Self-driving cars will be on the roads within five years, says Ford CEO

[Hamartia Antidote]

i cant watch the videos but thanked the post anyway. what kind of input are these cars getting. do they have optical sensors or something like sonar. likely the car will predict the path of every object in its vision and calculate how that picture will change through the next few second and trace its path accordingly.

here's dailymotion

Definitely laser and sonar.

 

[Gauss]

here's dailymotion

Definitely laser and sonar.

thanks mate. very impressive !! but it surely has years of testing ahead before the software is tuned to perfection.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

thanks mate. very impressive !! but it surely has years of testing ahead before the software is tuned to perfection.

Yes years off, that's what everybody expects. However there's been some headlines lately saying "driverless cars are going to be here a lot sooner than many people think". So the far off years are much closer than most people realize.

 

[Gauss]

Yes years off, that's what everybody expects. However there's been some headlines lately saying "driverless cars are going to be here a lot sooner than many people think". So the far off years are much closer than most people realize.

ok. coool.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Report of Traffic Accident Involving an Autonomous Vehicle (OL 316)

9 accident reports.
7 were caused by people rear ending the autonomous car stopped at a red light (mostly at < 2mph).
1 Caused by someone running a stop sign and hitting the vehicle.
1 Caused by somebody crossing over the center island of the road and hitting the autonomous car.

 

[Hussain Farooqui]

Lot of things which were unimaginable about 2 centuries back are now realities. Many things which are unimaginable these days will transform into realities in future.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Lot of things which were unimaginable about 2 centuries back are now realities. Many things which are unimaginable these days will transform into realities in future.

To make a robot army effective you'll need to teach them how to take parts from severely damaged robots and use them to fix minor damaged robots. It's all downhill after that..

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Tesla’s upgraded Autopilot ships with this week’s version 7 software upgrade | ExtremeTech

New Tesla Autopilot self-driving capabilities arrive this week with version 7 of Tesla’s software. It enhances the Model S’s ability to help drive the car on highways and assist with parallel parking. The interface on Tesla’s 17-inch center stack LCD will also have a “new look,” Tesla chairman Elon Musk says.

The download becomes available Thursday and will take five days to roll out to the installed base of Tesla Model S sedans, Tesla says. It gives the Model S the same capabilities as the Tesla Model X SUV that began shipping Sept. 30 in very limited quantities. Not every autonomous driving feature is in the 7.0 release — for instance, valet mode car retrieval that parks and unparks your car in a garage with you outside the car.

Some exciting news this week: Tesla Version 7 software with Autopilot goes to wide release on Thursday!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 11, 2015

What Autopilot does now, in the future
With Autopilot, Tesla matches and possibly raises the offerings of the highest-end automakers. Along with some standard driver assist features, the Tesla Tech Package, it combines to provide full-range adaptive cruise control (Traffic Aware Cruise Control, TACC, in Tesla terminology) that is full range, down to 0 mph and back up to speed; blind spot detection; lane departure warning; automated lane change (initiated by the driver); and traffic sign recognition.

This week’s update is expected to included automated parallel and possibly head-in parking. The existing sensors give a Tesla the ability to pull into a narrow home garage, and back out, with the driver outside the car. A further extension might allow the ability to pull into a public parking garage and have it valet-parked on your behalf.

Musk has said a Tesla “will learn over time,” including adapting to the nature of how other cars are driven.

Autopilot embedded in recent Teslas, $2,500 turns it on

Since September 2014, Tesla embedded a forward-facing camera in the windshield mirror cluster, a radar in the front grille, and a dozen sonar sensors in the front and rear bumpers. If you aren’t sure you want the AutoPilot features, the hardware is still there and you make it work by paying the $2,500 Tech Package fee. That’s a huge advantage for Tesla over other automakers that today balk at spending $25-$50 to embed satellite radio in hopes some buyers will subscribe. It also means the Model S sedan and Model X crossover (image right) can be on equal footing for driver-assist features, as long as they have the same hardware sensors.

The Tesla auto-upgrade feature also requires an embedded cellular telematics modem, which is pretty much standard on high end cars from all automakers; even Ford’s Lincoln division is getting religion on that. Only General Motors’ OnStar drives onboard telematics down to to entry-level cars.

The auto-download-and-upgrade feature enables better technologies as they come available. That’s how a Tesla progresses from lane departure warning (when the car drifts over to lane marking) to lane keep assist (the car is steered back from the lane edge) to lane centering (the car stays within a few inches of the very center of the lane).

