Electric Cars: Chev Bolt seems to be the first practical one.

[Redneck in training]

The autopilot will become successful after most of the cars will be equipped with it and be able to "talk" to each other.

 

[wawajake]

There is no infrastructure associated with self driving cars. The Autopilot is stand alone system. If you don't like it you don't need to buy it or you can turn it off.

Wrong .............you may want to look up what is required and the "mapping" systems and infrastructure needed , and consistency of the mapping that show exact details of the road , in summer, in winter, at night etc etc Now try to imagine some how keeping those roads consistent to the "mapping" done.

 

[Egon]

Wondering how the systems work at avoiding pothole's?

 

[wawajake]

Here is some links re articles to infrastructure needs................smile, I wonder how many miles of gravel roads the USA and Canada has that will not be able to be accessed unless the car can be driven manually, so all these cars will need to be steering wheel capable , so cost goes up to be capable in both modes, but insurance companies will prefer you never get that option ............and the battle will continue , oh and all of us that still have "normal cars " will slowly be forced off the roads.............over my dead body will be the retort of many and politics will be afraid to force it to quickly.

http://www.salon.com/2017/04/20/sel...bumps-slow-down-the-future-of-transportation/

When will self-driving cars be on the road? — Quartz

4 Major Pros and Cons of Autonomous Vehicles >> AutoGuide.com News

 

[xring100]

I want one. But then I read through the following article and learned this new batch of 130 vehicles is only a test fleet. They won't be available to the public for several years.

Electrek article.

"The company is expected to start transitioning its test fleets to actual services for customers, likely first through the ride-sharing firm Lyft, in the next few years."

Bah humbug. I was ready to go write the check.

Can't say when they go out for public sale but timing for ride sharing is going to be much sooner rather than later. It will be interesting to watch. It would be nice to be able to have the car drive through the night while you sleep Florida is a long drive from Michigan . Drunks will love it get hammered climb in back seat and hope they don't punch the address into their crazy disgruntled ex residence .

 

[xring100]

Wondering how the systems work at avoiding pothole's?

Good question. People crossing the center line with a pedestrian on the shoulder, Snow, black ice. Deer, John Deere's it will be interesting.

 

[houstonscott]

I've driven over 2 million miles and never been in a accident, hit anything or anyone. Now that's a good computer, nothing more high tech than a well disciplined trained and experienced human driver.

 

[xring100]

Here's A video of the bolt autonomous driving around California Episode Two: Dolores Park - YouTube

 

[drssg]

Don't wait for the Model 3, they're happy to let people do test drives just to help raise awareness of EVs and Autopilot/etc. At least they were a few years ago when we bought ours. The guy giving the test drive was a retired lawyer who liked what Tesla was doing so much that he decided to donate his time for test drives/etc.

Autopilot is nifty but they've still got a ways to go. That said what they have now works really well, however the killer feature isn't bombing around at 75+mph, it's rush hour traffic. Being able to sit in stop & go without needing to constantly adjust gas/brake and instead just focus on exceptional circumstances(someone cutting in, etc) is a huge boon. Happy to answer any questions about it, we've had it for ~40k miles now and probably 1/3 of that is AP.

Also I'd be surprised if anyone other than Google or Tesla wins the autonomous car game. Tesla and Google are both software companies at their heart which has a completely different mindset then an auto company. GM doesn't have nearly the experience in ML, dealing with large data sets or the software engineering background to pull it off. Heck, you still can't even get over the air updates on their cars(despite most of them having OnStar/wifi) when something goes wrong with the software, you still have to drag it into the dealer.

That's an interesting idea. I'm not in the market for an $80,000+ car, and I assumed they wouldn't be open for a test drive, after I told them so. I'll check that out and see what they think.

I was having some difficulty differentiating marketing from current reality on their web site at Autopilot | Tesla. On one hand, they say amazing things like, "When you arrive at your destination, simply step out at the entrance and your car will enter park seek mode, automatically search for a spot and park itself. A tap on your phone summons it back to you." But they also say, "Please note that Self-Driving functionality is dependent upon extensive software validation and regulatory approval, which may vary widely by jurisdiction." I'm not clear on what the feature actually does today. I live in rural Ohio, in case that matters.

I view the autopilot as a very sophisticated cruise control. I'm still the driver, and I'm still responsible for operating the vehicle, so I'm also responsible for disabling autopilot just as soon as I think it's doing something less than ideal.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Thread title says practical. ICE is cheaper, so only an individual can make their own choice about how much less practicality they want to afford.