Nissan plans to offer affordable self-driving cars by 2020
Source: Computerworld.com
Nissan plans to offer affordable self-driving cars by 2020
It plans to demonstrate its autonomous tech later this year
By Lucas Mearian
August 27, 2013 04:48 PM ET
Computerworld - Nissan announced today that it expects to begin selling multiple models of self-driving cars by 2020.
Self-driving cars, also known as autonomous drive vehicles, use cameras and sensors to detect roadway lanes and objects around them in order to guide themselves without human intervention.
Among others, GM plans to introduce a semi-automated Cadillac driving system in 2015. Google was among the first tech companies to announce plans to produce a self-driving car for "ordinary people" in less than five years.
Read more: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9241946/Nissan_plans_to_offer_affordable_self_driving_cars_by_2020?source=CTWNLE_nlt_emgtech_2013-08-28
Oh, frabjous day! This is what I've been wanting to hear.
At last, some GOOD news.
= new reply since forum marked as read
and another, like a mild-mannered driver.
(at least I think so)
Older drivers will definitely want self navigating cars. 
That would take literally all the fun out of driving..
Ping me when the computer can respond to voice commands and pull this off 
but you are right, for all my YouTube prowess and usually finding just the right video...I failed LOL
I should have done this one again....That sound at 2:09 in the video gets me a little aroused 
and they do rallies and other "stuff", YouTube videos make money when you have 40 million video views
Another aspect to current commuting that will be eliminated (or mostly so) are accidents. To no longer have to sit in stop-and-go traffic due to the stupidity of other drivers causing accidents would save fuel as well, not to mention nerves (and lives.)
I have to wonder if anyone has studied how much productivity is lost due to employees having to "decompress" from their commutes each day before they're fully ready to work. We could probably push for 35-hour full-time work weeks without the need to de-stress each day
with all the other drivers out there doing these same things. I'd also include the inexperienced drivers, be they young or immigrants, as well as the ones that seem to truly think they're on a NASCAR track. I had someone pass me within just a hair's width of my bumper this morning in his impatient goal to be "in front" of everyone else.
Now, I will admit that I like some aspects of driving, such as taking corners and banked curves fast. However, my ability to do so requires either being lucky with no one in front of me, or empty roads. The latter only happens after a hurricane evacuation, and the former only happens about 10% of the time. I'd be fine with not getting that thrill if it meant also losing the nerve-wracking I get twice-daily.
When all the cars drive me, then I would expect there will be tracks cropping up to satisfy the racetrack mentalities that seem to want that kind of driving on their daily commute. And if they can't handle the idea of all cars driving them, then they can sit at home to telecommute their job while playing the latest racing video game
(Realistically, I'd much rather telecommute my job, too, as it's desk/cubicle type of work.)
actually, the Asiana crash happened because the plane was not using instruments to land, but was being flown by hand by pilots with little experience with the tricky approach to SFO.
No worries then for the riding impaired.
I hope they come with an inflatable chauffeur, kinda like the movie, Airplane! Then I could sit in the back and pretend I'm rich.
You only need an antenna to get GPS coordinates. Surveyors do the same thing to get location and elevation points (such as for the maps I make.) Their data collectors aren't online. They merely collect the data. Our office computers then interpret that data, same as would happen in a car.
There are numerous methods for vehicles to navigate roads, too, beyond GPS. Simple ones, such as permanent magnets embedded in the center of each lane, or induction loops in the lanes. Also, limited access HOV-type roadways just for these smarter cars. Guidance doesn't have to be by GPS or other broadcast methods in order for the system to work. Honestly, do some research about these multitudes of methods and you'll see just how versatile they could do this kind of transit
Another is young managers can't then micromanage as easily, and why they'll resist, too. I've read that managers that don't micromanage are more open to telecommuting, because they've developed other ways to manage and trust their employees to a better extent. Plus, they're aware of the kind of software that can monitor work done, or progress, though the latter is often just results-based anyway.
Some places that telecommute their employees do require them to show up at least one day a week, and that's fine. However, there's no reason why we can't just video-chat with our co-workers, too There were times at other jobs when email wasn't adequate for the one guy that got to telecommute from his home in another state! For meetings we'd conference call with him, yet we could have skyped it, too. I still don't know what the guy looked like to this day 
Inattentive drivers are deadly only to themselves and the few cars around them. The point we were discussing here was the idea of hackers getting into a closed system (a GPS receiver, i.e., "data collector"
and telling all cars to do something deadly, such as drive it (and its driver) off a cliff.
I recall reading about this technology, and the various ways of doing it (there are many different systems, so I hope the manufacturers manage to standardize something that works everywhere for every vehicle.)
What was laughable at the time was how adamant against automated vehicles the big car manufacturers were. Their lame excuse was "we don't want to take the fun out of driving." Well, none of us get to have much fun driving in daily stop-and-go traffic, either, or dealing with the idiots in parking lots, or trying to find a parking space that isn't partly taken by the vehicles on either side, and so forth.
Daily driving isn't fun; it's a necessity. Fun driving is the kind done on a track, be it paved or off-road, such as the not-so-popular road sport in America, rally racing. Get you a car just for the racing you want to do, put it on a trailer, take it to the track, and get all the fun you can stomach for the week or the month. Let the rest of us have calm, stress-free daily commutes that don't require us to "decompress" once we get to the office, or wherever.
Better yet, let's implement telecommuting whether American businesses like it or not. Empty the skyscrapers and the freeways so all the folks that do things with their hands can get to their work safely and calmly 
And I always remember that opening 
goes all "Hal from 2001" and takes out it's owner for not appreciating everything it does for the driver.
In fact, I dare say it's not about convenience at all.
It's primarily about safety, yet also about efficiency. Humans cannot drive their vehicles in the most fuel-efficient manner possible. A computer can, and the fuel savings would be immense, not to mention the reduction in pollution. You'd be able to eliminate the speed daemons, the ones that seem to enjoy guzzling fuel just to make the rest of us mad. We'd be able to nap on our commute to work. The tech-addicted could surf the 'net with impunity, never once concerned about drifting into the lane next to them and killing that mother taking her children to their first day of school.
I'm not really a techie like some around here. However, I'd much rather work from home (telecommute, telework) than be on the roads at all, including having to put up with the sun in my eyes both ways as well as the rest of the 100% inattentive drivers "sharing" the roads with me. My safety is more important than anything. I put up with it and drive defensively because that's the only option available right now.
When automated vehicles are the norm, I hope I'm still alive to truly appreciate how much better they will make all of our lives
Usually, that's done on either a parking lot, or sometimes, on abandoned airstrips. You can do all sorts of things when you're not constrained by lanes, laws, and unpredictable "fellow" drivers
You'd be able to safely fall asleep at the wheel (assuming there's even a wheel by then.)
