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Mass-Produced Self-Driving Cars Soon a Reality? (GM, Folks)
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GM appears to be edging out its Silicon Valley rivals in being first to market when it comes to mass production of self-driving cars with is Cruise AV ("Autonomous Vehicle") initiative. These cars won't have steering wheels or any other driving appurtenances, either. Plus, they'll work via a ride hailing app and are based on the Chevy Bolt EV and its 200-plus mile range. If they suffer an accident an uplink to GM's OnStar will assess damage and any passenger injuries, etc. I think GM plans to roll Cruise AV out to one test city starting in 2019, and then scale up from there.

"“There are a number of hurdles to clear before self-driving cars transition from laboratory experiments to real-world functionality,” said Karl Brauer, an analyst with Cox Automotive. “Two of those hurdles, mass production and government regulation, appear to be within General Motors’ grasp. We’ve known for several months GM is ready for volume production.”

In a surprise move, GM said Friday it had filed a petition with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration seeking permission to deploy its self-driving Cruise AV, which will be built on the Chevrolet Bolt EV platform without the Chevy branding. The automaker is asking essentially to re-write language in 16 different requirements that focus on vehicles engineered to be driven by humans."

"Politics is just show business for ugly people."
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Re: Mass-Produced Self-Driving Cars Soon a Reality? (GM, Folks) [big kahuna] [ In reply to ]
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Good for GM, but I don’t see how that announcement puts them ahead of Tesla or the rest. Tesla already is “mass producing” vehicles with all the hardware required for full autonomy. The long pole is the software and government/public approval which I assume Tesla and Waymo are a step ahead.
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Re: Mass-Produced Self-Driving Cars Soon a Reality? (GM, Folks) [big kahuna] [ In reply to ]
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So how do they get beyond the Disney monorail stage?

A set area of Phoenix or Southern California? Sure, keep them to areas with good roads etc. and it works. The northern half of the country where you can go weeks without being able to see the road itself and no discernible edge to the road? And roads that in the best of times are sketchy on the details? I'm not convinced yet.

Before someone says we just need an infrastructure upgrade to lay sensors, first you need an infrastructure upgrade to lay an actual road. And I haven't seen extra giant piles of cash laying around government coffers lately.

When they test these on days like yesterday in Ohio and Michigan I'll be interested.

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.
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Re: Mass-Produced Self-Driving Cars Soon a Reality? (GM, Folks) [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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j p o wrote:
So how do they get beyond the Disney monorail stage?

A set area of Phoenix or Southern California? Sure, keep them to areas with good roads etc. and it works. The northern half of the country where you can go weeks without being able to see the road itself and no discernible edge to the road? And roads that in the best of times are sketchy on the details? I'm not convinced yet.

Before someone says we just need an infrastructure upgrade to lay sensors, first you need an infrastructure upgrade to lay an actual road. And I haven't seen extra giant piles of cash laying around government coffers lately.

When they test these on days like yesterday in Ohio and Michigan I'll be interested.

I live only a couple of miles away from the Ford plant where they're building their version of AVs and I've seen them fooling around with them out on the roads. Our roads. Which resemble the roads on the outskirts of Kabul in Afghanistan, I'd wager. ;-)

"Politics is just show business for ugly people."
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Re: Mass-Produced Self-Driving Cars Soon a Reality? (GM, Folks) [big kahuna] [ In reply to ]
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big kahuna wrote:
j p o wrote:
So how do they get beyond the Disney monorail stage?

A set area of Phoenix or Southern California? Sure, keep them to areas with good roads etc. and it works. The northern half of the country where you can go weeks without being able to see the road itself and no discernible edge to the road? And roads that in the best of times are sketchy on the details? I'm not convinced yet.

Before someone says we just need an infrastructure upgrade to lay sensors, first you need an infrastructure upgrade to lay an actual road. And I haven't seen extra giant piles of cash laying around government coffers lately.

When they test these on days like yesterday in Ohio and Michigan I'll be interested.


I live only a couple of miles away from the Ford plant where they're building their version of AVs and I've seen them fooling around with them out on the roads. Our roads. Which resemble the roads on the outskirts of Kabul in Afghanistan, I'd wager. ;-)

I always joke that some of the directions where I live include the line, "turn off the stone road."

My guess is in the long run cars will incorporate a lot of what they learn, but most will still have people driving them. I'm old but I'm still young enough I should see how this plays out.

But I applaud the effort. If you were starting a transportation system from scratch I doubt you would use the model we have. Everyone maintaining their own vehicle with its own power plant using very expensive roads that constantly need repaired and replaced. Scaling the system is a PITA, and in many places there is simply no way to increase capacity.

I'm curious what the total budget for personal transportation is in the US. Count car purchase, maintenance, repair, roads, fuel, insurance, ... Seems like there has to be a better way, so they should have at it.

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.
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Re: Mass-Produced Self-Driving Cars Soon a Reality? (GM, Folks) [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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First off they are happily driving around testing all kinds of sensors in all kinds of weather and road conditions.

But this is where Tesla has a huge advantage. Instead of a fleet of a dozen test cars, they are collecting data from 100k actual cars on the road that each have a full complement of autonomy sensors. If I were them I would have their autonomous software shadow driving all the time and reporting back each time the driver does something the software wouldn’t.
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Re: Mass-Produced Self-Driving Cars Soon a Reality? (GM, Folks) [torrey] [ In reply to ]
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torrey wrote:
Tesla already is “mass producing” vehicles..
Oh man, good one. Spit coffee all over my keyboard reading that.
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Re: Mass-Produced Self-Driving Cars Soon a Reality? (GM, Folks) [torrey] [ In reply to ]
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torrey wrote:
Good for GM, but I don’t see how that announcement puts them ahead of Tesla or the rest. Tesla already is “mass producing” vehicles with all the hardware required for full autonomy. The long pole is the software and government/public approval which I assume Tesla and Waymo are a step ahead.

Tesla is mass producing cars? Since when? All talk, no walk.
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Re: Mass-Produced Self-Driving Cars Soon a Reality? (GM, Folks) [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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Don't forget that autonomous cars started off as dirt road vehicles. That is easy compared to busy city streets. But all weather capability is the final hurdle.
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Re: Mass-Produced Self-Driving Cars Soon a Reality? (GM, Folks) [torrey] [ In reply to ]
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torrey wrote:
Don't forget that autonomous cars started off as dirt road vehicles. That is easy compared to busy city streets. But all weather capability is the final hurdle.

Like I said, I applaud the effort. I am just still in the skeptical category. But people were also skeptical about those gol durn flying contraptions at one point.

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.
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