Good. Autonomous vehicles are not the way of the future.

Why not

After $100 billion spent, the technology has hardly improved.

For them to work on a mass scale, the infrastructure in this country needs to be updated to remove inefficiencies and non-standardized vehicle pathways.

Pittsburgh is a prime example of this, we have so many fucked up intersections.

The government has no incentive to fix these, because they’re not a problem for human drivers.

By the time the government would ever spend time and effort, humanity will have probably killed itself off.

We’re never going to get a fully autonomous vehicle society.

That shit don't work

You don’t think autonomous driving tech has improved? Mercedes has a vehicle that takes full responsibility if an accident happens. It’s coming

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Mercedes new car is not autonomous at all. Under certain conditions the driver may remove their hands and feet from controlling the car. It’s called “level 3”, and is basically only able to be used on freeways.

The technology isn’t there and doesn’t work. If it did, we’d have car rolling around that have no one inside of them.

There has been minimal growth in the past half decade.

Who says it needs to be “fully” autonomous? I’m sure plenty people who have long highway commutes would still benefit, same with truckers.

So they do have level 3? Which is very autonomous. So level 4 and 5 are coming.

Autonomous driving has been oversold as a viable path. You’d need super high reliability to have an acceptable accident rate given the trillions of miles collectively driven every year.

You're not responding to a single point in the OP's post.
 
Level 3 is not autonomous, it's basically highway driver assist.
 
The technology does not work and the people in this sub who were saying a decade ago that self-driving cars would rule the streets by 2020 were wrong.

Acrisure Stadium has an opening for goal post movers, if you're looking for work.

Level 3 is not autonomous. You sound like you have no idea what you’re talking about. Have a nice life.

wtf yinz are weird.

Highway driver assist exists and has been around for a long time.
 
"Fully" autonomous does not and never will.
 
Calling driver assist "autonomous driving" just encourages people to nap behind the wheel or jerk off or whatever instead of paying attention.

There are autonomous cars driving the streets of San Francisco today. I have seen the Waymo cars without a driver with my own eyes.

Good? Tons of high paying jobs moving back to the west coast as these companies close.

Yes, and I'm Master P and this is my Bentley.

Possibly not for only highway traffic. That would be more easily doable.

Ok now you’re just being deliberately ignorant.

Here you go: https://waymo.com/

I'll believe it when I see these things in autonomous revenue service carrying paid passengers, and not a second beforehand. It's been "right around the corner" for over a decade now, and autonomous vehicle testing has shown that they're far deadlier per 100 million vehicle miles traveled than human drivers are.

Dude, it’s already here. Lol, “Never” didn’t last very long.

https://youtu.be/ilcrMz_hWz8

Hah, good one. Take my upvote.

Weird, I just tried to call an autonomous taxi here in Pittsburgh but all the companies developing them went out of business.
 
If you're a big enough sucker to watch that video and think it means autonomous taxis are ready to go everywhere and anywhere, let me also sell you on another great investment: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/star-citizen

What was that you said about moving goalposts?

“The technology isn’t accessible to all 8 billion people on Earth, therefore it doesn’t exist and NEVER will!”

The jobs aren't "moving back to the west coast," they were eliminated because the concept is not viable.

You're looking at an easily faked demo video in a controlled setting and claiming that it means that the autonomous taxi is here and in revenue service now.
 
Like I said, call me when these things are in revenue service carrying paid passengers.

Faked? Ok dude, /r/conspiracy is in need of your service. Watch out for those chemtrails

Companies lie about their projects all the time. The entire Nikola hyrogen-powered truck demo was faked.
 

https://gizmodo.com/electric-truck-maker-nikola-to-pay-125-million-in-sec-1848251455 https://electrek.co/2020/09/14/nikola-nkla-admits-faking-video-driving-prototype-weak-response/

 

If you can watch that video and conclude from it that it means that self-driving cars are coming to streets everywhere in America any minute, well, there's one of you born every minute.

Here's a link to the story that doesn't require you to cross a picket line.

https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2023/02/22/locomation-shutting-down-operations-out-of-fund.html

Locamation tech was to have driverless follow trucks, not fully autonomous trucks

but tesla says they have had full self driving autopilot for years! the stock price says its true /s

and where do you think those highly paid engineers are going? prob to a tech hub since pitt seems to be unable to materialize itself as a viable spot despit ehaving many of the advantages that RDU, nashville, texas have outside of tax incentives.

I have a 3 year old Subaru that does that. Lmao

They never moved here to begin with, remote work is a thing.

Hardly improved is a classic acclimation bias. It’s like when people say battery tech hasn’t improved.

The technology has made giant leaps and bounds over the last 20 years.

Blind spot sensors, automatic parking, auto lane changing, automatic emergency braking, and full self driving in geofenced areas are all standard technology now that didn’t exist 15 years ago.

It might not be as far along as some people would like, but it’s made huge progress in a short time.

Yeah and in the last 5 it has not, despite spending increasing 1000x. No huge progress has been made, just like with batteries. The technology is reaching its plateau.

I went to a conference in Michigan and the goals have obviously changed from "autonomous vehicle goes anywhere" to "autonomous vehicle goes known locations on known routes during well understood travel periods."

And I think that makes sense. It seems way more achievable.

