Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

For sure there is some cherry picking going on. And for sure it depends. And for sure we're missing the big numbers to do a meaningful statistic analysis at this point.

What I think is most interesting about your way of looking at this is whether we'll find those sub-domains where autonomous driving makes sense versus where manual driving will remain safer. And what those domains will be.




I still wonder if we end up in a place--perhaps for a significant period--where you end up with AVs on a subset of roads perhaps in a subset of conditions. I don't live in a city so I have different use cases than those who do live in a city may have, but being able to be driven on the highway in most conditions seems like a much easier task than the general case, applies to conditions where an accident can be serious, and would actually be really useful for a lot of people.


For sure: we've had AVs for I guess more than a century that only operate inside buildings. We call them "lifts" or "elevators"! :-)


Also you can do the same thing horizontally, with more passengers and over greater distances. GoA 3 services from the 1980s and then GoA 4 services a bit later

[Grade of Automation 3 services don't need a human "driver" but they're not safe enough that we can just leave them to be used unattended like an elevator, there's a trained member of staff somewhere, probably helping tourists or checking tickets or something - the GoA 4 services are unattended, like an elevator there are humans but they're far away in a control center and you're safe enough while you wait for a human to come to where you are and fix whatever extraordinary problem the automation couldn't handle e.g. there's no electricity so you can't go anywhere.]


Although, not all elevators are autonomous, for now anyway...

https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2023/08/goodbye-fine-arts-elevat...




Consider applying for YC's Fall 2025 batch! Applications are open till Aug 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: