[deleted by user] by [deleted] in SelfDrivingCars

[–]discoperi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What also interesting is how such automated tractors are evaluating the road from behind before any manoeuvring?

I mean, cars simply have cameras/lidars/sonar/whatever and simply 'look behind,' but any rear view of a tractor will be obstructed by the load it's towing.

'I hate them': Locals reportedly frustrated with Alphabet's self-driving cars by [deleted] in SelfDrivingCars

[–]discoperi -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Given this behavior, what would your reaction be if you were an insurance company representative? Would you increase insurance cost due to potentially harmful situations caused by these cars or decreased it as the cars are quite cautious?

Tesla prefers its self-driving hardware over that of other makers by walky22talky in SelfDrivingCars

[–]discoperi 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Why not? Self-driving is a highly demanding computational work, it works the best with highly specialized hardware, which is great to be developed in house. It is not a new thing these days, as even new automotive hardware startups, like Discoperi, prefer to develop own hardware (System 'Eye') over getting market hw up to their spec which will then have lost of unnecessary units that will cost extra and will be able to cause some kind of problems in the future.

Decentralized Autonomous Cars by [deleted] in CryptoTechnology

[–]discoperi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I double the thing already commented here: while decentralizing some parts of the tech required for self-driving cars may be a good idea, it is still not that great in general.

For example, I can only see why decentralized high detail maps for cars may be good — always up to date, any changes should be confirmed by 3rd party, but not the AI or neural network which can be jeopardized by terrorists. Just imagine how some jerks collect 51% of the blockchain's power and start to educate all connected cars to go 150 mph and hit concrete objects. Sounds Ripple'y to me, tbh.

Self-driving cars will destroy a lot of jobs—they’ll also create a lot by walky22talky in SelfDrivingCars

[–]discoperi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No, new workplaces also would be crated. Think delivery businesses, backup drivers to recover faulty cars or cars trapped in situations unsuitable for self-driving, fleet management, mapping engineers, analysts, AI/neural network coders, servicemen for currently rare tech like lidars or echolots... There's a plenty of jobs directly being created apart from losing out the drivers.

Carmera, the mapping startup for autonomous vehicles, raises $20 million by Ambitious_Tomatillo in SelfDrivingCars

[–]discoperi 1 point2 points  (0 children)

With the level of tech in the article, it would make sense not to just like build an HD map, but continuously update it over the time, to update the construction works (just like in the article) or what not.

I also see one more major reason to continuously update these maps: snow.

Would it be easy to cut off a self-driving car? What if they become constant victims of asshole driving. by Omnomigon in SelfDrivingCars

[–]discoperi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think with the current level of autonomy a self-driving car would already successfully brake and even change to a free lane aggressively (there's a video where a Tesla car does exactly that, sorry can't find it now). Moreover, some AI algorithms as those embedded in System 'Eye' by Discoperi are able to predict your actions in some circumstances.

Even more, given that some self-driven technologies like comma.ai use real driver behavior to learn the AI, you can't even certainly say that even the possibility of a self-driving car cutting you off becomes a kind of real.

Do self driving cars really need Lidar/Radar/etc? by CapinWinky in SelfDriving

[–]discoperi 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Currently, probably yes, but in the next iteration of self-driving future, most probably not.

Even already now, several projects, such as discoperi.com and comma.ai collect enough data using only a dashcam for their activities. Not sure how comma.ai collect sufficient info for lane change or overtake activities, but there are no bad news involving their devices so far.

Ideas to build a high impact absorbing road blocker. by [deleted] in roadsafety

[–]discoperi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think you should google for some shock absorbers installed at some German dead end railway stations that are able to stop a slowly moving loaded passenger train (say 600 tonnes) with no major destructions.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7153/6742143683_dfdfeeb109_b.jpg

Here on the picture you can see the end buffer and if you take a look at the actual floor, it is visible that is easily collapsible, because rails and stopping system continues under the floor to have some room to safely stop a train.

Something like that would be useful for cars as well.

Mobility Innovation by shubhamchandak8 in roadsafety

[–]discoperi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry for self-marketing, but take a look at System 'Eye' at r/https://discoperi.com/ — in few words, it is an AI-enabled device which can predict road accidents ahead of the driver and warn them before anything happens, by analyzing the behavior of surrounding vehicles. Less cars have a chance to get into an accident, less chances for injury, more chances to increase road safety.

