Are reporters actually this lazy? Yes, yes they are.
    The gov’t safety experts tell us that cellular devices / distracted driving is pushing the number of accidents, injuries, deaths, and health care costs up, even while there are fewer accidents, injuries, and deaths each year. Are they insane?

    At the time that every legislature in North America was beginning to enact distracted driving / cellular phone bans this study creeped in under the wire. A comparison from those days, from when some US states had enacted these laws and others hadn’t yet…
    From the conclusion:
    “We note that this research does not imply that cell phone use is innocuous. It simply implies that current cellular use by drivers does not appear to cause a rise in crashes. It is possible that drivers who use such devices compensate for the added distraction by driving more carefully. Alternatively, it could be that risk-loving drivers may treat cell phones as a substitute for other, equally debilitating, distractions.”

    https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/sds/docs/bhargava/BhargavaPathania2013_AEJ.pdf

    So what is the vehicle accident / death trend in Canada? A steady decline in accidents / deaths since the advent of the cellular device, coupled with a steady increase in the number of licensed drivers and vehicles The trend seems to have started prior to “lane wandering detection”, “heads up” warnings lights, back up cameras…

    It isn’t a stretch to say accidents and deaths have fallen by half in the same time period that cellular devices have gone from a few thousand in use, to “almost everyone”, and certainly more popular than blue jeans…

    Gov’t of Canada statistics here, compiled from all the Canadian provinces:

    https://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/motorvehiclesafety/canadian-motor-vehicle-traffic-collision-statistics-2018.html

    Compare your province to Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, you’ll feel good about yourself. Possibly all those curved roads in other provinces help to keep you awake.
    Possibly not related at all, ask why the insurance rates in BC are insane… lol..

    1. “Are they insane?”
      As you have so clearly shown the accepted ‘narrative’ on any given issue trumps any facts or reality.
      Distracted driving has become so bad in Regina, city cops take time to skulk around on public transit to observe and ticket illegal cell phone use.

  7. Between voice command, touch control and a limited heads up display, with modern technology there should be no reason to take one’s eyes off the road while driving. This thing is a case of “we will do it to show you that we can” without any consideration for the needs of the end user. As one of the commenters on the article, and one of my ex-army colleagues who worked at the cutting edge of electronics mentioned, the idea of completely self-driving vehicles, beyond very limited applications (self-parking) is a very long way off. This screen would be appropriate for a self driving vehicle should one eventually be produced. In the existing automobile, it’s a hazard.

  8. I have a small infotainment unit in my Toyota – probably 6″ by 4″ . When I have the audio display up there is a small 2 ” or so square that displays the album art for whatever you’re playing, but only if you are in park. Displaying a small static picture might distract you, but Elon thinks you should operate a large interactive computer while driving.

  9. UX designer, here:

    After reading through the first bit, it became patently clear that a key decision-maker in the process was unable to answer the question: Why would anyone NOT use a Tesla in autopilot mode? Because that’s the only way a 100% touch screen control system makes sense in a car, and that’s leaving aside driving one in the winter with heavy gloves on, or even light mittens.

    The whole thing just sounds like a failure to understand the workflow of the end user, like they’ve never driven a car before. There is so much wrong here that listing them individually would be a waste of my time.

  10. in what is now some 45 years driving, (obsolete Ont ‘GM’ designation M = motorcycle), a license I have kept the whole time, I whammed into an SUV at slow speed hydroplaning in a torrential friggin downpour.
    the seat belt ‘pendulum’ didnt even kick in I was hydroplaning so bad.
    I split the windshield with my schnoze (shoulda took a pic for posterity)
    the thing that BOOM saved me was the slow speed and the air bag.
    1 relatively minor accident in 45 friggin YEARS.
    because I DONT ‘text msg’ or ‘yap’ or fidget and fidget and fidget with the radio (CDs ONLY)
    fcuk elon musk, fcuk gadgets, fcuk techNOlogy, fcuk it fcuk it fcuk it.

      1. It had to be in the early to mid 70’s
        Throwing out that Buggered up 8 Track out the window and seeing 1.3 miles of tape flying behind you that got stuck on your rear view mirror….just after ya finished that sativa smoke &/or beer. (Buddy..??)

        …dont ask me how I happen to know that….LOL.!!

  11. My thought is what happens to that 15″ or 17″ screen in an accident where there is airbag deployment? A projectile into your passengers in the back seat…one into the side of your head as it slices through the airbag? What if the excited family dog or your bored kid sitting in the parked car inadvertently damages it whereby you can’t even override it to gain access to your vehicle or worse.
    I’m not a doomsayer by nature but these people that develop these secondary computers to override the human computer are fools.
    This stuff is good perhaps on a multi billion dollar space flight but someone forgot what was Henry Ford’s corporate mantra … “Keep It Simple”

  12. That is something to consider. The recent deadly collision of the USS John McStain was due to an overly complex
    military contracted touch screen Navionics suite. Instead of going with Garmin, Raymarine, or Furuno, they farmed
    the project out to Northrup Grumman. Every boat manufacturer in the world uses this off the shelf technology from
    a 40-foot cabin cruiser to billion-dollar-plus mega yachts use these things. They integrate RADAR, GPS, AIS (Automatic
    Identification Systems, autopilots, etc.) Out of the box, these things are easy enough to use a first-time boat owner
    can use them. These things work on boats because bad $hit takes time to happen. Compare that to tooling down
    a freeway at 70 miles an hour, where a 2-second distraction can get you killed!

