That auto driving car? I'm in it

I purchased a 2010 Ford Taurus SHO about six months ago. So far, it's been a great car for what I'm looking for. I have a two year old and one on the way so hauling kid gear and the wife around in comfort is high on the priority list. Close to it, and not far behind, is fun behind the wheel. The SHO is that. It's a four door rocket in the true old school sense of the word. It's what Don Draper might drive if he lived to 2010.

As I was cruising to work in it I thought about this. It has active cruise. If the cruise control is on and people brake in front of me, it brakes the car. If I set the cruise at 70 and the car in front of me is doing 64 it will match their speed until the road opens up and accelerate to the speed I set. Front sensors - check.

It has blind spot monitor sensors that light up a light in the side view mirrors if someone is in my blind spot. This is good because the door sills are HIGH. You need someone else watching those spots. These sensors also go off if your backing out of a parking spot and a car is rolling through the parking lot behind you. It's great because the sensors can see a car off the corner long before I can from the driver's seat. Corner sensors - check.

It has rear back up proximity checking. When you put the car in reverse it turns on the rear view video and turns on backup sensors to let you know how close you are to hitting something. I thought the video camera was over kill until I started using it. Now I can definitely see their use. Also, it helps me to see the rug rats running behind the car at day care. I couldn't see them otherwise as the trunk lid is high and the rear window is extremely raked and on the smallish side. Rear sensors - check.

With all of these sensors, the 2013 Ford Taurus can parallel park itself. That, to me, is impressive.

The car has a GPS so it knows where it is at all times in relation to the satellites.

The part I was thinking about...this car is ready to drive itself. If it had a brain smart enough to pull off this feat it could easily be done. Since the 2013 car has control over the brake and steering just add in the throttle and it's there. Auto driving cars will be here as soon as the law and liability issues are sorted.

What do you guys think?

I think it's a sad day when an automotive forum is excited about a self driving car.

Xceler8x wrote: Auto driving cars will be here as soon as the law and liability issues are sorted. What do you guys think?

There's waaaaaay too much liability for self-driving cars to be a going concern. Think suicide bomber times high speed.

Xceler8x wrote: Auto driving cars will be here as soon as the law and liability issues are sorted. What do you guys think?

I agree.

There are some places where I'd miss driving myself on the street, but here is not one of those places.

Eventually self-driving cars could allow much faster traffic flow. Think cars going 200kph and driving straight through intersections, communicating with each other and adjusting their speeds slightly to miss each other by centimeters. Windshields will have to be blacked out to keep people from screaming.

At that level of driving ability, human drivers could be allowed on the roads at the same time too. They could use a beacon that will tell autonomous cars to leave a bubble of space around them to avoid any accidents caused by human mistakes.

For fun drives/track days, I'll gladly take the wheel.

For sitting on a congested freeway day in/day out or a long road trip? I'll let the computer take over thank you very much.

My right leg/foot hurts due to constantly manipulating the gas pedal in our car every day I spend in congested traffic, to the point that I'm starting to limp. I LFB the car and having to hold my foot up off the gas hurts. I started using LFB because moving my foot from pedal to pedal began to hurt badly. It sucks and anything I can do to eliminate this pain is welcome, IMO.

With all that said, I agree that automatic driving cars will likely never happen, but not due to the bomber concern (the computer would limit the driving to sane speeds and areas where it is allowed, basically the loss of life would be no different then if a crazy person parked their car in a parking garage. Besides, in order to be a suicide bomber, one would have to kill themselves in the process and the current focus on certain religions where that behavior is welcomed and promoted.

No, the automatic driving cars will only happen in small scale and for specific routes with special efforts made to limit the liability and would likely require an added toll to use it. The real trick is of course who's solution for the automatically driving car will be adopted? That is where the money will be and how much Government red tape and lobbying will it take to make it happen?

I very recently drove across the country. An autonomous car would have made it so much better.

turboswede wrote: No, the automatic driving cars will only happen in small scale and for specific routes with special efforts made to limit the liability and would likely require an added toll to use it. The real trick is of course who's solution for the automatically driving car will be adopted? That is where the money will be and how much Government red tape and lobbying will it take to make it happen?

The cars only need to agree on a communication protocol - which is very helpful but not strictly necessary. Google's current autonomous cars don't communicate with other cars at all.

They could easily be safer than the average driver, and modern airliners are already practically autonomous so the liability issue isn't insurmountable.

I don't like it when cars automatically lock the doors above a certain speed or let you leave the headlights in auto and you let the car decide if you need them or when to turn them off after you've parked.

The parallel parking is too spooky. The technology is cool, I just don't want it - ever. Adaptive cruise control - maybe.

Blind spot detections scares me because it seems to encourage people to look less than they already do. On some cars you can see the sensors working as you approach and pas them if they have lights on the driver's side mirror. I would rather have cars with lower beltlines, lower truck lines, and larger window area so the driver could actually use his or her eyes to see out. Give me BMW 2002 styling with modern safety equipment and crash-worthiness.

T.J. wrote: Blind spot detections scares me because it seems to encourage people to look less than they already do. On some cars you can see the sensors working as you approach and pas them if they have lights on the driver's side mirror. I would rather have cars with lower beltlines, lower truck lines, and larger window area so the driver could actually use his or her eyes to see out. Give me BMW 2002 styling with modern safety equipment and crash-worthiness.

