|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#91
|
|||
|
|||
DRIVERLESS ELECTRIC CARS
On Tuesday, October 10, 2017 at 11:40:10 PM UTC-7, John B. wrote:
On Tue, 10 Oct 2017 08:30:52 -0700 (PDT), Frank Krygowski wrote: On Tuesday, October 10, 2017 at 1:19:43 AM UTC-4, John B. wrote: On Mon, 9 Oct 2017 22:37:43 -0400, Frank Krygowski wrote: On 10/9/2017 3:13 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote: On Mon, 9 Oct 2017 11:30:40 -0700 (PDT), Frank Krygowski wrote: I wasn't doubting that auto-cars will exist and become popular. I was doubting that the government will "shove them down our throats." I wonder whether they will ever become popular given that they quite obviously will be more expensive, perhaps much more expensive, I am reading numbers as large as $75,000 for Google's autonomous driving vehicle. Didn't SMS recently post something about buying a new car? I seem to remember numbers in the range of a third of that value. I imagine you're right, that in the short term these things will be expensive. But I expect that long term the price difference will be greatly reduced. (I imagine the phone in my pocket would have been worth ten thousand dollars 10 years ago, if it existed at all.) Maybe. But the cost of electric cars is still a bit frightening. However I do read that they qualify for some sort of government pay back scheme in the U.S. Another point is battery replacement cost, from what I read an individual that drives everyday may be looking at a battery change in as little as 5 years. But what do you get for this money? After all probably everyone reading this is capable of driving an automobile so what advantage does this, rather expensive, self-driver provide? Well: To my astonishment, I find that I'm driving long distances much more often since I retired. It's not just retirement that influenced that (although it enabled it); there have been family matters that have arisen, new obligations and avocations, different circles of friends, etc. But driving an hour each way is now far, far too common. And sitting behind a steering wheel always seems damned unproductive. :-) Well, when we are in Phuket it is about a 1.25 - 1.5 hour drive to town in today's traffic. I find that I can do all sorts of planning and designing during the drive :-) Even if self-driving worked only on limited access freeways, it would ease a lot of frustration. I think it would make the experience of freeway driving much more like the experience of riding a train in a private compartment. The couple times I've done that, I found it to be fairly pleasant. I was thinking about the subject last night before I dozed off and the question popped up. At the moment (from what I read) people drive as much as 20 mph faster then the posted speed limit. How is that going to work in the robot car? Will it be possible to order the robot to break the law or will traffic move at the legal speed? And red light drag racing would obviously be right out the door too :-) what makes you think that? Obviously you don't read comp.risks |
Ads |
#92
|
|||
|
|||
DRIVERLESS ELECTRIC CARS
On 10/11/2017 1:40 AM, John B. wrote:
I was thinking about the subject last night before I dozed off and the question popped up. At the moment (from what I read) people drive as much as 20 mph faster then the posted speed limit. How is that going to work in the robot car? Will it be possible to order the robot to break the law or will traffic move at the legal speed? Yesterday when I was in SF I was again amazed at the huge number of Uber & Lyft vehicles. I thought "how could self-driving ever work?" This was because the Uber & Lyft drivers tend to be notorious law-breakers, but there's no way that Uber & Lyft could get away with programming the self-driving cars to break the law in the same way. What I witnessed: 1. Parking & waiting in bicycle lanes 2. Parking & waiting at bus stops 3. Picking up and dropping off in bicycle lanes 4. Picking up and dropping off at bus stops Speeding was not an issue in the downtown area. In San Francisco and other major cities another issue with Uber/Lyft is that they have made it a nightmare to drive into the downtown area. I used to drive to downtown SF and park in a public garage and the fee was not too bad considering the high cost of public transit and the time that was saved. In the middle of the day the traffic was not bad. But Uber/Lfyt have greatly increased congestion as people have abandoned public transit for shorter trips since Uber/Lyft are not appreciably more when you have a few riders. Yesterday I parked for free near a Muni metro station and rode downtown for $2.75 (round-trip because I didn't stay long). But soon that fare will be $5.50 round-trip because it will be $2.75 for 90 minutes rather than for 3-4 hours. When I moved