Some technologies would require additional sensors. Night vision offered on high-end German cars for about $2,000 requires a thermal imager. It’s now a useful tool because the ever-improving software can detect pedestrians, larger animals, and bicyclists; warn of their presence; and if US laws allowed it, turn and strobe (flash) the headlamps at the knees of pedestrians or animals close to the road.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Tesla takes the wheel: driving a Model S hands-free

Elon Musk isn't happy just introducing an automobile and walking away to work on next year's model. Instead his company continues to offer over-the-air upgrades to current vehicles. The latest software enhance is landing in its electric cars tomorrow with a slew of new autopilot features. They won't drive you around town, but will make highway driving and parking a bit easier. While the new Autopark does exactly what you would expect, Autosteer is a bit more ambitious. With it, you're supposed to be able to go for miles on the open road with it doing most of the heavy lifting. The car tracks lane markers and uses enhanced GPS data to keep the car from launching off into the median. I had a chance to drive a Tesla on the highway with its new ability -- without using my hands -- and it was outstanding, but also a bit weird.

The big feature, Autosteer, is less autonomous driving and more of a very advanced version of cruise control. For those looking forward to getting a robot car to drive them to work, Musk expects Tesla will have a fully autonomous vehicle ready to go in three years. In the meantime, this new autopilot feature will maintain the cruise control speed while keeping a safe distance between itself and the vehicle in front of it and stay in its lane. It's a gradual step toward the future that'll make commuting less of a pain.

After setting the mode in the car's updated UI and double-tapping the cruise control arm, the car does the driving for you. It's an eerily smooth transition. If the vehicle determines you're not centered in a lane, it adjusts itself without jerking the vehicle. After that, I removed my hands from the wheel and the Model S tracked itself along Interstate 280 better than most of the other drivers on the road. It had no trouble with meandering corners. It kept a safe distance behind the car in front of it (something you can manually adjust if you would like more cushion). Adjusting the speed was a matter of flipping the cruise control arm: up to go faster and down to slow down. Meanwhile you just sit there. Because you're hurtling down the freeway, you're still paying attention, but it lowers the stress level a bit. If you're stuck in traffic, it takes the pain out of the stop-and-go experience because it does it for you. You've gone from driver to driver/passenger. This is the first step to the pure passenger experience of truly autonomous cars.

While it's cool, Musk stresses that this is a public beta of the feature and that drivers should keep their hands on the wheel at all time: "We want people to be quite careful." That warning becomes an audible alert in the vehicle when the lane markers become faded or another car slides into your lane. At that point, you're reminded that, yeah you're still the driver.

The entire Autosteer system is built around the vehicle's confidence that what's about to happen is safe. If the roadway is less than optimal, you can't engage it. If while engaged, it detects something out of the ordinary, an audible and visual warning inform you to take control. If you ignore that, the warning gets more persistent and the system will eventually slow the car down and bring it to a complete stop.

That confidence spills over into the Auto Lane Change feature. While in Autosteer, I attempted to automatically move to the left lane. A vehicle was approaching at a rather quick pace on my left and the car wouldn't complete the move on its own. At that point, it got a little too careful and wouldn't automatically move itself into any lanes. After having the passenger turn the feature off and then back on again (just like a router, but speeding down the highway), I was switching lanes (when it was safe) without checking my blind spots or even grabbing the wheel. For someone that's completely obsessed with safe driving, it's unnerving letting the car take over like this. But with a quick brake tap or slight turn of the steering wheel, I was back in control.

While exiting the freeway, I was able to complete a few automatic lane changes, but when the car detected a vehicle that was behind and to the right of me, it again wouldn't go on its own. I accelerated and pulled into the right lane as I would with any other car. The system errs on the side of caution without making you feel like you're being coddled. Yes, it'll be abused (get ready for more texting and driving), but even while driving down a surface street, it avoided a bus sticking out in the road.

But it's not even close to infallible. Hence the repeated warnings from Musk during a briefing. It also has difficulty with sharp turns and inclement weather conditions like rain, snow and fog. Tesla is adamant that the feature is "hands on," so you're supposed to keep those mitts on the wheel. So don't start updating Twitter while you're supposed to be driving. Yet, it'll get better as more and more Teslas drive in autopilot mode and feed road information back to the company's highly detailed mapping system.

The update also brings enhanced versions of traffic-aware cruise control, side collision warning, vehicle hold (keeping the car rolling on inclines), Autopark and better climate control that cools or heats the interior quicker without using more energy. All of that is wrapped into a brand-new UI.