  13. Funny thing,we can’t drink and drive,be distracted while driving, nor drive with undue care and attention…But we can buy a car that performs as if we did?
    It needs a bigger screen,some motion simulators and then these idiot owners can virtue signal in their own homes.
    The Electric car has been the “coming city transport improvement” for 200 years,it lost to Steam and Steam lost to the Internal combustion engine.
    Yet the proponents continue to push..Yet none will accept Golf Carts as legal to use on city streets..Leads me to sense they want to push other people around way more than they ever want to reduce urban air pollution.
    Next the “Made in China” Tesla..I can’t wait,I sense a developing market,”Tesla Bars” for our pickups,something like the plow as seen on Mythbusters Final Show.

  14. All of those fancy-schmancy doodads aren’t going to prevent people from driving like idiots.

    Last week, I found that someone backed into my car, put a nice dent in the rear, and drove off without notifying me. In other words, it was a hit and run. I found out this morning that the estimated damage is $2500.

    1. Butt B A, the computers in these cars harvest a lot of personal info, they even track any phones calls that do not go through blue tooth

      1. My car’s so old that Volkswagen discontinued some of the required parts. The most sophisticated item on the vehicle is the electronic ignition or, possibly, the digital clock. No computer.

        Like some wag once said, the most dangerous component on any motor vehicle is the nut behind the wheel.

        By the way, hit and run incidents appear to be quite common here in Edmonton. When I was waiting to make my report to the police, there were at least 3 other people in line with me who had the same problem.

        1. Sorry about your car. This ‘accident’ will come back to haunt the driver — probably was a drunk driver!

          1. Thanks.

            It happened in the parkade right by my building, so I doubt it was a drunk. The issue isn’t the money, but that the person insulted me by driving off without owning up to it.

            Mind you, I shouldn’t be surprised it happened. We’ve got a lot of–ahem–foreigners living in our complex (many of them seem to be poor little rich kids) and their driving and parking skills are frightful at times. (Ah, but look at their Beemer or Lexus in the wrong way and see what happens…..) Many of them can’t walk to or from their vehicles without looking intensely at their electronic joy boxes.

            If they’re that way while on foot, I’d hate to be anywhere near them when they’re on the road and behind the wheel.

  15. I have yet to see a single Tesla on the road being driven like a normal automobile. They are never in the flow of traffic. They are always being driven in the right hand lanes, slower than any other Car on the road. I’ve not seen a single Tesla on the road being driven in “ludicrous” mode. Not a single Tesla “challenging” my BMW 335i with it’s superior 0-60 acceleration. Why? Because any Tesla driven faster than about 55mph will soon need a recharge. Range Anxiety. Will soon have to return home. Range Anxiety.

    Most of the Tesla in my upper, upper, middle class community of trophy wives, is driven “low and slow” … like the “Beaner low riders”. Driven … to be seen. By the maximum number of neighbors possible. Not a single Tesla is driven like 99% of other drivers do … which is to get from point a to point b as quickly and comfortably as possible.

  16. The GM Equinox control panel is almost as stupid. Two sets of up-down arrows next to each other that you must take our eyes of the road to see. One set of arrows controls the driver information panel between the speedometer and the tachometer. The other arrows cycle through the heater: feet, vent, or defrost/feet. Mixed in with these are other buttons: a pure front defrost button next to a similar looking rear defrost.

    They also put the headlight on/off/auto controls on the turn signal lever instead on on the dash. Why? How often do you need to change from auto given that there are always on headlights?

    Aircraft designers had to kill a lot of pilots to understand “Design Induced Pilot Error.” (Boeing head honchos hired a bunch of H1B guys who did not learn this and killed two planeloads of people. Modern corporations: advocating for women and minorities for STEM jobs and then hiring guys from India because young white boys were told they were just not good enough and girls were better. Will Boeing survive? I have mixed feelings.)

    GM almost killed me after years of driving a Camero with the wiper controls on the turn signal stick, switching them to the right side stick on the Equinox. So driving the new Equinox in a snowstorm, I came around a turn and there were flashing police and tow truck lights all over the place and as I slowed snow started to stick to the windshield. I instinctively turned the control on the turn signal lever, the correct thing to do on the Camero, and turned the headlights off in the middle of the night, in a snow storm, with flashing emergency lights all over the road. Fun times. Exactly equivalent to swapping to positions of the cigarette lighter and and ejection seat buttons on similar model planes.

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