60 Minutes Report On Self Driving Cars Unwittingly Reveals Just How Dangerous They Really Can Be

In Sunday’s mercifully non-breathless report on the state of technology for self-driving cars, CBS 60 Minutes unwittingly presented two hinky aspects of autonomous driving that should trouble everyone – even as the show’s portrayal of these driving slurs turned out to be almost amusing. Almost.

“Bemusing” probably is a more appropriate term.

Palpable hilarity took over your flat-screen when the autonomously-piloted Mercedes-Benz S500 dawdled up a long California freeway onramp.

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Agent009 - 10/7/2015 11:45:44 AM

+1 Boost

I drove in to uptown this morning (Dallas) at 6:45 AM and the traffic was running about 70+ mph on average. This was with posted speeds of 60 to 65mph. In this case the self driving car would be a menace merging into traffic (too slow) and cars would be swerving to avoid it because it was not keeping up with traffic. Also did you notice is crossed the yellow line when access the turn lane just like a distracted driver might?

supermoto - 10/8/2015 12:35:00 PM

+1 Boost

True autonomy is going to take a while to work out. Once each car communicates with each other car, none of the problems you mentioned will be relevant.

Meantime in heavy traffic I can turn on my adaptive cruise, set it to whatever speed I want, adjust the gap to the next car as I want, and all I have to do is steer. Makes LA traffic much more bearable.

Yonder7 - 10/7/2015 1:01:54 PM

+2 Boost

I think that when they implement (and they will) they will have to put like a signal on the roof to let everybody know that the car is in autopilot mode.

vdiv - 10/7/2015 4:05:28 PM

+1 Boost

VW has something like that on their eGolf V-Charge self-parking prototype. They have running bar lights in the front and center stop light back for visibility inside the car garage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=3&v=12ZmMQr9B6w

MDarringer - 10/8/2015 8:21:09 AM

+1 Boost

Autonomous cars are an answer to a question that should not have been asked in the first place.

mini22 - 10/10/2015 2:27:25 AM

+1 Boost

However with the continuous development of infotainment systems with ever growing screens, automakers have encouraged people to be more and more distracted from driving. By their very nature they are not safe. The autonomous car is the only real safe solution in the long run. If car makers are going to encourage people to play with their infotainment system while traveling at 70 MPH there needs to be something that can both save them and save everyone around them from a potential fatality. It takes only a second or 2 to completely lose control of a vehicle due to inattention. So Darringer when the car makers decided that infotainment systems was a good way to make an extra 2 to 3 grand profit in a car they did start asking the question about autonomous cars without realizing it. It's really about the fine tuning. The next stage of development will probably need to take into account what the average traffic speed is on a particular highway and be able to adjust on ramp speeds and highway speeds accordingly even if it means breaking the speed limit.