Tesla is still a few years away from getting us from point A to point B without our interaction. But in the meantime, it's tackling the commute, the worst aspect of the driving experience, by letting its cars take the wheel. It's a smart move and for anyone that sits in a traffic, a welcome relief.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

GM Has 'Aggressive' Plans for Self-Driving Cars | WIRED



General Motors is quietly developing autonomous vehicle technology and plans to have a fleet of self-driving Chevrolet Volts roaming the campus of its technical center in suburban Detroit next year.

The company has been relatively quiet about the technology, which companies like Google, Tesla Motors, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi have championed with big promises and impressive demonstrations. But General Motors is no stranger to autonomous tech, which is started exploring almost a decade ago when it collaborated with Carnegie Mellon University for an autonomous vehicle competition sponsored by DARPA.

It plans to capitalize on that work with “Super Cruise,” a semi-autonomous feature that will let a car handle itself on the freeway. The feature is expected to appear on an unspecified Cadillac model next year. The company also will deploy a fleet of robo-Volts, with engineers at the wheel just in case, at the Warren Technical Center.

The center, in suburban Detroit, covers roughly a square mile and features many of the variables autonomous vehicles would encounter in an urban area. Eleven miles of road criss-cross the center, which includes intersections, roundabouts, pedestrians, and cyclists. In that way, it’s GM’s own little city. “We’ll leverage that,” Barra told WIRED. “There’s so much you learn by actually doing.”

It’s a fitting locale for this kind of testing: Since 1956, the Eero Saarinen-designed Warren campus has served as the automaker’s main research hub. Since 2009, it’s been the home of the country’s largest battery lab, where GM develops and tests the all-important lithium-ion batteries that power the Volt, and will power the Bolt, the affordable car with 200 miles of electric range it intends to introduce in 2017.

And the Volt is a fitting car for the project: an electrified system makes it easier for engineers to tap into the controls, but more importantly, it’s the most forward-looking car in the GM stable. There’s a reason nearly every autonomous prototype out there is electric: When you’re talking bout one technology of the future, it makes sense to pair it with another.

Barra adds a third category: connectivity. “You need embedded connectivity to make autonomous work. And that’s where General Motors has a lead,” with nearly two decades of OnStar-equipped vehicles on the market. It’s moving from there to vehicle to vehicle communication, starting with two Cadillac models next year.

Barra says GM isn’t going to rely on the traditional owner-driver model to keep its business going, and will “absolutely” make cars for an age when human driving is defunct. “We are disrupting ourselves.”

GM’s not revealing how the fleet of Volts in Warren fit into grander plans for automation, or if it has a target date to introduce technology beyond Super Cruise to the market. But, Barra says, “we’re gonna move aggressively.”

 

[Marshmallow]

autopiloted cars will be beyond a common man's reach for atleast a decade. You can not expect Audi to sell a common man's car.
But I hope it reduces the rash driving habits of the spoilt rich brats.

Im personally not in favour of depending too much on every other Technology and Machines...

Humans are going to turn into complete Zombies if that will be the case...very boring!

 

[Levina]

Im personally not in favour of depending too much on every other Technology and Machines...

Humans are going to turn into complete Zombies if that will be the case...very boring!

Ofcourse!
There will be a few who will use technology as their slaves, while the more enlightened ones will use it for saving time and effort, and channeling their energy elsewhere.
Everything comes with its pros and cons.


Autopiloted cars would mean lesser accidents on road- one reason why I support autopilot tech.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

"Legally blind" man using driverless car.

But can people deal with the car driving itself without being weirded out.

 

[newb3e]

self driving Mehran in 50 years maybe?

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Obviously Drivers Are Already Abusing Tesla's Autopilot | WIRED

At 10:03 am Wednesday, a red Tesla Model S P85D with the license plate “UBER QIK” arrived at a parking garage on East 31st Street in Manhattan. This is noteworthy only because that very car was at the Portofino Hotel in Redondo Beach, California, just two and a half days earlier.

The Model S crossed the country in record time for an EV—and drove itself nearly the entire way.

Carl Reese, Deena Mastracci, and Alex Roy made the coast-to-coast drive in 57 hours and 48 minutes, a time that is still to be verified by an independent third party. The three are veterans of record-setting transcontinental runs: In April, Reese and Mastracci set a record for the least time spent charging an EV while driving across the country. And Roy, a rally driver, set an unofficial “Cannonball Run” record in 2006, driving from New York to LA in just 31 hours and 4 minutes.

