martinss01
blissfully stupid
not sure if there is a thread floating around on this topic already, if so my apologies and please merge.
it seems everyone and their sister thinks self driving cars are teh awesomes and will soon be our primary form of transportation. it will make driving safer, faster, more efficient and bring about world peace.
the following are my initial thoughts on the struggles self driving cars will face once they actually... you know.... "become sellable".
1. they are a fad - much like flying cars, self driving cars sound amazing on paper. in reality people will not want them. flying cars exist today and some models aren't much more expensive than the average new car. yet their market share, not so significant.
2. maintenance - show of hands, how many of you ever figured out how to get your vcr to stop blinking 12:00? yep... kinda the ratio i expected. you do realize that constant software updates are going to be a requirement for these vehicles right? so not only will you have to change the ol oil... but making sure the latest build is on your car (lest it not be safe to self drive), is going to be your responsibility. so when your car's cpu takes a flying leap halfway through an update.... who fixes it? you? or does chevy have a tech come out on site to do it? that should be cheap.... oh and thank god gps based map software is safe! just think what it would be like if such software lead a real person to drive themselves off a cliff or into a lake or into a house or... good thing we don't have to worry about that with our self driving cars!!
3. 100% reliable right..? its a computer, how could it possibly fail? back to flying cars. which didn't take off (pardon the pun) because well. assume just for a second that every car on the side of the road represented a flying car falling from the sky resulting in the death of an entire family. when "you" blow a tire, "you" pull your vehicle to the side of the road. when a problem occurs in flight...? you probably fall to your death. and when you blue screen at 70 mph in a self driving car you.... what specifically?
4. you trust these people? so "all the sudden" we are willing to trust our lives even further to car companies that can't make a car starter that won't kill you? looking at you chevy. oh and before you flock to the foreign car makers, everyone gets their parts from the same suppliers. it stands to reason they are going to get their software the same way as well. how many recalls across all brands were there over the last 5 years again? oh and just for the record, i don't know of any software company that would hesitate to roll out a new "patch" loaded with new bugs. *cough*microsoft*cough*. but if you think any other company is different your nuts. as of late companies have been gutting their qa depts. if you honestly think companies that write the software that make your car "go" are somehow different... good luck with that theory... besides, who is responsible for error checking? who is responsible for tech support? who is responsible for simply reporting the errors that are received?
5. responsibility - while i realize that computers are incapable of error *snickers*. what happens in the completely impossible chance that two self driving cars have an accident? who is at fault? you? the other person? the manufacturer? their 3rd party supplier? hope you enjoy being car-less while the court system figures it out. then goes through the appeals process. that should only take a couple years or so... im sure you'll be fine without a car or any financial compensation for that short a length of time.
6. all of lifes problems are solvable with software! so we already know current cars can be easily hacked to the point of the hacker being able to take control of the steering wheel, accelerator and brakes remotely in some cases. thats on current model vehicles. scary huh? but lets take a step back and think less malicious. what would it do to the US economy, let alone the world if some script kiddie wrote some code that made it impossible for these vehicles to start? what would happen to you, your company, this country if even 1/3 of all working americans were without transportation for a few weeks? or a few months? if a software change renders your vehicle unselfdrivable and someone has to come on site to your home to dig out the crap code and kick off an update... how long would that take? just assume one of the big 3, let alone all.
so yeah... go pick up a self driving car. as a tech who looks at the same industry that will be writing your software every day... ill just sit here shaking my head as i increase my salary demands prior to your "emergency support calls start rolling in.
it seems everyone and their sister thinks self driving cars are teh awesomes and will soon be our primary form of transportation. it will make driving safer, faster, more efficient and bring about world peace.
the following are my initial thoughts on the struggles self driving cars will face once they actually... you know.... "become sellable".
1. they are a fad - much like flying cars, self driving cars sound amazing on paper. in reality people will not want them. flying cars exist today and some models aren't much more expensive than the average new car. yet their market share, not so significant.
2. maintenance - show of hands, how many of you ever figured out how to get your vcr to stop blinking 12:00? yep... kinda the ratio i expected. you do realize that constant software updates are going to be a requirement for these vehicles right? so not only will you have to change the ol oil... but making sure the latest build is on your car (lest it not be safe to self drive), is going to be your responsibility. so when your car's cpu takes a flying leap halfway through an update.... who fixes it? you? or does chevy have a tech come out on site to do it? that should be cheap.... oh and thank god gps based map software is safe! just think what it would be like if such software lead a real person to drive themselves off a cliff or into a lake or into a house or... good thing we don't have to worry about that with our self driving cars!!
3. 100% reliable right..? its a computer, how could it possibly fail? back to flying cars. which didn't take off (pardon the pun) because well. assume just for a second that every car on the side of the road represented a flying car falling from the sky resulting in the death of an entire family. when "you" blow a tire, "you" pull your vehicle to the side of the road. when a problem occurs in flight...? you probably fall to your death. and when you blue screen at 70 mph in a self driving car you.... what specifically?
4. you trust these people? so "all the sudden" we are willing to trust our lives even further to car companies that can't make a car starter that won't kill you? looking at you chevy. oh and before you flock to the foreign car makers, everyone gets their parts from the same suppliers. it stands to reason they are going to get their software the same way as well. how many recalls across all brands were there over the last 5 years again? oh and just for the record, i don't know of any software company that would hesitate to roll out a new "patch" loaded with new bugs. *cough*microsoft*cough*. but if you think any other company is different your nuts. as of late companies have been gutting their qa depts. if you honestly think companies that write the software that make your car "go" are somehow different... good luck with that theory... besides, who is responsible for error checking? who is responsible for tech support? who is responsible for simply reporting the errors that are received?
5. responsibility - while i realize that computers are incapable of error *snickers*. what happens in the completely impossible chance that two self driving cars have an accident? who is at fault? you? the other person? the manufacturer? their 3rd party supplier? hope you enjoy being car-less while the court system figures it out. then goes through the appeals process. that should only take a couple years or so... im sure you'll be fine without a car or any financial compensation for that short a length of time.
6. all of lifes problems are solvable with software! so we already know current cars can be easily hacked to the point of the hacker being able to take control of the steering wheel, accelerator and brakes remotely in some cases. thats on current model vehicles. scary huh? but lets take a step back and think less malicious. what would it do to the US economy, let alone the world if some script kiddie wrote some code that made it impossible for these vehicles to start? what would happen to you, your company, this country if even 1/3 of all working americans were without transportation for a few weeks? or a few months? if a software change renders your vehicle unselfdrivable and someone has to come on site to your home to dig out the crap code and kick off an update... how long would that take? just assume one of the big 3, let alone all.
so yeah... go pick up a self driving car. as a tech who looks at the same industry that will be writing your software every day... ill just sit here shaking my head as i increase my salary demands prior to your "emergency support calls start rolling in.