The car has shrunk the world, increased personal freedom and in so many ways expanded our horizons, but there is a flipside. Fumes from car exhausts have helped to destroy our environment, poisoned the air we breathe and killed us in far more straightforward ways. But all that is going to change.
This episode enters a world where cars can drive themselves, a world where we are simply passengers, ferried about by wholesome green compassionate technology which will never ever go wrong. And it is almost here. Horizon explores the artificial intelligence required to replace human drivers for cars themselves, peers into the future driverless world and discovers that, despite the glossy driverless PR (and assuming that they really can be made to work reliably), the reality is that it might not be all good news. From the ethics of driverless car crashes to the impact on jobs, it might be that cars are about to rise up against us in ways that none of us are expecting
The car has shrunk the world, increased personal freedom and in so many ways expanded our horizons, but there is a flipside. Fumes from car exhausts have helped to destroy our environment, poisoned the air we breathe and killed us in far more straightforward ways. But all that is going to change.
This episode enters a world where cars can drive themselves, a world where we are simply passengers, ferried about by wholesome green compassionate technology which will never ever go wrong. And it is almost here . Horizon explores the artificial intelligence required to replace human drivers for cars themselves, peers into the future driverless world and discovers that, despite the glossy driverless PR (and assuming that they really can be made to work reliably), the reality is that it might not be all good news. From the ethics of driverless car crashes to the impact on jobs, it might be that cars are about to rise up against us in ways that none of us are expecting
For all their faults, human drivers have one thing computers never will, gut instinct. How many times have you seen a vehicle and known they were going to do something stupid, taking avoiding action BEFORE there’s a problem. Computers can only react, and for this reason, automatic cars won’t the be sharing the roads with human drivers anytime soon.
There is an obvious solution, have every vehicle on the road communicate with every other vehicle on the road so they know exactly what they’re going to do. This, however, requires an unprecedented level of cooperation between ALL manufacturers.
In short, aside from a few prototype models that show off a companies abilities (and rake in a nice government research grant) they’re a long way off.
Ps, is cooperation hyphenated?
Cooperation.
Co-operation.
Which translates as let’s use the exaggerated emissions issue to impose a control freak agenda which is all about removing that freedom and enjoyment of driving.On that note I’m guessing that there’ll be no place for the freedom of choice to still use human controlled vehicles in this new Socialist utopia for those of us who enjoy driving.Let alone when that enjoyment is driving something with a decent V12 Internal combustion engine with a proper manual box on an unlimited section of autobahn and across the Alps for example. At least until such time the control freaks can zb off and do one and at which point I’ll hopefully be long gone.
The car has shrunk the world, increased personal freedom and in so many ways expanded our horizons, but there is a flipside. Fumes from car exhausts have helped to destroy our environment, poisoned the air we breathe and killed us in far more straightforward ways. But all that is going to change.
This episode enters a world where cars can drive themselves, a world where we are simply passengers, ferried about by wholesome green compassionate technology which will never ever go wrong. And it is almost here . Horizon explores the artificial intelligence required to replace human drivers for cars themselves, peers into the future driverless world and discovers that, despite the glossy driverless PR (and assuming that they really can be made to work reliably), the reality is that it might not be all good news. From the ethics of driverless car crashes to the impact on jobs, it might be that cars are about to rise up against us in ways that none of us are expecting
For all their faults, human drivers have one thing computers never will, gut instinct. How many times have you seen a vehicle and known they were going to do something stupid, taking avoiding action BEFORE there’s a problem. Computers can only react, and for this reason, automatic cars won’t the be sharing the roads with human drivers anytime soon.
There is an obvious solution, have every vehicle on the road communicate with every other vehicle on the road so they know exactly what they’re going to do. This, however, requires an unprecedented level of cooperation between ALL manufacturers.
In short, aside from a few prototype models that show off a companies abilities (and rake in a nice government research grant) they’re a long way off.
Ps, is cooperation hyphenated?
Cooperation.
Co-operation.
This cars are killing people with fumes frenzy which is currently the ideal excuse for large revenue raising moves on the near horizon, does anyone else get the feeling it’s little more than an offshoot of the now doubted and, by some, discredited (not by those trousering large grants or salaries by bandwaggoning) global warming scam?
There’s hundreds of thousands of lorry bus van cab drivers who have spent more than 40 years piloting their own smokey Diesels, and due to having been driving long before aircon came on the scene so windows permanently open, have been inhaling the fumes of millions of other vehicles too.
