Originally Posted by BettyZ

Luminar, a maker of sensor tech for self-driving cars, went public today. The founder, Austin Russell, who started the company when he dropped out of Stanford at 17, is now a billionaire.

In light of the relentless push towards autonomous cars and trucks, I have a few questions/thoughts, which I'm hoping you all can answer and/or add to; as these inventions will seriously affect our driving habits.

1. Will computer-operated cars (COCs) be designed to drive at the speed of traffic, or obey posted limits, whatever they may be?


Yes, but they’re looking at making a train of them running close to each other on the highway at very high speeds in a special dedicated lane. The cars on secondary roads can see/read the posted speed limit signs and programmed to obey.



2. Will COCs only roll in the right lane(s)? Or will they clog the left?


We’ll be stuck in the right, left lane will be dedicated to the COCs (see previous answer as to why). Also, the goal is clearly to make POV more and more “inconvenient” to own so we lose our constitutional right of freedom of movement and are at the mercy of big government and big tech which are in cohoots on this issue (as well as the surveillance state issue, which is tied to this issue as well).



3. Will COCs respond like humans and get out of the way when a vehicle is approaching their rear at a high closing rate, or will they plod along in the lane they're already in?


They will obey the speed limit most likely, that means they won’t yield to faster traffic most likely.


4. How will COCs handle inclement weather, such as heavy fog, rain, or snow, which has a measurable effect on Lidar and camera imaging?


Tech is improving constantly, within 10 years or so, probably won’t be an issue.



5. In an accident involving a COC, how will insurance companies handle the blame? Will the COC insurers insist that because their COCs aren't capable of error, that the human driver of the other car must be 100% at fault?


No, the rules of the road and how fault is determined now don’t need to change, so whichever car, or percentage of each car deeed at fault can still be assessed like normal. However, with a COC, no points or penalty would go to owner/operator bc no steering wheel/not actually driving. There’s talk that w/o a steering wheel or gas and brake, no more need for DLs anymore, just sheep to be shuttled to and fro.

A better question to ask is how will POVs be insured in this environment if insurance companies determine that COCs are way lower risk and being human (driver) is too risky to insure...


6. How will laser jamming parking assist systems affect Lidar-guided COCs?


I got nothing.


Hoping for answers and more questions.

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