This Govt money for 'driverless cars'----

Yes the sky, a vast expanse of nothing where even then planes crash or collide.

 

But the technology exists.

Cars crash, planes crash, humans fail, as did the horses back in the day

 

Yes it does but the point I was making was that even in a pretty well ideal situation for the technology, it still gets it wrong. The complexity on our busy roads is thousands of times that of Aircraft Control. Planes have a schedule consisting of a defined origin, a defined destination at a planned time in a relatively sparsely populated huge 3-dimensional space. Compare that to the roads with their massively overpopulated and confined spaces with millions of random unscheduled vehicle journeys with countless intersections.

 

It will happen. As Icer has said, we can be at the back of the race, or try & get to the front. The USA have been working on these for well over 10 years. Govt needs to up R&D spending, as well as investing in improved infrastructure on road & rail. Rail privatisation has failed to provide the promised improvements to train passengers.

 

It can get things wrong. So can humans and in fact we do quite often. Technology isnt foolproof. Human behaviour is flawed too. But rest assured technology will coninue to evolve and continue to change our lives. One note is that the UK recieved the 2nd highest funding for R&D from the EU behind Germany. Be interesting to see how the UK continues to innovate after this funding disappears.

 

Disagree in 2 separate points :

1. It is not the job of the government to invest in commercial research and development. It is the governments job to provide public services with the tax money we give it. The government can provide favourable economic conditions to facilitate the country being the recipient of R&D monies but it should not be pouring the money in.

I dont agree that privatisation hasn't brought improvements to the railways. Of course ticket prices are scandalous, too much money pours into these companies from subsidies etc, all of which is a different discussion. But no one can seriously suggest the railways are not massively better then they were in the days of BR. Certainly not in terms of the intercity routes.

 

Too true, this is why the Highway Code exists to try to get people to conform to a set of rules which hopefully improve safety. One of the biggest problems on the road today is the massive amount of ignorance of that set of rules. But instead of a relatively cheap advertising campaign and maybe occasional compulsory on-line theory tests to address that ignorance, we look to spend millions on a technology which won't be ready in most of our lifetimes. Makes no sense to me.

 

Do you really think we will compete with the likes of the USA & China if the government don't intervene? Both these countries governments spend billions upon billions on R&D. In the USA it is done through the armed services.

If you think our railways are better than they were 10 years ago you are having a laugh.

 

https://scienceogram.org/blog/2013/05/science-technology-business-government-g20/

 

But we need both because as you say despite rules and laws and education people still abuse them. There are prominent campaigns and we already have a driving test. Manufacturers are increasing safety through technology every new model. Chassis design, air bags, seat belts, sensors etc. Government introduce higher fines and variable speed smart motorways. Anyone that understands the evolution of technology will also understand that human factors are a significant part, neither operate in isolation.

 

I think it's obvious that I'll never convince you that you're wrong and you'll never convince me that I'm wrong and I can see no middle ground for us to reach any sort of compromise so I won't comment on this thread any more.

Cheers.

 

Ok thanks for the debate. However i wasnt trying to convince you of Rights or Wrongs. I just offered a balance to the discussion. Exactly what debate is all about. Have a good evening.

 

You do realise the Americans are already on road trials. It will be in the top end cars within 5-10 years at the max.

We've also had the first crashes and at least one fatality in self-drive cars. Most were due to meatsack error. IIRC the fatality was due to a software misinterpretation of a trailer profile in poor lighting conditions.

 

One other thing to add to the debate on the decline of the human driver and taxi jobs. Uber have changed the game using different business models driven by technology. Indirect technologies especially cloud based services will perhaps change the game on many levels of employment than the direct ie autonomous vehicles technology itself at this point.

 

The Uber busines model is to get a monopoly then get rid of the drivers and use driverless cars.

 

Supply chain, don't make me laugh. The majority of parts will be manufactured in the far East and Eastern Europe. The only British thing in the supply chain will be the pies served in the canteen. Any bog standard admin work will be outsourced to some Indian guy called Wayne in bangalore, so that's the bulk of accounts, purchasing, wages, HR, logistics etc gone. The vehicles will be put together by machines, serviced by skilled blokes on minimum wage. Everything and anything to squeeze out the last penny. Not much in there for the country as a whole.

Call me cynical, but this smacks more of the Tories using public funds to look after the people who look after them. It wouldnt be the first time.

 

The Govts of both China and the US invest both covertly and overtly in new technologies you’d have to be the most naive of the naive to not recognise that. It’s absolutely the role of our Govt to do likewise.

Railways are about a million times worse and are propped up by a greater level of govt subsidy than when we owned them. See the East Coast Mainline under public/ private ownership.

 

Yeah but I was only speaking from the position of detailed and intimate knowledge of the UK automotive industry, especially its supply chain. I know about the salaries in the industry and its tier 1, 2 suppliers etc. I know where the sourcing is and how automation has benefited the industry. I also know that Japanese, German and other countries have invested in it here. Whilst its safe to say the Gov have done little to help and its been private corporations that's driven the success.