BlackBerry Opens Autonomous Vehicle Research Lab in Ottawa, Canada

[Solomani]

Next week: Nintendo, Disney, and Hasbro announce plans to research and develop self-driving cars.

 

[MacsRgr8]

How about Duracell? A great ad instead of the bunny.

So many are trying... I wonder who will truly succeed.

 

[Solomani]

How about Duracell? A great ad instead of the bunny.

So many are trying... I wonder who will truly succeed.

Who will succeed? No one really knows because it's a futuristic technology that is at its infancy. And success will be obstructed with many cities and many national safety laws against the idea of "self-driving" anything. These companies will have to spend years and years and years of testing and research before they can convince any city that their self-driving cars are "perfectly safe" enough to run around the streets.

People don't realize that gasoline-powered (and diesel) automobiles were around since the 1800s, during the Victorian Era. But there was literally no successful mass production of automobiles until Henry Ford came out with the Model T in 1915.

I don't expect self-driving cars to be a common "everyday sight" until a few decades from now. Many companies (in the next few years) will spend billions researching and testing self-driving cars. Most of them will fail.

 

[MacsRgr8]

I hope self-driving cars will be used as public transport: a sort of cross between a taxi and a bus.
Get in, "say" (literally) where you're heading, pay with credit card before car rolls.

 

[TallManNY]

Companies want them so they eventually can kick out the people driving them.

But imagine being able to work or watch your favorite soap while in heavy traffic if you are commuting or going somewhere else.

When the technology matures it is not unlikely that it will be more safer than how people drive today. Combined with no requirement for rest. Imagine you are going somewhere which normally needs a 24 hour drive, when you are tired and usually would go to a motel, now you could just put your seat back and sleep while the car does the rest.

Or think about all who text and drive, drink and drive.

You are so right. I can't believe that anyone wouldn't realize how powerful and important and game changing driverless cars will be if you can sleep in them. Forget about a 24 hour drive. How about just an eight hour drive? You can jump in your car, go to sleep and wake up for breakfast at a vacation spot. Have a nice day doing tourist stuff, jump in your car at the end and sleep on your way back home. I'm in NYC, if I can sleep and watch TV, I could pop over to Niagra Falls on a whim with my driverless car that runs on battery (and which finds a charger halfway there and recharges itself). Cost will be negligible. Time will pass easily between sleeping, eating and watching TV. This will "shrink" the world as dramatically as the invention of flight did. Maybe even more so on a day to day basis. It will change our infrastructure since places that were far away when you had to drive yourself become much less of an issue when you don't have to drive. This will make prime central locations less valuable, but distant and interesting locations more valuable. Why have dinner near home when a two hour drive to that restaurant located on a scenic cliff isn't a pain to reach?
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Who will succeed? No one really knows because it's a futuristic technology that is at its infancy. And success will be obstructed with many cities and many national safety laws against the idea of "self-driving" anything. These companies will have to spend years and years and years of testing and research before they can convince any city that their self-driving cars are "perfectly safe" enough to run around the streets.

People don't realize that gasoline-powered (and diesel) automobiles were around since the 1800s, during the Victorian Era. But there was literally no successful mass production of automobiles until Henry Ford came out with the Model T in 1915.

I don't expect self-driving cars to be a common "everyday sight" until a few decades from now. Many companies (in the next few years) will spend billions researching and testing self-driving cars. Most of them will fail.

A few decades (i.e., 30 or 40 years) away seems very pessimistic considering Tesla is making something decent now. And Google, Uber, Mercedes, and many others are testing fully autonomous cars on roads now. Unless some serious stumbling block is reached (like operating in a snow storm) and it stalls everyone for years and years, I'd be surprised if we are ten years away from driverless cars being a common option offered by every manufacturer. It will start with long haul trucks because those cars are very expensive and have the room to carry lots of equipment. And they don't car about optics and sensors and stuff hanging on the machine. From there it will just be miniaturization and bringing cost down to get it into consumer cars.

I don't disagree that many companies will fail and it will cost them billions. In fact I suspect Uber is going to be one that fails even though they seem to be only just behind Google. I don't see how that company can have the tech, programming and manufacturing chops to pull this off compared to Google, Apple, or the car manufacturers.

 

[MacBH928]

I just love the self-confidence in these corporations. They can't build a modern competing smartphone, they go ahead to build self driving cards. Nice...

 

[V.K.]

Has anyone done a study about whether people actually want one of these. Or have there been estimates of initial cost and ongoing cost to maintain the network connections, maps etc.
Personally, I could see very limited desire to have one and it if cost significantly more that a regular car (which I suspect it will) I wouldn't buy one

Of course they have. lots and lots. Like this one. Do you really think any car company would proceed with self-driving cars plans without doing that kind of research?! That would be beyond madness. There is already a good deal of acceptance by consumers although of course there is also a lot of resistance too. That's perfectly understandable. But this will change as the tech improves and people become more familiar with it. And once the tech becomes safer and more reliable than human driving there will be no turning back. Given the speed with which things seem to be progressing this might happen sooner rather than later. I expect this will certainly be the case in another 15 years or so. The transition period from here to there is going to be tricky though.