Adaptive Cruise Control, Autosteer, and other forms of self driving

I'm curious to know how many users in OT have some variation on a self driving vehicle. As automotive technology is evolving, more and more cars are getting something above basic cruise control, be it automated steering for lane keeping, tracking distance between your vehicle and the next vehicle for automated acceleration and braking, automated lane changes, automatic emergency braking, lane collision avoidance, or automated parallel, straight, or perpendicular parking.

I'm curious to know if anyone in OT has a car with any of these features and if so, what you drive and how you like these features/how well do they work for you?

Thanks.

-Byshop

Uhhh....I have anti lock brakes.

@Byshop: my old car is in service at the dealer and i got a 2017 loaner with a lane keeping assist on it. i was trying it out yesterday and it is a really weird feeling to have the car turning the wheel a little bit as the road curves. it seemed to work ok but is not designed for hand's free driving. i liked it though.

i didn't get to test it on the interstate but i'm guessing it works better there where the roads curve less sharply and lanes are easily identifiable.

I drive myself. Which I trust more than a computer. They do glitch and if humans get used to self driving vehicles they will not pay attention....some don't do that now....and accidents will occur. Making people HAVE to pay attention is imperative.

No experience yet, but hopefully this time next year I can say otherwise.

Technically I suppose that counts. Features like that and traction control -are- computerized control systems that are making the car do something that's not exactly what you're telling it to do.

What did you get? Yes, these features tend to work best on highways for exactly those reasons.

Do you have some specific car in mind that you're planning on getting?

I hear what you're saying, and I both agree and disagree. "They do glitch" is a bit of an oversimplification. I don't subscribe to the idea that "all technology eventually fails or screws up" necessarily, even though nothing is perfect and the more complex something is the more potential you introduce for failure. However, people are just as imperfect if not more. A "purpose driven" AI system designed for one specific use case is nothing like a personal computer that can bluescreen for a thousand different reasons.

Besides that, a computerized system is capable of doing things that a person can't/won't. Even with some of the current tech, a self driving car has no blindspots. Not only that, but they can see in all directions at once and with multiple "senses". Additionally, with the advent of connected infrastructure, cars can be "aware" of each other in ways that a person can't be, and even know what state things like traffic signals are in without being able to see them.

-Byshop

@Byshop: it was a 2017 acura tlx w/ the LKAS system.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2056562/tested-lane-keeping-assist-system-steers-acura-ever-closer-to-self-driving-cars.html

@Byshop: I have ABS, and regular cruise control on my car. It's a manual transmission though.

At first I even hated the feeling of the ABS going off.... felt like control was being taken away, even though it's far better than pumping the brakes.

Cruise control I use liberally, even in the city on roads where traffic stays moving. I always set it at 9 KM/h over the speed limit, and never get tickets. Photo radar or otherwise. 10 km is like the unwritten threshold for 99% of cops where they won't bother pulling you over.

On the highway I absolutely HATE people that don't use their cruise control and can't maintain a steady speed. I always manage to attract one of these "flakes" as my dad calls them. They're lost in their own world, with no fucking idea how annoying it is for everyone else who has to pass them 7 times because they keep speeding up every time someone passes them. Need to pull out and pass the car in front of you? Too bad, this dinglenuts is hanging out permanently in your blind spot now.

I wonder how autonomous cars deal with skaters. It's a bit more unpredictable. Most cars don't mind me in the bike lanes but some a holes like to drive slow and beep at me like I'm about to crash into them.

Edit: as far as cruise control, I'm too dumb to figure it out so don't use it. I'll need proper training before touching anything autonomous. I like manual transmission and using the hand brake, respectively when required, not sure how to drift.

I don't like the idea of automation or anything that works contradictory to my agency. What if I'm on a road and a child walks out into it and I can't steer the damn car out of the lane, or it resists me, surprising me and I kill them?

No way. If there ever would come a time where I got into an accident that wasn't my fault due to well meant automation and someone died from it, I'd never be able to forgive myself.

Give me all the responsibility, or give me none of it.

I have a 93 Grand Prix sooooo....yeah I don't have all the bells and whistles as modern cars. It does have cruise control though which is something I definitely use often to keep my car moving at a steady pace...

Even if I had all those features that modern cars have, I wouldn't use them. I'm pretty confident in my own ability to stay in lanes, pay attention to other cars around me, or parallel parking. I don't need the assist. Especially with aggressive features that take the vehicle out of my hands....

Nice, that looks like a snazzy car.

I do miss the idea of a standard transmission. As of 9 months ago I sold my last manual car ('92 300zx TT) and I don't have a standard to teach my kids how to drive on when they become old enough.

