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Comment by pcunite | Hacker News Reader

Why not sell full autonomy for certain roads only? Like, put sensors every three feet on the interstate, and have a sensor in the car read the proximity sensor. Perfect full auto driving.

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Following lanes isn't the problem. Collision avoidance is the big unsolved problem for Tesla.

Collision avoidance is the big unsolved problem for Tesla.

Er, yes.

Tesla is really good at following painted lane lines. Very smooth steering. Sometimes right into solid obstacles.

There's no reason to think you need sensors. Although it's not autonomous, look at GM's Cadillac system and you have a pretty good indication that we're probably fairly close (<10 years) from being able to have systems that are completely autonomous on freeways. May need some sort of beacon to flag construction zones and the like but it seems on the horizon.

Which would actually be a big win for safety and being able to generally deal with long, boring drives. That doesn't buy you robo-Uber or cars-on-demand but those are likely much harder problems.

How about if your hands are off the wheel the car automatically slows to a stop with an alert sound playing over the speakers.

Slowing to a stop is unsafe in many environments.

As opposed to slamming into a barrier?

That's really just an example of a particularly unsafe way of slowing to a stop.

Obviously slowing to a stop is preferable to slamming into a barrier. But we shouldn't allow cars on the road that routinely just come to a stop on highways (nor ones that slam themselves into barriers).

Just as we shouldnt currently be allowing cars onto the road that operate without a users hands on the controls and their full attention on the road ahead. I see your point but if Tesla has fine print that says you must keep your hands on the controls, and knows when you are not they have the ability to do things to prevent that from happening. Not just leaning on the goodwill and promise of the driver.

it has been suggested by many that the ideal start would be to take over existing HOV lanes and turn set them aside for self driving cars. They have unique markings already and from that a system could be developed to mark any road sufficiently and economically.

better yet it can probably be paid for by people who want to use it and manufacturers who want to sell their solutions.

the elephant in the room though is that is has been marketed as a safety system and it cannot operate in the conditions we need it most. just live BEVs there are too many players going in too many directions that regulation and standards have not caught up.

Maybe even replace HOV lanes with autonomous lanes that are marked and also the cars communicate with each other to avoid collisions.

You are welcome to take a train

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