to the Bay Area the Muni fare was $0.25 Based on the Consumer Price Index from 1979 to 2017 that fare should now be $0.89, not $2.75. The fares have increased at 3x the rate of inflation. At least in SF they issue transfers. The VTA in Silicon Valley charges per bus so if you go 5 miles and it takes two buses then you pay twice, but a 20 mile ride on one bus you pay once (a day pass costs the equivalent of three single rides). The high fares at each end of the commuter train line (Caltrain) have resulted in a huge increase in demand for bicycle space on the trains. Each train can now carry 72-80 bikes, and even that is not enough at peak times. The other issue with self-driving cars in cities is that since parking is so limited and expensive that the cars will simply drive around while waiting to pick up the owner or the next fare. You need something similar to cell phone waiting lots at airports so the cars don't drive around in circles while waiting. |
#93
|
|||
|
|||
DRIVERLESS ELECTRIC CARS
On Wednesday, October 4, 2017 at 9:37:49 PM UTC-7, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Thu, 05 Oct 2017 07:37:01 +0700, John B. wrote: On Wed, 04 Oct 2017 09:52:39 -0700, Jeff Liebermann wrote: On Wed, 4 Oct 2017 07:54:47 -0700 (PDT), wrote: OH JOY https://www.nytimes.com/video/techno...rless-car.html "Bikes May Have To Talk To Self-Driving Cars For Safety's Sake" http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2017/07/24/537746346/bikes-may-have-to-talk-to-self-driving-cars-for-safetys-sake I guess the next step is a semi-self-driving-bicycle that detects road and vehicle hazards and takes over control of the bicycle if it detects something dangerous or unsafe. Hint: - Would you fly in an autonomous airplane? - Would you ride in a self driving bus or train? - How do you feel in a driverless elevator? - Would you really want to do the same in an automobile or bicycle? I believe that essentially most modern subway trains are computer controlled although they may have a "driver" in the control cab and I can't remember ever being in an elevator that had a driver :-) I live on the left coast of the USofA. We don't have subways except for BART. Subways are an east coast thing. Trains and subways have various levels of automation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_automated_urban_metro_subway_systems#Degre es_of_Automation I think there has been sufficient experience to consider a self driving train to be safe. Probably same for an elevator. Airplanes have been able to takeoff, fly, and land without a pilot for many years. I'm not sure if the airlines actually do that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoland So, are you ready and willing to have your bicycle do many of the same things? Incidentally, the last time I rode in an elevator with an operator was in the late 1950's or early 1960's. -- Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558 4th Floor! Shoes and sox, bagels and lox. |
#94
|
|||
|
|||
DRIVERLESS ELECTRIC CARS
On Tuesday, October 10, 2017 at 11:28:17 AM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 10/10/2017 12:49 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote: On Mon, 9 Oct 2017 11:20:58 -0700 (PDT), Frank Krygowski wrote: On Sunday, October 8, 2017 at 11:32:54 PM UTC-4, Jeff Liebermann wrote: Now, back to my question. How much are you willing to relinquish for the privilege of riding your bicycle on the driverless highway of the future? Are you ready for robo-bike? I'm not willing to relinquish my right to travel by bicycle. - Frank Krygowski I didn't say you couldn't ride your bicycle. I said that you couldn't ride if safely on the highway of the future. At worst, all it would require is that you carry or attach several thousand(?) dollars in technology so that the driverless vehicles would be able to detect and avoid hitting you on your bicycle. I just don't expect that situation to arise. Again, I doubt most streets will see any infrastructure changes at all, simply because the cost would be almost infinite. There are too many streets to retrofit. So the capability will almost entirely be built into the cars. Those working on the cars know that they must detect pedestrians, including kids on bikes. I can't imagine a social environment that would allow laws requiring several thousand dollars of equipment on a $99 Wal-mart kids bike. So bikes will have to be detected by other means. -- - Frank Krygowski https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/comp.risks/bicycle|sort:date/comp.risks/c8ojaIShcgc/QrZ0d4f5AAAJ https://spectrum.ieee.org/transporta...icycle-problem |
#95
|
|||
|
|||
DRIVERLESS ELECTRIC CARS
On Tue, 10 Oct 2017 17:03:46 -0500, AMuzi wrote:
