Automated Driving - BMW Group Research and Technology

[v12]

News:
http://www.2addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=931890

He presses the 1 and 2 preset buttons to turn on the feature!
I tried and it did nothing in my car...

Note: the car is doing 100 mph in the test.

No bulky sensors and cameras. The car as a special device mounted below the bumper but looks stock in and out otherwise. Amazing.

So now what... within 5 years, cars driving themselves within certain variables will be on the road and a common sight?

Will we become the generation to bemoan the race towards an utilitarian realization of transportation in a vehicle?
Or will this be super convenient in sprawling metropoles so we can be free to conduct conversations, FaceTime relatives on the other side of the world, do some work etc while stuck in traffic or on the way to run errands?

[Dionysus]

What is holding/will hold these technologies back, IMHO, is who is responsible in an accident.

[v12]

The car which caused it and by extension its owner? Insurance coverage and law will evolve to accommodate the tech.
There will be huge amount of data to retrieve from the car to replay what occurred in case of an accident. Insurance companies and law enforcement will love it.

I think we will see less accidents? You won't believe the stuff I caught on my dash cam over time. People are just careless and/ or downright inept on the road as it is anyway.

[RaySkrillz]

English please

[Dionysus]

Originally Posted by v12

Insurance coverage and law will evolve to accommodate the tech.

Fair point & agreed, however, manufacturers are still understandably cautious with these technologies. The disclaimers not relieving the driver of responsibility will long continue. Autonomous limit handling system unleashed on the general public any time soon, if at all during this generation? I'm not so convinced.

Originally Posted by v12

There will be huge amount of data to retrieve from the car to replay what occurred in case of an accident. Insurance companies and law enforcement will love it.

Within limitations, autonomous systems are great at at controlling the car they are fitted to (and drivers thereof), at least in straight line of motion. It's the unpredictability of other moving objects around you (which may not be logging data, or be within the field of data capture of an autonomous vehicle, at least in the absence of full telemetry systems) that'll make life interesting for criminal & civil litigation.

Originally Posted by v12

I think we will see less accidents?

My only fear is that, during inception, such technologies may encourage a false sense of security. Having said this, I agree with you insomuch as we need embrace these technologies to progress. I'm not a luddite (honest), just very risk adverse.