A.I. driverless lorries and more

[Lauralou69]

On the news, sorry but have people forgot what happened in Terminator..............the machines take over..............😉

Lauralou

I have to admit, when I saw this article I checked the date... April the 1st I mean.

“Convoys of 'self-driving' lorries get green light for UK trial”

There is no reason that I can think off that the Terminator WASN'T made out of clever recycled trucks. Spooky.

It's only the beginning!! A "tech" expert was saying that in the near future smart artificial intelligence will be doing a lot of stuff, in hospitals, cars etc etc. Are we really going to trust driver less cars???

People are becoming too reliant on tech to do too many things. I actually got bullied on another thread for not wanting to do direct debit/ online banking.

If I wouldn't trust a driver less car, a convoy of self driving lorries goes levels of mistrust above that.

Imagine an out of control convey roaring around the M25, it has the making of a good disaster movie though - staring say Sandra Bullock, trying to stop it - thats never been done before. What?

The Terminator is fiction. We are a long way from computers/robots becoming self aware. Yes, we need to be careful we don't develop robots that will end up attacking mankind but that is not a realistic risk with current technology.

Self driving cars are safer than human driven cars already, and are likely to become even safer as technology develops. They are involved in fewer incidents per million miles than human driven cars and the evidence available suggests that the incidents in which they are involved are less serious.

Even with hackers?? Don't know if I believe that tbh. I know the Terminator is fiction 😏, however I do think the idea that A.I. becoming self aware is a possibility as many scientists have alluded to.

Even with hackers

A hacker may be able to get past the security on a device and take control of it. However, so far no-one has managed to hack into a fly-by-wire plane (where the plane is actually controlled by a computer which decides for itself whether or not to do what the pilots want - most modern airliners are fly by wire). Yes, a terrorist hacker may be able to hack into a machine and use it for destructive purposes but the damage is unlikely to be significantly different to a suicide bomber or a terrorist driving a car or truck.

I know some scientists think that computers will become self aware at some point, possibly fairly soon. A warning from Stephen Hawking may seem fairly persuasive. However, he is not an expert in computers and has never worked in artificial intelligence. Those that are working in this field take a rather different view. Most don't believe that computers will ever be genuinely self aware. They think we'll be able to give them the appearance of consciousness but it won't be real. They will simply be following their programming.

To quote one expert (not entirely relevant but I like the quote!), "Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the universe is winning."

Linking this thread with the Mumsnet ‘MI crash’ post, maybe we are looking at the potential dangers in the wrong way, in that driverless vehicles take away the human stupidity factor.

”M1 crash: Several dead after minibus and two lorries collide near Newport Pagnell”

”Two men have been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving, and are both currently in custody.”

I can't even get a dab signal for whole chunks of my drives north so how exactly will these lorries work? I still remember eh Stephen King film with the killer juggernaut, and Duel (I know there was a driver but still...)

I can't even get a dab signal for whole chunks of my drives north

They don't need a DAB signal.

The trial the government has approved is for convoys of up to three lorries. The front lorry has a human driver. The other two lorries are in contact with the front lorry via wifi (their own - no external wifi is needed) and will follow it, using lane assist technology to stay in lane, lidar (light detection and ranging), radar, cameras and city breaking (an autonomous braking system that stops the lorry getting too close to the vehicle in front). The second and third lorries will have a human in the cab who can take over if necessary. So, in effect, the driver in front is driving a very long lorry.

At least they wouldn't drunkenly wipe out eight people.

I know, absolutely awful. The amount of idiots on the rds is why I don't drive......went past 5 cars the other day while on a bus and every one of them was on their phones!!

For me the most interesting aspect of driverless cars is how they will make moral decisions.

For example, the (driverless) car is on the road. Another car (with driver) loses control. The driver had a heart attack or whatever. The driverless car can swerve out of it's path but this means hitting another car and passengers, a crowd of pedestrians, or a brick wall.

How does it decide in a split second what to do? Does it go for the brick wall? (possibly killing or injuring passengers in the car) or other car/ pedestrians (killing or injuring others). We would instinctively protect ourselves and those in our car...would the car make the same assessment?

Interesting......

Done right this could revolutionise road safety. Over 90% of accidents are driver error.
Motorways could be adapted to driverless only technology. Possibly ban motorised vehicles larger than say a speed limited electric smart car in urban areas with mixture of driverless and e.g. bicycles and mobility vehicles etc.
Would take longer to roll out to rural regions obviously.
I don't think humans are especially well set up psychologically to have control of several tons of fast moving metal.

Meant to say would need delivery corridors for heavy vehicles in urban areas before anyone points out the flaw.

@velvetspoon in a split second most humans wouldn't be thinking of moral implications either - you just react

Computers don't 'just react', and they can make extremely complex decisions extremely quickly based on many variables, which makes them much more reliable to make the right ones I think!

I think there's a lot to be said about the human brain though and at present we are superior to computers because we have what they don't .......consciousness.

….and the possibility of sleep deprivation, or a few pints of lager.

Or rage issues, or a mobile phone addiction, or slow reactions because we're elderly... And so on.

What about the jobs of the lorry drivers? I have no problem with self-driving lorries from a safety point of view. They will be replacing people primarily for profit. I remember the world functioning and money still being made before automation. How much more money do those at the top need? There are going be big social problems as a result.

What about the jobs of the lorry drivers

People have always said that about any form of automation. Jobs change. Many manual jobs and many low grade clerical jobs have all but disappeared. And yet we have more people working than ever before. Automation always creates new opportunities.