Autonomous and Driverless Cars - Links to articles and
research
"Anticipation denotes intelligence" - quote from the
movie Fifth Element.
A major problem with autonomous machines is that they are
unable to anticipate HUMAN actions. [organisms] "...take
decisions to deal with unforeseen difficulties." (Brian Ford discussing
the intelligence of amoeba)
"The major difference
between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that
cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong
goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or
repair.)” (Excerpt From: Douglas Adams. “Mostly
Harmless.” Pan Books 1992) + "...it
is very easy to be blinded to the essential uselessness of
them by the sense of achievement you get from getting them to
work at all. In other words - and this is the rock solid
principle on which the whole of the Corporation's Galaxy-wide
success is founded - their fundamental design flaws are
completely hidden by their superficial design flaws"
(written by Douglas Adams in 1984). Note I am not implying that
autonomous cars have this issue - it is just intended as a word
of caution on hype about technology.
"An astronaut is someone who's able to make good decisions
quickly, with incomplete information, when the consequences
really matter..." - Chris Hadfield, An Astronaut's Guide
to Life on Earth.
News (latest at top)
Note Japan Today articles have limited time online
17 Oct 22 BBC: The
Computer Errors from Outer Space - "What if, during an
automated trip, imagery from a camera mounted at the front
of the car became corrupted and the on-board computer failed
to spot a person walking out in front of the vehicle?"
30 Aug 21 Japan Today: Visually
impaired Paralympian hit by self-driving bus -
but..."the bus automatically stopped but the operators pressed the start
button as they did not think he would walk out on
to the road."
4 Jul 16 Japan Times: Tesla
driver killed in crash with truck first U.S. fatality
using autopilot [[Opinion: Telsa is claiming 130
million miles of auto-driving experience. As it happens 1
fatality per 200 million kilometres (~130 million miles) is
the road fatality rate in most developed nations. Trials
will need to go for much much longer before any claims about
increased safety can be made. Update: see the Rand report]
Scientific American Oct
1997: Automated Highways - Cars that drive themselves
in tight formation might alleviate the congestion now
plaguing urban freeways
Mobileye's
Road Experience Management™ project - harnessing the
power of the crowd: exploiting the proliferation of
camera-based ADAS systems to build and maintain in
near-real-time an accurate map of the environment [that is,
using Mobileye-equipped vehicles ahead to see over the
horizon!]