Japan's cabinet office, Kanagawa prefecture and Robot Taxi Inc. on Thursday said they will start experimenting with unmanned taxi service beginning in 2016. The service will be offered for approximately 50 people in Kanagawa prefecture, just south of Tokyo, with the auto-driving car carrying them from their homes to local grocery stores.
According to the project organizers, the cabs will drive a distance of about three kilometers (two miles), and part of the course will be on major avenues in the city. Crew members will be aboard the car during the experiment in case there is a need to avoid accidents.
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A driverless lorry developed by Daimler has been tested on a public road for the first time, in Germany.
At the push of a button, the vehicle's "highway pilot" helped it avoid other road users via a radar and camera sensing system.
The company reiterated the requirement that a human driver be present and focused on the road at all times.
Earlier in the year, Daimler had expressed its desire to carry out such a test by the end of 2015.
"As soon as we are on the highway, we will start the autonomous driving mode," said Daimler executive Wolfgang Bernhard as he steered the Mercedes-Benz Actros truck towards a busy stretch of motorway in Baden-Wurttemberg last week.
(Score: 4, Funny) by takyon on Sunday October 04 2015, @08:12PM
You want to add humans to help avoid accidents?!!
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by Francis on Sunday October 04 2015, @08:20PM
Most likely as a fail safe in case something happens that the AI wasn't programmed to deal with. In the sort of situations where a human would be more likely to cause a crash, I doubt there'd be time to interfere.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Sunday October 04 2015, @09:27PM
As has been observed before, having a human try to rapidly take control in an emergency situation would be a very bad idea. The human's brain will not be in driving mode, and after a while is likely to be out of practice driving.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Monday October 05 2015, @12:39AM
Kill switch is probably all the human could muster.
But its just as likely a legal requirement as anything related to safety.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1) by SanityCheck on Tuesday October 06 2015, @12:47AM
Yes I am sure the AI did not decide to kill all humans!
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Monday October 05 2015, @12:18AM
I think it's more to deal with situations where the AI locks up. For example, if the AI decides that the nearby wall is a pedestrian and refuses to move, or if it lacks map data and starts navigating in circles.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Monday October 05 2015, @12:29AM
Or if a bicyclist does a track stand [washingtonpost.com].
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Gravis on Sunday October 04 2015, @10:47PM
alphabet should jump into japan's mix with the google self-driving car. i mean, they do have the most developed self-driving AI.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday October 05 2015, @12:31AM
i mean, they do have the most developed self-driving AI.
Is this true?
How do we know? Other companies are also testing self-driving cars on public streets, are they not?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by frojack on Monday October 05 2015, @12:37AM
I wonder if this isn't where self driving cars are going to catch on the quickest.
Individual companies or malls could provide rides to and from the store, summoned by a smartphone. This could revitalize downtown shopping where parking is impossible.
Maybe you'd have to buy something to validate your ride or belong to a shopper's/loyalty club or something.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Covalent on Monday October 05 2015, @02:04AM
This. Right here. And while we're at it, why not buy something online and have this taxi deliver it to your house, too?
At some point when people can own driverless cars, they could probably forgo owning one and instead rent the morning and evening commute time slots from Macy's car or Lord and Taylor car or the Apple Store car or whomever. And why not both? You could get a discounted rate on the rental if you agree to the possibility that on your commute to work you may have to pick up a JCPenney employee and drop him or her off at work.
The possibilities are nearly endless, but all of them reduce total cars on the road, and mother nature says "thank you" to that. When the cars are not in use, then can go plug themselves in.
Oh, and maybe Macy's will give you a ride for free if you have solar panels that you allow their vehicles to plug in to when they're not driving.
Somebody stop me! I could go on for days. :)
You can't rationally argue somebody out of a position they didn't rationally get into.
(Score: 2) by Zz9zZ on Monday October 05 2015, @04:49AM
Now for funding!
~Tilting at windmills~
(Score: 2) by seeprime on Monday October 05 2015, @05:40AM
So Japan wants to be the first country to show that cab drivers aren't needed. Eventually, truck drivers won't be needed either. Then the economy really goes to hell as there aren't enough Wal-Marts in the world to give everyone that loses a good job one of their low paying ones. A "service" economy is simply a shrinking economy of a once great nation, be it Japan, US, England, Germany, Canada, etc.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by penguinoid on Monday October 05 2015, @06:07AM
The driving still gets done, plus someone has to make the new hardware. It's a win for everyone, unless you're a capitalist with socialist values (ie, you want to share the wealth but want it done though a job, even if that job is not really necessary).
RIP Slashdot. Killed by greedy bastards.