Oh, Jeff you are so naive. Yeah, that's a problem. I tend to trust and believe people. I'll try to be less trusting and more cynical. A government required unit at $20 mfr base price could easily be several hundred dollars once you factor in the usual graft/corruption/inefficiency, maybe more with some mandated percentage of "free" transponders to targeted groups. Governments do not produce anything. They pass one the task of designing and building transponders. If things don't go well, they subsidize various products in order to accelerate public acceptance. Most likely, such a transponder will be made in China, imported by a politically connected distributor, sold by a multi-national company, profits deposited in Ireland, and maintained by domestic industrial serfs in the manner of the middle ages. Rules and regulations will be established to insure that do exactly what is not needed or wanted. The rules and regulation will be changed every 5 years to accelerate inventory turnover and enhance premature obsolescence. Useful hardware life will be preset and limited to 5 years to insure perpetual sales. Corporate welfare will be in the form of subsidies needed to insure that the transponders are affordable. Lack of efficiency will be insured by the traditional government agency. How am I doing? Do you still consider me naive? There are very good reasons that in The War On Poverty, poverty won. That was lost before it started. There's no money or taxes to collect from the impoverished. Better to make war on those with money. -- Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558 |
#96
|
|||
|
|||
DRIVERLESS ELECTRIC CARS
On Wednesday, October 11, 2017 at 3:18:15 PM UTC-7, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Tue, 10 Oct 2017 17:03:46 -0500, AMuzi wrote: Oh, Jeff you are so naive. Yeah, that's a problem. I tend to trust and believe people. I'll try to be less trusting and more cynical. A government required unit at $20 mfr base price could easily be several hundred dollars once you factor in the usual graft/corruption/inefficiency, maybe more with some mandated percentage of "free" transponders to targeted groups. Governments do not produce anything. They pass one the task of designing and building transponders. If things don't go well, they subsidize various products in order to accelerate public acceptance. Most likely, such a transponder will be made in China, imported by a politically connected distributor, sold by a multi-national company, profits deposited in Ireland, and maintained by domestic industrial serfs in the manner of the middle ages. Rules and regulations will be established to insure that do exactly what is not needed or wanted. The rules and regulation will be changed every 5 years to accelerate inventory turnover and enhance premature obsolescence. Useful hardware life will be preset and limited to 5 years to insure perpetual sales. Corporate welfare will be in the form of subsidies needed to insure that the transponders are affordable. Lack of efficiency will be insured by the traditional government agency. How am I doing? Do you still consider me naive? There are very good reasons that in The War On Poverty, poverty won. That was lost before it started. There's no money or taxes to collect from the impoverished. Better to make war on those with money. ....with their own money. But how? |
#97
|
|||
|
|||
DRIVERLESS ELECTRIC CARS
On Wednesday, October 11, 2017 at 8:26:46 AM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski wrote:
I know several people who own hybrid cars, plus one guy who owns an all-electric Nissan Leaf. What I've heard: The dominant model is the Toyota Prius. It seems Prius battery life has been much better than anticipated; they're going way over 100,000 miles. One guy I know has a hybrid Honda Civic. He lives in a hot southern state. After something like seven years, his battery capacity dropped terribly. IIRC, there was some sort of recall for recalibration of software, but he's still very dissatisfied. Another guy, until very recently, owned a Honda Insight, the very first hybrid I'd ever heard about. It's a tiny, super-aero two seater. He bought his used, it had some electrical/battery problems, and Honda astonishingly replaced the entire battery pack and some wiring for free. However, I wouldn't count on that ever happening again. It didn't with that Civic owner. But the battery packs do have limited life, even if that limit is very long. Replacement is very expensive. So when gauging the long term cost of these cars, it would be good to know the battery lifetime. It might be wise to sell it or trade it in before the battery's due to crap out (if you're that kind of person), and it might be good to research the battery issue heavily before you buy one that's used. Mileage is NOT a good way to judge car costs anymore with 5 or 6 year old cars commonly with 