Back to the west coast with ye

Pittsburgh's what, now? Where the hell does this stuff come from?

Ya if you think only 100 billion has been spent, you’re grossly underestimating this. You’re incorrect on a whole plethora of levels friend!

https://europe.autonews.com/automakers/auto-industrys-75b-bet-autonomy-not-paying

I rounded up. You’re wrong.

We already have a super efficient way to send freight along dedicated corridors. Trains.

CMU

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They aren’t going anywhere, if they even live here, because remote work exists for highly paid engineers.

Source: both my wife and I live here and work for companies in other tech hubs.

I test FSD systems and promise you that these systems have improved greatly. Just because they’re not ready yet doesn’t mean they are a failure. Just needs another few years to cook. Realistically level 3 systems for highways could already be there if companies prioritized it. Everyone jokes abt tesla but autopilot has been a rock solid lane keep system for half a decade, and has been on sale for years.

Autonomous, at least in the sense that this company and others are looking to do is purely highway driving, for now. Last mile autonomy is still a long ways off.

Locomotive shutdown because venture capital money is locking up due to interest rate increases. And there are dozens of other companies working in the same space that have better/more advanced tech. Volvo, Mercedes, and others are pouring billions into driverless semis so there’s little need for a CMU startup in Pittsburgh.

Yes. Long-haul trucking should basically not exist.

And short-haul trucking usually requires someone to unload the truck. If they're getting paid anyway, they might as well drive, too. Robots are expensive.

Obviously that's possible . You assume that Pittsburgh is where they want to live .

There's still value to being inside a tech hub.

There's also , you know, beach towns, no tax states, lake houses, mountain houses , NYC, so cal.

Right. I’m here because of family and our relatively avg COL.

Point is in no way is it good for Pittsburgh, and only potential loss of engineers

They also aren't shuttering completely it's down to the core team

Cries in seed investments

Why wasn't that goal #1 from the start?

hubris

"autonomous vehicle goes known locations on known routes during well understood travel periods."

Isn’t that … almost essentially the same as a bus or subway system? Or am I just not getting the autonomous vehicles hype?

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I guess, but I don’t see how you could square that with private vehicle ownership yeah? You’d have to replace all vehicles on the road, and even beyond that you’d need to completely clear the road of any obstacle. Bicycle? Gotta move. Trash can blown by the wind? Quick clear the road! To me this is why it’s a pipe dream. It’s so much effort for what upside? And then you lose the ability to drive yourself anywhere unless the computer allows it: that’s not fun either.

Yeah don’t drink the kool-aid. There’s a long and cherished history of Silicon Valley reinventing the bus. Bus, trolleys, light rail, and trains are a much better solution for society: those solutions just don’t allow vulture capitalists to profit obscenely from building out public infrastructure. (Look at Uber squeezing us all for an example of their game plan.)

Much more doable and safer if everyone can agree on a standard and we can build that standard into interstates and companies can autonomously haul from point A to B on the interstates and then have humans drive pre A and post B.

I love that all the brightest minds of our generation have been wasted trying to:

A. Sell ads on the internet and

B. re-invent trains but worse

Aurora gunna make us proud - all yinz will see!

I agree. I think this concept works in a hybrid form. Most travel routes are well maintained, clearly pained and signed. I've been toying with the idea of having automated trucks to do the long distance hauls between checkpoints outside of cities where a driver will pick up the auto truck and take it into the city. Eliminate man hours, and the isolation of cross country truck driving. Drivers can actually have lives. But yeah I've no money or contacts to even start that. My point is, I think the concept is completely viable in a more hybrid model.

>almost essentially the same as a bus or subway system

Both of those things have drivers though and a subway needs an enormous amount of specialist infrastructure.

I think autonomous vehicles in everyday situations are a terrible idea but for long distance routes on major highways they seem perfect, basically a small step up from current cruise control. I never understood why companies focused on the most difficult driving scenarios first, I guess it's potentially more lucrative.

Smart Engineers are rarely smart product/business strategists. They start with developing a technology and then try to convince prospective customers that it is the cure to their biggest problems. VC seemingly throws some money in hopes that the nerds will develop some IP that they can sell.

Source: CMU grad to converted to Marketing and Product Strategy after working at a spinout startup.

Maybe not a good time for this point.

Because trucks never crash, right? Or autonomous vehicles?

You do realize that companies have fully self driving vehicles without a driver giving rides to paying customers in Arizona and the Bay Area at this very moment? Saying they have hardly made any progress is just laughably wrong.

No there isn’t lol you’re delusional

But aren’t roads and highways “specialist infrastructure” as well that require expensive construction and maintenance? And what about parking garages, lots etc. that take up tons of space? Not trying to be contentious, just genuinely curious about the difference you mentioned.

What about the Zamboni?

I agree but those things all already exist. The rail network is not extensive enough to be an alternative and suggesting this is the same as a bus is missing the point that it's autonomous, it's like saying "how is this different from regular trucks?"

Train tracks like.ne corridore and keystone lin can't handle much more freight ....m

Yes there is? Waymo.has cars in geofrnced areas giving autonomous rides ..

I had a conversation with a CMU graduate who's pretty fresh out of school. She's absolutely convinced that soon there will be autonomous flying vehicles because the real problem with autonomous vehicles is that the roads are too crowded, and so putting them in the air will fix everything.