My wife also doesn't use cruise control because she doesn't trust herself to not crash with it.

Right now the mass produced cars that have autonomous driving features still require driver input, so they don't take control away from the driver completely. Even autosteer/autopilot on the Tesla is disengaged by a small tug on the wheel. It's not like something out of Maximum Overdrive where the car is going to grab the wheel and start mowing down pedestrians.

As for control, yes, right now they are "assist" features like cruise control and it takes a bit to get used to the idea that the car -can- do some of the work and figuring out how to drive a car that gives you the option. These features are most effective/desirable in stop and go traffic on highways, where there's no risk of pedestrians and the road curves aren't too sharp.

It's not necessarily about "I can't do this myself so the car should do it for me" so much as "dear god, I'm stuck in stop and go traffic on an hour long commute and it would be nice if I didn't have to focus so much of my attention on this monotonous, mind numbing task". In those circumstances, I'm a big fan.

-Byshop

Yeah, I wasn't sure how I felt about the idea of ABS versus being able to pump the brakes myself, but it's a great example of "actually the computer can do it better".

In the US, the unwritten rule is 5MPH over. Not coincidentally, Tesla's autopilot feature (which lets you set any speed you want on a highway) will cap the "autosteer" function to no more than 5MPH over the posted speed limit (which the car can tell through a combination of GPS map data and reading speed limit signs with its optical cameras).

And yes, "flakes" as you describe them drive me nuts. Many people subconsciously hover in the blind spots of other cars, or like you describes don't maintain a constant speed and speed up when they get passed. For as much as people might be scared of the idea of a self driving car, how many drivers on the road put their -brains- on autopilot during their daily commute.

I use autopilot daily, and one of the reasons I use it as much as I do is so that I don't get speeding tickets. Driving myself (especially if you're in a car with some oomph) it's really easy to bump up above that 5MPH threshold to pass or whatever. If I put the car on AP, it might take me a little bit longer to get where I'm going than if I were driving myself the whole way but it's pretty safe and consistent. One client I was working for I had to drive over an hour to get to each way (assuming traffic wasn't too bad) and half of it was stop and go. Being able to basically let the car deal with that was a godsend. It's not that I couldn't, but who wants to?

-Byshop

@Byshop: No, I'm not sure specifically what I would get. You have Tesla, right? Not sure i'll be on your level by then, but you have any other suggestions/experiences with these features in vehicles?

Like driving, so I would hate any system that takes it away from me.

I've got a late 2016 Model S 75D with the second gen autopilot platform and I had a first gen 75D before this. The reason I started this thread was because while when people think of self driving cars they think of Tesla, but in reality the two most prominent features of what Autopilot means in a Tesla (Autosteering and Traffic Aware Cruise Control or TACC) are also available in other vehicles in some form or another. I'd say that Tesla probably has the most advanced systems on the market of any mass produced vehicle, but I wanted to know what other modern cars also had similar features and how well they worked.

While I know a lot about the two Tesla AP platforms (the MobileEye based Gen1 system and the Nvidia PX2 Neural Net Optical system in the Gen 2 vechiles), I don't know much about what else is out there. The Infiniti Q50 had something similar. Here's a video of a guy engaging the feature on a highway, and then jumping into the back seat of his car (NEVER DO THIS).

-Byshop

I don't imagine features like this will become inexpensive enough or considered standard features to be afforded by the likes of me. I'm not poor, but I don't make a lot of money, and I am not one to spend a lot even if I did. Though this tech does seem like a practical one, I must admit.

Tesla has a new car coming out called the Model 3 that starts in the 30k range and it's going to have the same autopilot platform as my Model S. First deliveries start at the end of this month. Tesla claims that the current AP gen Model S (the luxury sedan that I've got), Model X (the SUV model with the vertical doors), and the Model 3 (the upcoming consumer sedan) will eventually be capable of full self driving through software updates. Originally they were supposed to have that up and running by year end, but I think realistically it's going to take at least till the end of 2018.

-Byshop

Thanks for sharing. I am a fan of Infiniti's, too.

One thing I look forward to as these features become more widespread in their adoption and as they're refined is the decrease in traffic backup and efficiency in road usage.

Regardless of how people feel about self driving capabilities, the same technology goes into various enhanced safety features like Automatic Emergency Braking (where the car will actually hit the brakes for you if it's certain you're about to get into an accident) or Lane Collision Avoidance (where it'll swerve away from cars drifting out of their lanes).

-Byshop

I just came recently from a road trip. Besides basic cruise control, I have no need for other driver features.

I can see much farther ahead and assess the situation better than any computerized drive enhancer.