200,000 miles on them. Batteries tend to wear out by the number of recharges and age. 5 years is a long time on a lithium-ion battery. You can judge this by the age of your cell phone battery and how long the charges are lasting. Heat does affect battery life as well. You have to be very careful of the charge rate from 3/4ths full to full because as the battery ages if you use full charge rate you can not just burn the battery up but explode it. This was why several aircraft fires occurred. Rather than use a ground power unit some aircraft companies (particularly the Asian airlines) would use battery power to light the interior and run the machines necessary for cleaning the aircraft between flights. Then when you started the motors they could pour full charge rates into the batteries. Since they had gone through a lot of recharge cycles in a short time the last quarter charge had a high resistance and would generate a LOT of heat to the point where batteries would burst into flames. Lithium-ion batteries do not show discharge like other chemical batteries by significant voltage change. You have to know how much energy you have pulled out of them and only charge them back with that amount. Your cell phone is simplified because they do not use over-voltage to charge with and so the slight difference in voltage from discharged and charged is used to stop the charging. But you should still remember that the Apple SmartPhones are using very high charge and discharge rates and can start a fire on your nightstand overnight. IME, seeing someone 20 mph over the limit is pretty rare. Lots of people seem to shoot for 2 to 5 over the limit, though. I'm sure that the auto-cars will be limited to the limit (duh!). Again, it really doesn't add much time to a typical drive. To divert into psychology: Somehow, being in a car triggers urges to "get to the front" or "get past this guy." The slightly more practical justification is "I don't want to be slowed down." But as we all know, it's not unusual to have a motorist race to pass a bicyclist, then end up sitting at the same red light. The even more stupid freeway example is when a construction project reduces everything to one lane. Passing is impossible, traffic might be lined up for a mile ahead, yet some dolts will tailgate and even honk horns if you're not near the rear bumper of the car in front of you. Driving makes many people insane. I kept complaining to my brother that the traffic was going altogether too fast and he was telling me that I'm supposed to keep up with traffic. Just then a car came by easily 20 mph faster than me at 65 and swerved over three lanes and slammed on the brakes and the car behind him rammed him. The guy that caused this kept going. This is so common during the commute times that my wife pulls onto the freeway and finds a double semi to drive behind. They can't stop overly rapid and no one in back of her wants to go truck speed. But she goes by wrecks every single day in the 20 mile commute to babysit her grandkids. This has ceased to be anything unusual. As I complained before, I was driving across the San Mateo Bridge which is long and straight. I was in the number two lane because at the Hayward end of the bridge there is an odd-ball interchange and traffic will NOT let you in. So you have to be in the correct lane to begin with. The rest of the traffic was going by AT LEAST at 90 mph. There was a rather large opening and in the distance I watched a cop come up at about 80 mph or so. As he approached he pulled in behind me because I was suspicious because I was driving the limit. I had sent all of my money etc. in for a new year license tag but it hadn't shown up and I had forgotten it so he pulled me over and ticketed me. Then he seemed surprise when he discovered that I was a handicapped driver. Who would have guessed that anyone would be driving the speed limit? It turned out that there are two kinds of smog tests here now. One where the smog test is run and the guy signs a paper that you send in that says you passed. Every couple of years you have to go to this Star Smog test. There isn't any difference except the Star sends the complete results to the DMV. I didn't know there was any difference and just used the normal test. So of course DMV didn't send me any information about this. Now where you live you might be OK. But on lonesome country roads around here if there are traffic backups you could be in the middle of hundreds of cars driving past you on a narrow two lane road at 60 mph or more. When there is a van the car behind him can't see around and might pull to the right for some reason without knowing you're there. So when Joerg is talking about bikeways he has plenty of reasons to worry. |
#98
|
|||
|
|||
DRIVERLESS ELECTRIC CARS