Traffic jams arn’t a new phenomenon, ask anyone who used to dodge all around that London before the M25 went in, you could be 2 hours getting from Windsor to Watford on a Friday afternoon in blistering heat inhaling all.
Ageing lorry/van/bus/taxi drivers haven’t all pegged it nor have those who spent their lives on the streets, ie when coppers used to walk the beat, and if all this Diesel fumes killing stuff was true we’d be dropping like flies.
Juddian:
Ageing lorry/van/bus/taxi drivers haven’t all pegged it nor have those who spent their lives on the streets, ie when coppers used to walk the beat, and if all this Diesel fumes killing stuff was true we’d be dropping like flies.
In the UK diagnosis of COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), commonly associated with smoking and long term exposure to air born pollutants such as diesel particles, have risen by approx 27% in the last decade, it’s also estimated that as many as 2 thirds of actual cases never even get diagnosed as the symptoms are ignored or are never bad enough to warrant investigation.
70 % of cases have smoking as a major (but not necessarily an exclusive) factor, 30% of cases have never smoked.
I’m definitely not convinced by the arguments put forward about global warming and I too believe it’s over hyped to enable governments and corporations to make more money, but I do believe the effects of a life time on the roads breathing in exhaust emissions are being seen now.
I suspect the effects of the increase in wood burning stoves in cities is being conveniently blamed on Diesels.
The problem as always is that program makers like sensationalism because it sells, and all sides gloss over any inconvenient side plots to suit the story.
Adblue is to help clean up diesel emissions, wonder if these log burners will come up with a wood treatment after someone finally realises these things are worse than diesel engines. Logblue maybe?
In the future when driverless cars are the norm - when the PC at the the local cop shop needs a word, will it wait till you are in your car, then lock the doors and windows and your car drives you to a compound to be processed ?
UKtramp:
Adblue is to help clean up diesel emissions, wonder if these log burners will come up with a wood treatment after someone finally realises these things are worse than diesel engines. Logblue maybe?
mabey if enviromentalists were encouraged to ■■■■ in their own coal bunkers or log piles then that would save them having to invent any nasty chemicals to add to the solid fuels in their fire.they might need to invest in a pair of goggles when sitting around the fire of an evening when the acrid smell of burning ■■■■ fumes and smoke wafts its way through their houses.
Juddian:
Ageing lorry/van/bus/taxi drivers haven’t all pegged it nor have those who spent their lives on the streets, ie when coppers used to walk the beat, and if all this Diesel fumes killing stuff was true we’d be dropping like flies.
In the UK diagnosis of COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), commonly associated with smoking and long term exposure to air born pollutants such as diesel particles, have risen by approx 27% in the last decade, it’s also estimated that as many as 2 thirds of actual cases never even get diagnosed as the symptoms are ignored or are never bad enough to warrant investigation.
70 % of cases have smoking as a major (but not necessarily an exclusive) factor, 30% of cases have never smoked.
I’m definitely not convinced by the arguments put forward about global warming and I too believe it’s over hyped to enable governments and corporations to make more money, but I do believe the effects of a life time on the roads breathing in exhaust emissions are being seen now.
As Juddian says previous generations grew up with loads of traffic and ironically far more dirtier engine exhausts than recent ones.So what changed to create such an increase that recently.Strange how air traffic growth,which has more than tripled since the 1990’s,seems to have been conveniently ignored by people like Kahn who supports Heathrow Airport expansion.Bearing in mind that major cities obviously have a disproportionate level of air traffic taking off and landing in their air space.
While in the absence of confirmation that robotised vehicles will be a matter of choice for those who want to use them not compulsory imposition on those who don’t.It seems obvious that the arguable emissions issue,is being hijacked by control freaks who’s agenda is something totally different,in wanting to remove the freedom of choice to drive anything.IE where’s the connection between emissions v robot vehicles ?.If it looks and sounds like a duck,in the form of an agenda to remove the freedom of those of us who like driving and to create a captive market and monopoly for the technology producers,then its a duck.No surprise that the Chinese would be at the forefront of the control freak scam.
Would be interesting to see how a driverless vehicle would have dealt with this viewtopic.php?f=2&t=147991 sort of situation probably have driven over all of them.
I just spoke to the ghost of my great-great-great grandfather. He had just put his horse in the stable for the night and he told me that these new-fangled traction engines will never catch on.
UKtramp:
Adblue is to help clean up diesel emissions, wonder if these log burners will come up with a wood treatment after someone finally realises these things are worse than diesel engines. Logblue maybe?
At least until such time the control freaks can zb off and do one and at which point I’ll hopefully be long gone.
