Clarkeson ! again !

[rmurphy195]

I also watched the TG comedy show last Sunday - I missed the bit about cyclists, but I was rather shocked about the thought of driverless cars and felt that JC's comments were well put.

In the context of drivers - like too many of them - who simply don't look further than thier noses driverless seems like a good idea.

It's the drivers that do look further than their noses that have the fewest accidents - such as the ones that spot a bit of colour or movement in the distance when lining up for an overtaking manouvre and pull back thinking - "cyclist ahead coming my way".

NB the sort of observation that gets blotted out by an overbright flashing light aimed directly at the windscreens of oncoming cars ...

[[XAP]Bob]

Well put, but displaying woeful ignorance...

[kwackers]

Clarkson is just scared because driverless cars move cars from being fun playthings to mechanisms for transporting people.

Anyway it's currently all pie in the sky. Long before driverless cars are running up and down our roads the accident avoidance tech that is available on top end cars will have improved a lot and filtered down. All that'll remain is to hand steering to the robot - and even that happens now with self parking cars.

[Eammno]

Clarkson is just scared because driverless cars move cars from being fun playthings to mechanisms for transporting people.
.

Is he?
I think cars as playthings will always exist, just like horses are no longer used for transport.

[kwackers]

I think cars as playthings will always exist, just like horses are no longer used for transport.

Of course they will just like now. See them on transporters on their way to races all the time!

Driverless cars will change the landscape of motoring in ways we can only guess at. But if you're only a passenger then presumably you wouldn't need a license. If that's the case I'd put money on it that the number of new licenses issued will fall, you'd probably find that having manual control would increase your insurance premiums too.
A reduction in manual driving will push most things towards automation. Cars will start to appear with no manual override, which makes sense since it makes such vehicles cheaper, lighter, safer along with bigger cabins etc. Cars with manual overrides will become sidelined as expensive novelties and with fewer manual cars then at some point I wouldn't be surprised if manually driven cars were legislated off the road (effectively if not actually).

All conjecture of course. As with a lot of this stuff you can only guess at what it means but it's interesting if nothing else and the scaremongering is amongst some of the funniest stuff I've heard/read in a while.

[merseymouth]

Hi again, With the actuality of driver-less cars will come a benefit for the increasingly indolent? A complete transformation of the "School Run"! The lazy, oop's meant "Time Pressed" group will just point the offspring at the car, dispatch them, then return to watching breakfast TV. . TTFN MM

[beardy]

We do that already, it is called a school bus.

[kwackers]

We do that already, it is called a school bus.

I thought it'd been replaced by bumper to bumper cars?

[danhopgood]

As others have said - who knows what driverless cars will do to change transport? There's no doubt in my mind that driverless cars will only be used in very controlled environments to start with - like motorways. As the technology develops it could then be used where there are more interactions involved. There will however be pressure to keep all the environments with the minimum number of interactions. That gives me concern that in turn there will be pressure to remove difficult to manage interactions - like cyclists, from the road network. If there's no segregation of traffic - which is decades off or a never do in the UK, I don't like the prospects for cycling in the UK.

[kwackers]

I don't like the prospects for cycling in the UK.

I'm quite upbeat about cycling and driverless cars. We'll never have segregation since you'll never completely separate cars and pedestrians therefore driverless cars have to be able to deal with pedestrians and if they can deal with pedestrians then they can deal with cyclists.

Another reason to think this is true is that long before driverless cars become the norm the anti-collision systems and mixed-mode (i.e. auto and manual) systems will have to co-exist with cyclists so the problem will have been long sorted and thus not an issue.

Finally, there'll always be a push towards bicycles as cheap and efficient movers of people along with health benefits etc so I can't see them being sidelined by driverless cars - particularly as there'll be no need to.

My only concern is by the time they get here I'll probably be too old to enjoy them having spent my time dodging the idiots...

[Psamathe]

... There will however be pressure to keep all the environments with the minimum number of interactions. That gives me concern that in turn there will be pressure to remove difficult to manage interactions - like cyclists, from the road network. If there's no segregation of traffic - which is decades off or a never do in the UK, I don't like the prospects for cycling in the UK.

You raise a good point (that I had not appreciated and one that has not been brought up on previous driverless car discussions). And I would share your concerns. And I can imaging that horse riders would be even more concerned as, when I pass a horse (either on bike on in car) I continually watch the horse and if it shows signs of being unsettled I stop and wait until rider is OK (which actually happened a couple of weeks ago when I was on bike; rider apologised profusely as I had to wait for quite a long time whilst she got her horse happy to pass me - I explained "not her fault, etc."). And I wonder how a driverless car would manage watching a horse/rider for signs of being unsettled. Easier to just ban such challenges from the roads and "problem solved".

Ian

[kwackers]

And I wonder how a driverless car would manage watching a horse/rider for signs of being unsettled. Easier to just ban such challenges from the roads and "problem solved".

Whereas we have a great track record for dealing with unsettled horses and riders!
Worse case I suspect the car will crawl along behind and you'll just have to browse the internet for longer. Same if the car comes across a peloton with no way past.

If no solution can be found then manual overrides are unlikely to go away rather than users being banned from 'ordinary' roads. Again though I'm optimistic, trained monkeys can manage it (when they can be bothered) so it's not beyond the realms of possibility a machine can do it without the red mist...

[Bicycler]

And I wonder how a driverless car would manage watching a horse/rider for signs of being unsettled. Easier to just ban such challenges from the roads and "problem solved".

Whereas we have a great track record for dealing with unsettled horses and riders!
Worse case I suspect the car will crawl along behind and you'll just have to browse the internet for longer. Same if the car comes across a peloton with no way past.

But then are we likely to see anger at cyclists "holding up" cars because the driverless car insists on leaving a safe overtaking space and as a result waits behind the cyclist when the manual driver turned passenger would have proceeded? Or are we likely to see the driverless cars programmed to accept a smaller overtaking gap?

[kwackers]

But then are we likely to see anger at cyclists "holding up" cars because the driverless car insists on leaving a safe overtaking space and as a result waits behind the cyclist when the manual driver turned passenger would have proceeded? Or are we likely to see the driverless cars programmed to accept a smaller overtaking gap?

I think you have to ask yourself what causes the anger in the first place? People are different creatures when they have a steering wheel in their hand...
Also the reality is that most cyclists don't cause more than a few seconds of delay - it's just for those holding a steering wheel that's a few seconds too many. I think once they leave go of the wheel and relax things will be a lot more pleasant...

[mrjemm]

Hold onto your horses folks, R4 was saying he's been suspended...!