[Nfbk] Self-driving cars: Yes, please! Now, please!

[Cathy]

MessageIt is my understanding that contact has and will be made. As always
we want to make sure that what is developed is accessible for the blind.
There is enough expertise to go around. I think all of this technology is
exciting. Cindy, I am 62 and I too hope that I get a chance to apply for and
receive a drivers license.

Cathy
-----Original Message-----
From: nfbk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbk-bounces at nfbnet.org]On Behalf Of
slerythema
Sent: Sunday, February 05, 2012 1:55 AM
To: 'NFB of Kentucky Internet Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [Nfbk] Self-driving cars: Yes, please! Now, please!


Yes, someone that thinks like me. I love the self-driving cars because
people are too distracted on the road any more. Personally, I think when we
have fully automated cars that the death rate of vehicle crashes will drop
by 50% or more. The NFB needs to push to be involved with these developments
to make sure the interfaces are usable by the blind. The driver challenge
invites others to join with us to share technology, but I think we need to
do more to join them.

Please do not interpret this as the blind driving a car versus the car
driving, it is simply a point of view that gets the other reckless drivers
taken care of. When the car is driving, feel free to text, talk on the
phone, surf the web, mediate the fighting kids in the back seat, or sleep.

Cindy Sheets.
  -----Original Message-----
  From: nfbk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Kevin Pearl
  Sent: Saturday, February 04, 2012 10:04 AM
  To: NFBK
  Subject: [Nfbk] Self-driving cars: Yes, please! Now, please!


  This is another interesting perspective on self-driving cars written by
Molly Wood, a popular and respected technology journalist.

  Self-driving cars: Yes, please! Now, please!
  I love to drive. And yet, I cannot wait for self-driving cars. Question
is: who will bring them to the masses first? And how soon?

  I hear your comments right now: "I will never let a computer drive me to
work, it's not safe!" "I'm a great driver, it's everyone else who is the
problem." "But I love my BMW/Audi/Mercedes/Hyundai Genesis/Ferrari/Jetta
Sportwagen too much to ever let the car do the driving!"
  Let's try to separate the mind from the machine, because trust me:
mainstream adoption of automated cars will help improve the environment, use
less fuel, reduce traffic to virtually zero, save billions of dollars per
year, and most importantly: save a lot of lives and limbs.

  This is the kind of argument that we in the geek community inherently
understand. Computers are better at certain things than humans are. They
don't get competitive, stressed out, angry, confused, or drunk--and they are
perfectly capable of texting while driving, unlike us. They can negotiate
merges, calculate stopping distance, maintain speed, and react more quickly
than we can. This isn't just about bad driving, although self-driving cars
could solve that problem, too. It's about human inefficiency, and safety.

  Many auto manufacturers agree, and are working hard to bring autonomous
vehicles to the road in one form or another. GM predicts semi-autonomous
cars to be available by the middle of the decade, and fully autonomous
vehicles by 2020. Audi announced its moves toward semi-autonomous drive mode
at CES this year. BMW's i3 electric city car will include a traffic jam
assistant that auto-navigates through traffic jams at slow speeds, and both
BMW and Volkswagen say they're moving toward incremental rollouts of
semi-autonomous driver-assistance packages, with some features available
now.

  Great. I'm all for it. Let's get moving! Unfortunately, although the
technology is getting closer, the world, it seems, is not.

  At this year's Consumer Electronics Show gathering in Las Vegas, I and a
handful of my tech news colleagues attended a dinner with several Ford
executives, including CEO Alan Mulally. It's clear that automated vehicles
are on the collective mind of the tech world. Mulally was asked about
self-driving cars several times, including by me.

  But each time, even after enduring quite a long lecture from the Wall
Street Journal's Walt Mossberg on the topic of distracted driving, the
affable Mulally said quite firmly that Ford would not be developing
self-driving cars, or even introducing self-driving mode in vehicles.

  And at a recent symposium held to discuss the issue, concerns over
regulations, liability, insurance, and safety seemed to put the brakes on
some of the enthusiasm for the concept. And sadly, O. Kevin Vincent, chief
counsel of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, told the
collected experts he thought the public "ought to be petrified" of the idea
of cars driving themselves at high speeds.

  So, fear and politics are likely to slow this convoy in the short
term--but I suspect not for long. There's a growing drumbeat of support from
the geek community for the obvious safety benefits of autonomous vehicles.
Sebastian Thrun, the Stanford University professor who guides Google's
self-driving car project, has been increasingly outspoken about the safety
benefits of autonomous cars, and obviously, the geek community is rallying:
Wired magazine just made autonomous cars its cover story for January.

  The revolution will come. But how quickly? As I mentioned, GM, BMW, Audi,
and others are pushing for a gradual rollout of driving assistance
technologies, with fully autonomous vehicles not due until 2020 or beyond.
Digital Trends this week quotes a Volvo engineer who'd like to see a
dramatic shift toward fully autonomous driving sooner than later. Ford is
obviously sitting heavily on the opposite end of the spectrum, refusing to
even have the conversation--at least publicly. And then, of course, we'll
have to fight out the legal issues--and the emotional ones.

  Fear and love of driving are major emotional barriers for people in terms
of accepting the idea of autonomous cars. So let me propose a dramatic shift
that's not a move to a fully autonomous society: equip every car with
autonomous mode by 2015. Give us all the ability to flip the car into
autonomous driving mode as needed, to answer a call or text, to get a little
work done during the morning commute, or to negotiate bad traffic.

  And here's a controversial idea: combine the technological advances with
mandatory auto-mode zones or drive times, which will help push consumer and
manufacturer adoption. The San Francisco Bay Bridge between 6 a.m. and 10
a.m.? Auto-mode only. Cars don't cause traffic, people driving cars cause
traffic. Let computers handle the switch from two lanes to six and then back
to two again. Forget congestion pricing: mandate auto mode in congested
areas by 2015, and you'll definitely get the tech moving.

  Autonomous mode in all vehicles doesn't have to remove all responsibility
for driving, and I don't want it to. Technology can simply take the burden
off drivers when it will benefit them, those around them, and the community
at large. And for long, winding back-country roads, there's always manual
mode. Let's be honest: that's the only time driving is fun anymore anyway.

  About Molly Wood

  Molly Wood is an executive editor at CNET, host of the Buzz Report, Buzz
Out Loud, and Tech Review at CNET TV, and author of the Molly Rants blog.
When she's not enraging fanboys of all stripes, she can be found offering
tech opinions on CBS and elsewhere, and offering opinions on everything else
to anyone who will listen.
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