On Wed, 11 Oct 2017 09:38:38 -0500, AMuzi wrote:
On 10/11/2017 1:40 AM, John B. wrote: On Tue, 10 Oct 2017 08:30:52 -0700 (PDT), Frank Krygowski wrote: On Tuesday, October 10, 2017 at 1:19:43 AM UTC-4, John B. wrote: On Mon, 9 Oct 2017 22:37:43 -0400, Frank Krygowski wrote: On 10/9/2017 3:13 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote: On Mon, 9 Oct 2017 11:30:40 -0700 (PDT), Frank Krygowski wrote: I wasn't doubting that auto-cars will exist and become popular. I was doubting that the government will "shove them down our throats." I wonder whether they will ever become popular given that they quite obviously will be more expensive, perhaps much more expensive, I am reading numbers as large as $75,000 for Google's autonomous driving vehicle. Didn't SMS recently post something about buying a new car? I seem to remember numbers in the range of a third of that value. I imagine you're right, that in the short term these things will be expensive. But I expect that long term the price difference will be greatly reduced. (I imagine the phone in my pocket would have been worth ten thousand dollars 10 years ago, if it existed at all.) Maybe. But the cost of electric cars is still a bit frightening. However I do read that they qualify for some sort of government pay back scheme in the U.S. Another point is battery replacement cost, from what I read an individual that drives everyday may be looking at a battery change in as little as 5 years. But what do you get for this money? After all probably everyone reading this is capable of driving an automobile so what advantage does this, rather expensive, self-driver provide? Well: To my astonishment, I find that I'm driving long distances much more often since I retired. It's not just retirement that influenced that (although it enabled it); there have been family matters that have arisen, new obligations and avocations, different circles of friends, etc. But driving an hour each way is now far, far too common. And sitting behind a steering wheel always seems damned unproductive. :-) Well, when we are in Phuket it is about a 1.25 - 1.5 hour drive to town in today's traffic. I find that I can do all sorts of planning and designing during the drive :-) Even if self-driving worked only on limited access freeways, it would ease a lot of frustration. I think it would make the experience of freeway driving much more like the experience of riding a train in a private compartment. The couple times I've done that, I found it to be fairly pleasant. I was thinking about the subject last night before I dozed off and the question popped up. At the moment (from what I read) people drive as much as 20 mph faster then the posted speed limit. How is that going to work in the robot car? Will it be possible to order the robot to break the law or will traffic move at the legal speed? And red light drag racing would obviously be right out the door too :-) Another problem that might arise. Will a self-driver work if one visits Canada, or Mexico? I guess it would depend on whether the system required a two-way communication network. If so, Canada might achieve that before the U.S. did. (I assume a bunch of U.S. states would declare this to be a muslim or communist conspiracy and refuse to buy into it.) - Frank Krygowski -- Cheers, John B. Red light drag racing? IME you punch it when the light turns green. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnalEcqFibE -- Cheers, John B. |
#99
|
|||
|
|||
DRIVERLESS ELECTRIC CARS
On 10/11/2017 5:25 PM, Doug Landau wrote:
On Wednesday, October 11, 2017 at 3:18:15 PM UTC-7, Jeff Liebermann wrote: On Tue, 10 Oct 2017 17:03:46 -0500, AMuzi wrote: Oh, Jeff you are so naive. Yeah, that's a problem. I tend to trust and believe people. I'll try to be less trusting and more cynical. A government required unit at $20 mfr base price could easily be several hundred dollars once you factor in the usual graft/corruption/inefficiency, maybe more with some mandated percentage of "free" transponders to targeted groups. Governments do not produce anything. They pass one the task of designing and building transponders. If things don't go well, they subsidize various products in order to accelerate public acceptance. Most likely, such a transponder will be made in China, imported by a politically connected distributor, sold by a multi-national company, profits deposited in Ireland, and maintained by domestic industrial serfs in the manner of the middle ages. Rules and regulations will be established to insure that do exactly what is not needed or wanted. The rules and regulation will be changed every 5 years to accelerate inventory turnover and enhance premature obsolescence. Useful hardware life will be preset and limited to 5 years to insure perpetual sales. Corporate welfare will be in the form of subsidies needed to insure that the transponders are affordable. Lack of efficiency will be insured by the traditional government agency. How am I doing? Do you still consider me naive? There are very good reasons that in The War On Poverty, poverty won. That was lost before it started. There's no money or taxes to collect from the impoverished. Better to make war on those with money. ...with their own money. But how? That was well established a hundred years ago: http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_...nin.Quote.068C -- Andrew Muzi www.yellowjersey.org/ Open every day since 1 April, 1971 |