Arriving in New York in record time, without being arrested or killed, is a personal victory for the drivers. More than that, though, it highlights how quickly and enthusiastically autonomous technology is likely to be adopted, and how tricky it may be to keep in check once drivers get their first taste of freedom behind the wheel.

Well That Didn’t Take Long
Tesla Motors introduced “Autopilot,” which makes recent Model S sedans and all Model X SUVs semi-autonomous, through an over the air software update on October 14. The system, installed in tens of thousands of vehicles, uses radar, cameras, GPS, and ultrasonic sensors to keep the car within its lane, maintain a safe following distance, and change lanes at the command of the human. CEO Elon Musk urged prudence when using Autopilot, saying, “We tell drivers to keep their hands on the wheel just in case, to exercise caution in the beginning.”

Four days later, Reese, Mastracci, and Roy piled into a Model S and took off. They covered 2,994 miles at an average speed of 51.8 mph, a figure that includes the time spent plugged into Supercharger stations along the way. They had autopilot mode engaged 96 percent of the time, Reese says, using it at speeds around 90 mph. It eased the burden on the team, a big deal when you’re in a car for 57 hours straight.

Autopilot caused a few scares, Roy says, largely because the car was moving so quickly. “There were probably three or four moments where we were on autonomous mode at 90 miles an hour, and hands off the wheel,” and the road curved, Roy says. Where a trained driver would aim for the apex—the geometric center of the turn—to maintain speed and control, the car follows the lane lines. “If I hadn’t had my hands there, ready to take over, the car would have gone off the road and killed us.” He’s not annoyed by this, though. “That’s my fault for setting a speed faster than the system’s capable of compensating.”

These three aren’t the only people pushing the system’s limits. Tesla owners already are posting videos of themselves driving with theirs hands off the wheel, sometimes with hairy results like being pulled over for speeding and nearly steering into an oncoming car.

Gray Areas
Rules governing autonomous driving barely exist, and the few that are in place vary by state. There was nothing stopping Tesla from flipping the switch to make its cars steer themselves, but there’s no system for regulating what that means in the real world. Musk advises caution and responsibility, but Tesla isn’t rushing to rein in drivers. Musk himself congratulated Reese, Mastracci, and Roy on Twitter:


“It’s so cool to see Model S owners get out there and use this groundbreaking technology. The more people who use it, the better it will get,” says company spokeswoman Khobi Brooklyn. “Having said that, today’s Autopilot features are designed to provide a hands-on experience to give drivers more confidence behind the wheel, increase their safety on the road, and make highway driving more enjoyable. Drivers can’t abdicate responsibility, we expect the driver to be present and prepared to take over at any time.”

Tesla’s Autopilot is only available above 18 mph and is intended only for highway use, but there are no apparent restrictions on top speed, or where the system’s used. The human has to touch the wheel every few seconds, otherwise the car beeps a warning, and eventually comes to a controlled stop. Tesla’s not the only company with this kind of tech: Mercedes’ Intelligent Drive system lets the S- and E-Class sedans stay in their lanes at a controlled speed, but those cars require the human keep her hands on the wheel at all times.

Companies can get away with a lot that's in a legal gray area, as long as bad things don't happen. Bryant Walker Smith, assistant professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law

If someone causes an accident by relying too heavily on Tesla’s system, Tesla may not get off the hook by saying, “Hey, we told ’em to be careful.”

“Companies can get away with a lot that’s in a legal gray area, as long as bad things don’t happen,” says Bryant Walker Smith, an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law and affiliate scholar at the Center for Internet and Society, who studies self-driving vehicles. But when bad things do happen, regulators step in—and those gray areas tend to shrink pretty quickly.

In an extreme case, states could decide Tesla’s cars are unsafe and revoke their registrations, or refuse to issue new ones. The feds could force Tesla to recall its cars and change their settings (something Tesla could do with another software update). If someone’s hurt in an accident, the automaker could face civil or criminal charges.

This is why, Smith says, other risk-averse automakers developing autonomous technology have been so slow to introduce it. Questions of liability are unresolved. If a self-driving system causes a tragedy—especially one involving an innocent bystander—public pushback is likely. The strongest argument for the technology, that it will make driving safer, would be badly weakened.

Even Roy, a trained racing driver who set this speed record with the help of Autopilot, is concerned about how the public will use it, he says. “There’s no reason this car should be allowed to go 20 or 30 miles per hour over the speed limit in autonomous mode.”