What's the problem with electric cars?

[Tannaton]

Originally Posted by The Thong

That’s another subject for another time. Self driving cars in my view are still way off. AI is just not advanced enough to be trusted enough to be safe on our roads.

TT

My strong view is self-driving/autonomous cars could only ever work safely and effectively if they are the only cars on the road.

[Wagon Sailor]

Originally Posted by Tannaton

My strong view is self-driving/autonomous cars could only ever work safely and effectively if they are the only cars on the road.

I think the rate of development of AI makes it likely that things will happen sooner than we think.

[Existential Crisis]

Originally Posted by Wagon Sailor

I think the rate of development of AI makes it likely that things will happen sooner than we think.

Can't wait. Woukd make my commute so relaxing

[The Thong]

Originally Posted by Tannaton

My strong view is self-driving/autonomous cars could only ever work safely and effectively if they are the only cars on the road.

Totally agree

[The Thong]

Originally Posted by Wagon Sailor

I think the rate of development of AI makes it likely that things will happen sooner than we think.

It’s ironing out the gremlins that’ll take the time. Stuff like not being able to distinguish the difference between a blue coloured truck and the blue shy back ground. We’re trying to do with AI in a short space of time that nature has taken millennia to do (yes yes, we miss stuff like that too before someone sez it). Once all the wrinkles are ironed out I’m sure autonomous transport will be a very safe mode of transport.

TT

[GMcL]

Level 3 is going to be more mainstream in 2023 in the US with Mercedes throwing their hat in the ring.
What people should remember is with L3 the car may be 'driving' but the person in the driver's seat should be ready to regain control at short notice. L4 is full control by the vehicle, I don't believe any manufacturer is there yet or has been legislated for on public highways.
The data collected during L3 is the debugging tool for L4. Why did the driver have to regain control ?

[Forg]

Originally Posted by Wagon Sailor

I think the rate of development of AI makes it likely that things will happen sooner than we think.

I disagree ... but only because I've been saying this for at least 5 years, and it doesn't seem to have gotten any closer.

One of the largest insurance companies moved their head office to Olympic Park (the re-purposed site of the 2000 Olympics) in the mid 2010's and because the parking wasn't AT their building they introduced autonomous shuttle buses mid 2017. I figured that if this was working, then all the talk we'd had for a few years from the likes of Tesla and Google about autonomous vehicles was looming as quickly as THEY said it was ... except nothing has changed in the last 6 years. I honestly thought it would be a valid Thing in top-end cars by now, at least for highway use, but even that limited use-case doesn't seem to have improved since 2017-ish.

Mind you, the top technical & management consulting firms like Accenture might have something to fear. My better half has been fiddling with Chat GPT, and she reckons she can get it to quickly spew out reports identical to what Accenture will charge you a half-million for ...

[DaveNP]

Originally Posted by Forg

I disagree ... but only because I've been saying this for at least 5 years, and it doesn't seem to have gotten any closer.
...

Think back just thirty years to when those of us who had a computer were using Windows 3.0 and all of the bugs and crashes of Windows95 were yet to come, then put your hand in your pocket and take out your phone which has more computing power than the NASA computer that sent man to the moon. Or for another comparison think of the Wright brothers first powered flight in 1903 and BOAC's first jet airline service in 1952, and by 2003 we took flying off on holiday for granted. It may be five years or thirty, or it may be sooner than we imagine.

[pinballdave]

Originally Posted by Forg

Mind you, the top technical & management consulting firms like Accenture might have something to fear. My better half has been fiddling with Chat GPT, and she reckons she can get it to quickly spew out reports identical to what Accenture will charge you a half-million for ...

I was discussing ChatGPT with a friend the other day, and he was singing it's praises as it helped him find a solution to a problem that had been bothering him for a while. I argued that it was no more than a search engine that formats it's results into a more human readable form.

He thought it was a lot smarter than that, so I suggested that he ask it a question about a subject that he was an expert in. While the machine generated result sounded quite impressive to me, he then started picking it apart and finding many errors and shortcomings, likening it to a student's first essay on a new subject.

In the end we both decided that while it was great at assembling a random selection of loosely related facts, it had no real understanding of the subject at hand. All style and no substance, or what is colloquially known as a BS artist. (Which is probably why it's going to eventually replace management consultants. )

It's true that AI has come a long way in the last few years, but it's also got a very long way to go.

[GMcL]

^^^ reads a lot like objections to BEVs.

Yes, they are different, but they are better in terms of amount of fuel used / km or mile drive.
A BEV can cover 150 miles* on the equivalent of 1.6** gallons of fuel.

*That's worse case winter scenario. Summer averages between 260 and 315 miles for the same equivalent 1.6 gallons. You need to start thinking in kWh/km or miles and then make comparisons between petrol/diesel and electric. To help:
1 imp. gallon of diesel ~ 46kWh of energy
1 imp. gallon of E10 = 39.97kWh of energy
1kWh of electricity = 4 to 5 miles of travel in a BEV, depending on the car. We average 4.2miles/kWh in winter and closer to 6 miles/kWh in summer with our EV.

70mpg of diesel = 46kWh of diesel or 1.52 miles/kWh of energy
60mpg of diesel = 46kWh of diesel or 1.30 miles/kWh of energy
40mpg of petrol = 39.97kWh of E10 petrol or 1 mile/kWh of energy
30mpg of petrol = 39.97kWh of E10 petrol or .75 mile/kWh of energy
20mpg of petrol = 39.97kWh of E10 petrol or .50 mile/kWh of energy

You may not like the frequency of charge but the miles per kWh do not lie.

**39.97 imp. gallons of E10