#100
|
|||
|
|||
DRIVERLESS ELECTRIC CARS
On Wednesday, October 11, 2017 at 5:14:12 PM UTC-7, John B. wrote:
On Wed, 11 Oct 2017 09:38:38 -0500, AMuzi wrote: On 10/11/2017 1:40 AM, John B. wrote: On Tue, 10 Oct 2017 08:30:52 -0700 (PDT), Frank Krygowski wrote: On Tuesday, October 10, 2017 at 1:19:43 AM UTC-4, John B. wrote: On Mon, 9 Oct 2017 22:37:43 -0400, Frank Krygowski wrote: On 10/9/2017 3:13 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote: On Mon, 9 Oct 2017 11:30:40 -0700 (PDT), Frank Krygowski wrote: I wasn't doubting that auto-cars will exist and become popular. I was doubting that the government will "shove them down our throats." I wonder whether they will ever become popular given that they quite obviously will be more expensive, perhaps much more expensive, I am reading numbers as large as $75,000 for Google's autonomous driving vehicle. Didn't SMS recently post something about buying a new car? I seem to remember numbers in the range of a third of that value. I imagine you're right, that in the short term these things will be expensive. But I expect that long term the price difference will be greatly reduced. (I imagine the phone in my pocket would have been worth ten thousand dollars 10 years ago, if it existed at all.) Maybe. But the cost of electric cars is still a bit frightening. However I do read that they qualify for some sort of government pay back scheme in the U.S. Another point is battery replacement cost, from what I read an individual that drives everyday may be looking at a battery change in as little as 5 years. But what do you get for this money? After all probably everyone reading this is capable of driving an automobile so what advantage does this, rather expensive, self-driver provide? Well: To my astonishment, I find that I'm driving long distances much more often since I retired. It's not just retirement that influenced that (although it enabled it); there have been family matters that have arisen, new obligations and avocations, different circles of friends, etc. But driving an hour each way is now far, far too common. And sitting behind a steering wheel always seems damned unproductive. :-) Well, when we are in Phuket it is about a 1.25 - 1.5 hour drive to town in today's traffic. I find that I can do all sorts of planning and designing during the drive :-) Even if self-driving worked only on limited access freeways, it would ease a lot of frustration. I think it would make the experience of freeway driving much more like the experience of riding a train in a private compartment. The couple times I've done that, I found it to be fairly pleasant. I was thinking about the subject last night before I dozed off and the question popped up. At the moment (from what I read) people drive as much as 20 mph faster then the posted speed limit. How is that going to work in the robot car? Will it be possible to order the robot to break the law or will traffic move at the legal speed? And red light drag racing would obviously be right out the door too :-) Another problem that might arise. Will a self-driver work if one visits Canada, or Mexico? I guess it would depend on whether the system required a two-way communication network. If so, Canada might achieve that before the U.S. did. (I assume a bunch of U.S. states would declare this to be a muslim or communist conspiracy and refuse to buy into it.) - Frank Krygowski -- Cheers, John B. Red light drag racing? IME you punch it when the light turns green. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnalEcqFibE -- Cheers, John B. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oF_YUEr3es |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Electric cars in the wet | NEMO | UK | 3 | February 16th 15 05:09 PM |
OBIT ELECTRIC CARS | kolldata | Techniques | 2 | October 30th 11 10:49 PM |
Charging points for cars but what about electric bicycles? | Doug[_3_] | UK | 17 | February 27th 10 07:10 PM |
Electric Car Conversion Companies: Alternatives To Gas Powered Cars | n41beyha | Unicycling | 0 | November 27th 07 05:40 PM |
An Electric Car Conversion Kit Will Not Affect Your Cars Speed OrPick-Up | n41beyha | Techniques | 0 | November 27th 07 05:19 PM |