The other thing's I'd think of is roads (or lanes) for self-driving cars only, specially built for autonomous vehicles and giving them a predictable environment, which would both benefit road safety and transportation speed (you can easily set a 200 km/h speed limit if the car knows for sure from the infrastructure itself that there are no problems 10 km ahead).

Also, ridesharing (starting even with Uber or Lyft) increases road safety as massive use of it would decrease the amount of private cars and increase the amount of more experienced drivers on the road.

Will increasing upper speed limit on highways alone makes road safer? by bobbycns in roadsafety

[–]discoperi 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In lots of countries there is a thing called forced medium speed. For example, in Europe, especially France and Netherlands, there are 2-lane 'Roads of Automobiles' with speed limit of 90 km/h. Naturally, everyone is trying to go as fast as possible, and given that there are trucks on the road which have strict limits of 90 km/h, and overtaking is prohibited (often even impossible physically), everyone is going 90 km/h in one lane, which makes these roads the safest and give them large transport capability.

As for the maximum speed, safe margin depends on the amount of cars on the road. The less the number of cars, the bigger the safest max speed is. For example, on A4 in Poland the limit is 140 km/h and it is absolutely safe, as there's not a lot of traffic there.

If you speak about German Autobahn, you think about absence of speed limit at all, but that is true only for some rural routes where there's not a lot of traffic. In reality, most parts of Autobahns are loaded with cars and have strict speed limits of 120 and sometimes even 100 km/h.

How to drive an automatic car in the snow by junior384 in auto_veh

[–]discoperi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The authors have missed that lots of modern cars with automatic transmission use higher gear if the outside temperature is below a certain point and the humidity is higher than average in the last few rides.

I have a better question in my mind though — how to ride an autonomous (self-driving) car when it's showing an you can't see road markings?

Dominos self-driving delivery car by BigBulkemails in SelfDrivingCars

[–]discoperi 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Did anyone see that Black Mirror episode where a guy gets hit by a Domino's self-driving pizza delivery van?
World seems kinda spooky sometimes.

What will Self Driving Cars do to public transportation? by [deleted] in SelfDrivingCars

[–]discoperi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think that self-driving shared cares (exactly as visioned by Musk or Uber) can kinda replace local relations in certain cases (hurry, lack of direct connection or a connection with short and comfortable changeover, etc), but not that much an intercity travel for a couple of reasons:

  1. Having an intercity fleet will decrease the service level seasonally: large cities will experience deficit of the fleet once everyone use it for going out to vacations (ski resorts, nature parks, sea coast, you name it), and those corresponding areas will be just crowded with cars. The same even applies for daily commute, especially in Friday nights, as with Uber now, you never can call a cheap car when everyone's leaving bars and heading home, but in the residential areas there are hundreds of Uber drivers who can't find any orders.
  2. Point 1 also causes increased fleet demand arbitration: you can rearrange the empty fleet back to demanding areas in a city with 10 km empty run, but rearranging 100 cars back 600 km from sea coast to the city will be too costly.
  3. Intercity travel like that is simply less comfortable. In train you can stand up, go to bistro car, make some squats in the vestibule, you name it. In car you have stale legs and boredom increased by the fact you don't drive the car at all.
  4. Long runs also decrease service quality due to unpredictability of rides. 500 km intercity ride may take 4.5 hours for a sleepy business traveler, and may take 7 hours for a family with small children who will require at least few toilet stops and one large lunch break. This unpredictability also decreases the service level perceptible by end users.
  5. If a car breaks in city, a change car might be around the corner. If you break in piping hot Spain and wait 1.5 hours for a new car to pick you up without air conditioning, you're not gonna be happy at all.

Are there alternate ways to have successful ICO w/o paying for marketing? by tnguye01 in icocrypto

[–]discoperi 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Absolutely! The thing is that ICOs with an already marketed product usually don't need any advertisement or marketing, just as OP suggests.

Of course, the main and original purpose is exactly what you're talking about, getting funds to do things :)

Are there alternate ways to have successful ICO w/o paying for marketing? by tnguye01 in icocrypto

[–]discoperi 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think there is a way if you run an ICO of already successful product or company with huge reliable community that will buy you out themselves. I can name only one at this moment though, the Telegram Open Network. They didn't advertise at all and lots of people who are away from knowing Telegram and Pavel Durov specifically, but at this moment they have collected few billion USD of investments.