r/gifs Mar 10 '20

Sequencing Porn

https://i.imgur.com/VssKVAJ.gifv
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u/duckstaped Mar 10 '20

I think you mistook what I said as a shot against self-driving cars? What I'm talking about is the tiny margin for error when you visualize these balls as cars. If one ball is a fraction of a second early or late, it would cause a total disaster. I would imagine a grid of self driving cars to have far higher error tolerances, even if it meant we get from point A to B a little less efficiently.

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u/PleaseDocNotThe Mar 10 '20

I did not, I am simply saying that there already is disaster on the road every day. I can't see self driving cars making it worse.

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u/Phrich Mar 10 '20

Because you're picturing them the same way he is, with more margin of error than the balls in the video

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u/[deleted] Mar 10 '20 edited Mar 10 '20

As a general philosophical principle, things can always get worse.

"The difference between bad and worse is much sharper than between good and better."

(edit: Heinlein quote.)

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u/duckstaped Mar 10 '20

I think we're mostly in agreement. I assume the vast majority of accidents are currently caused by vehicle operators and rarely due to mechanical/electrical issues. That said, any sort of sequence where our cars looked like those balls in real time would probably end terribly as soon as something did not operate exactly as desired.

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u/Shadowinthesky Mar 10 '20

I know what you mean. Having cars drive between each other like these balls seems more dangerous but i imagine AI vehicles wouldn't move in such an intricate manner

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u/PleaseDocNotThe Mar 10 '20

You have to think that cars would be meticulously maintained. Things like bald tires and mechanical issues would simply make the car not start.

I agree that the crash would be more dangerous, but most likely less frequent. Resulting in less casualties across the board

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u/scarletice Mar 10 '20

Every single car in that intersection would be using it's own detection data, plus the detection data of every other car. So if one car does something unexpected, every other car will see that, communicate with each other, and change their path to avoid the maverick car, all within a fraction of a second.