Agree on these points. What we should not use autonomous driving tech for is lulling drivers into an even bigger false sense of security.

Low beltlines and good visibility through whatever means make the average driver feel unsafe. They want to be peering out of the eye slit of a suit of armor. That's why Volvo had to lose their see-through triangulated A-pillars for the weaker traditional A-pillars.

My first thought is, "Sell it before it has any electrical problems."

Other than that, enjoy the hell out of it.

GameboyRMH wrote:

turboswede wrote: No, the automatic driving cars will only happen in small scale and for specific routes with special efforts made to limit the liability and would likely require an added toll to use it. The real trick is of course who's solution for the automatically driving car will be adopted? That is where the money will be and how much Government red tape and lobbying will it take to make it happen?

The cars only need to agree on a communication protocol - which is very helpful but not strictly necessary. Google's current autonomous cars don't communicate with other cars at all. They could easily be safer than the average driver, and modern airliners are already practically autonomous so the liability issue isn't insurmountable.

I submit the OBD nonsense as exhibit A of why this will be an overly complex and vendor specific solution.

I'm glad you are liking the car thus far......I have seen a few '10s creeping below $20k here. Its getting tempting, but not quite there yet.

The computers have won at chess and Jeopardy... How long until one is faster around Lime Rock?

I can see it now - protests over illegal algorithms, banned GPUs and rampant overclocking. Followed by a schism in the sport resulting in the Windows Motorsport Association and the Linux Racing League.

If my car can drive me home from the bar... am I still drunk driving? What if I had an alibi that said I was asleep the whole time?

Will all insurance claims have to be no fault when no one is driving the car?

Can I send my autonomous car out without me to deliver children to sports practice, games, friends houses... or to get weed? Lord knows I don't want to get caught driving around with it in the car.

T.J. wrote: Blind spot detections scares me because it seems to encourage people to look less than they already do.

Ths. About autonomous cars, it's not the people who know how to drive and would see them as a once in a while luxury, it's the vastly greater number of idiots who will do the trust fall into a car like this every day then be completely helpless when (not if) the damn thing breaks. It's already a problem with some things; for instance when the computers here at work go down there's only two of us who understand how to conduct business without them. Everybody else just stands there and wrings their hands.

People who have to drive their cars already do some of the most idiotic things and I can't possibly imagine how badly a 'never have driven' type would react (or not) when the ghost in the machine decides to make its presence known. With my luck I'll be in their crosshairs when it happens. At least I'd be the one eyed man in the land of the blind and all that.

If someone REALLY doesn't want to drive, may I suggest the bus or a train?

The only issue I see with the automatic parallel parking mode is no one parallel parks anymore. Around here there is very little parking spots to parallel park in. And most people just pull in. Unless of course you drive a large vehicle then you lose the spot while setting up to parallel park to someone with a small car that just drives in.

As for the automatic driving cars, that would just give the phone talkers, make-up application, book reading, texting drivers more opportunity to do all that. Although on the flip side. I can see the benefit of it if used as designed. If it is used.

GameboyRMH wrote: They could easily be safer than the average driver, and modern airliners are already practically autonomous so the liability issue isn't insurmountable.

Airliners don't fly in extremely tight formation twice daily monday-friday.

Bobzilla wrote: I think it's a sad day when an automotive forum is excited about a self driving car.

indeed.

self driving cars scare the crap out of me. you can preach to me all you want about safer and more efficient driving done by computers and blah blah and what not and so forth, but i will just counter with cars being mass produced appliances that are a conglomeration of the cheapest parts and assemblies that are put together as fast as possible.. then once they get out into the real world not everyone will strictly adhere to the factory recommended maintenance procedures and intervals or fix stuff as soon as it starts to show signs of wear and tear...

wlkelley3 wrote: The only issue I see with the automatic parallel parking mode is no one parallel parks anymore.

I don't have much to throw in other this statement is weird. I haven't lived in a real city (San Fran, Portland, Salt lake, louisville, etc) where it's a possibility to "pull in" into 90% of the parking. If you can't parallel park you're screwed.

Not much street parking around here. And what there is, most of it is the angled pull in slot type.

Last time I had to parallel park I was driving a K5 blazer and someone driving a small car just pulled into the slot before I could back in.

mostly parking lots/garages here .. but there is still quite a bit of parallel parking available in Asheville and the surrounding small towns ….

when I got my DL, you were required to demonstrate the ability to parallel park before a license was issued ..

since there are still plenty of parallel spots here, I wonder how the younger (less than 50yo) have learned … I've also watched the parking technique of back 'til you hit something, then pull forward

I think Uncle Sidney was the inventor of "park by ear" where you just kept going till you heard something. When he was in his 90's it took a big noise.

In reply to wbjones:

I've had to parallel park a car from the backseat before, and you have to do it to get a license in MI.

still ? WOW … the driving test here consists of the ability to make a 3 pt turn around, pulling out from a side road into the correct lane (hint: the nearest to you going the direction you're going), and proving you can stay in your lane and obay the traffic rules ….