SO YOU WANT TO RIDE IN A SELF DRIVING TAXI?

[RacinBob]

This is the view of a 6 lane highway in FL entering from a side street that I frequently use. You have;

1. Cross traffic mostly going 50 mph and this road is busy. 2) People like me are entering from both side streets. 3) People are using the left turn lanes to enter the side streets.

So your robotic driver needs to make a left entry onto this road. Good luck unless it is midnight because the road is never that clear.

So what is the strategy when I enter? Well I find a gap to the left and scoot to the center to wait for it to be clear on the right. But that is not so easy as not only do I have to scan the left traffic for a gap but I also have to A) Make sure that both left turn lanes do not have activity and B) Make sure that someone isn't entering from the other side street. Miss any of these things and you might find yourself blocked and stopped on a street with 50 MPH oncoming traffic.

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So the terrifying part would be sitting in the back of the robotaxi and wondering if the cab sees it all and is picking a safe strategy. I don't think you can be a back seat driver and ask it "hey, see that delivery van, I think he is planning a left hook into the development and he's not planning to stop. You see him, right"?

I can see self driving working in simple environments but it will be a long time before I trust it in situations like this hoping that the robo cab has it all figured out......

[RallyDarkstrike]

I agree completely....I do not think automation is ready for prime-time at all, IMO...

[CarsOfFortLangley]

Automation, IMO, will never, ever be ready for primetime. Look at your average parking lot at walmart or whatever. You think these people will be able to maintain the sensors alone? Nope.

[frinesi2]

Just so you know ... at least currently when autonomous vehicle deployments (I'm talking shuttles and people movers but they are still autonomous and they are still interacting with real life unpredictable traffic) are set up, all of these considerations are taken in to account when planning the routes. We don't just throw them into any random situation and say "have at it!". If a "robotaxi" was set up to take that route, it would probably have to have some fixed infrastructure put in place that can communicate traffic conditions to give it enough situational awareness to do it safely. Or maybe there's a traffic light down the road a bit where it can do a safe U-turn and then approach the desired side street from a safer right-turn instead of trying to do a left across three lanes of fast-moving traffic. Then again the sensor suite and predictor could very well be sufficient to do the left turn. There's only so many ways a vehicle can behave (if they follow the laws of physics), and they can all be predicted.

All that aside, autonomous consumer vehicles are still pie-in-the-sky for a number of reasons and it's a shame that they're so widely covered while autonomous transit vehicles seem to be largely ignored. The technology and infrastructure exists, or can exist, there just has to be the right money and interest - but it's not as glitzy and "Jetsons" as a hundred Teslas shuffling around from driveways to donut shops.

[ClassicDatsunDebate]

The only practical self driving cars are flying cars.

[Taylor Martin]

My apartment complex (also in FL) spits out to one of those six-lane highways and is directly across from a different complex. I absolutely hate turning left, which sucks because that's the direction the grocery store and gas station are.