[rubicon]

For 110 years, General Motors has been making cars with steering wheels and pedals. But that just changed.

Tweet from General Motors -

Imagine a world with no car crashes. By safely removing the steering wheel and pedals, the fourth generation self-driving @Cruise AV can help advance our vision of a world with zero crashes, emissions and congestion.

From GM Website -

Meet the Cruise AV: the First Production-Ready Car With No Steering Wheel or Pedals

GM files petition asking DOT permission to safely deploy self-driving vehicle in 2019

General Motors filed a Safety Petition with the Department of Transportation for its fourth-generation self-driving Cruise AV, the first production-ready vehicle built from the start to operate safely on its own, with no driver, steering wheel, pedals or manual controls.

[BlackPearl]

Looks scary, I definitely would not sit inside one, unless forced to. The same reason that planes on most of the routes can take off and land without human intervention but still they have pilots, because passengers would not board a plane that does not have a human pilot

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by BlackPearl

Looks scary, I definitely would not sit inside one, unless forced to. The same reason that planes on most of the routes can take off and land without human intervention but still they have pilots, because passengers would not board a plane that does not have a human pilot

FYI

Contrary to popular belief, commercial jets do not have auto take off capabilities at all. Auto throttle at best. But its very much the pilot controlling the flight controls during take off!

Jeroen

[BlackPearl]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

FYI

Contrary to popular belief, commercial jets do not have auto take off capabilities at all. Auto throttle at best. But its very much the pilot controlling the flight controls during take off!

Jeroen

That is quite reassuring and hope that auto pilot cars never become a reality as well!

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by BlackPearl

That is quite reassuring and hope that auto pilot cars never become a reality as well!

In addition, just about all Commercial plane have full auto land capabilities. In fact there are tricky landings, e.g. severe reduced visibility that are done on auto pilot only. Because the computer is simply superior to a human.

Enjoy your flight. Next time you touch down smoothly ask yourself this question: was it the computer or the pilot?

Jeroen

[condor]

If the planes do Auto-land, why cant they also do an auto-take.off ?

[libranof1987]

The future is here!

We can't really say how soon it'll happen, considering how rapidly technology is moving, but it will happen. The age of Jetsons is 'round the corner.

Once self-driving cars become mainstream, driver controls will get redundant and soon find no place in cars. This change is inevitable!

[deetjohn]

Horrifying!

And if its truly autonomous, wonder why GM couldn't redesign the cabin completely.

I mean why shouldn't the passengers at the front face the ones at the rear? Like inside the train or a bus?

Without controls, there is really no point in seeing the road or where you are going. And I guess it will be more peaceful too for the bad passengers in us.

[Santoshbhat]

Originally Posted by deetjohn

Horrifying!

Somebody stop them! That picture is straight out of a horror film for an enthusiast

On the positive side this is way better than having a smelly, phone in one hand, swearing, unreliable, non trustworthy, shady, ill mannered cab driver in the front seat. Much easier for the cab company too if they don't have to deal with unsatisfied cab drivers. No wonder its happening.

[hrman]

Wow. The future is indeed here. I would find it uncomfortable to be seated in a car with no driver or no drivers in other cars, espcecially on indian roads. No one to swear at, cmon what is the world coming to?

If there are no controls, why not seat 3 passengers in the front and make it a 6 seater? Electric cars have no transmission tunnel, hence this is also possible. Many of us would love to have the smoothness of driving a sedan and the capacity of an SUV. This configuration will be a hit in India. Three front airbags anyone?

[greenhorn]

Originally Posted by deetjohn

I mean why shouldn't the passengers at the front face the ones at the rear? Like inside the train or a bus?

Without controls, there is really no point in seeing the road or where you are going. And I guess it will be more peaceful too for the bad passengers in us.

Attachment 1715833

A lot of us suffer from motion sickness, and get extremely disoriented and nauseous sitting/travelling backwards! I hate backward and side facing seats for this exact reason, and would never buy a car with them

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by condor

If the planes do Auto-land, why cant they also do an auto-take.off ?

Of topic, but an interesting question. From a technical point, the current flight management systems simply don’t have the capabilities and or the programs to do so.

The actual take off roll from standstill to rotation and transitioning into a 100% flight regime is very different from any other parts of the flight. Current autopilots will be engaged very soon after the wheels leave the ground. On the Boeing/Hoenywell systems I’m familiar that would be from 400 feet of the ground. And the autopilot can stay on, till the wheels hit the ground upon landing many hours later.

Keeping a plane heading straight down the runway requires an interaction between nose wheel/rudder/aileron. At low speeds the rudder is simply ineffective as there is not sufficient airflow across it. But at some point during the take off roll as the speed increase, rudder authority increases and nose wheel steering diminishes. Dealing with an engine out scenario is a challenge as well. Depending on aircraft type an engine failure will cause the aircraft to yaw sharply, which needs to be corrected by the correct amount of rudder/nose wheel, ailerons and even engine settings.

During an autolanding the autopilot is essentially guided by a radio beam to the runway threshold. There are no such radio beam along the runway that could be used for take off. The infrastructure simply doesn’t exist at today’s airports. At least not to the extend it could be used for the purpose of take off.

The above is just a simplified version of things that require equipement (hardware/sensors/software and programs) that are simply not available today on commercial planes. Of course, that also means there are (at least to my knowledge) no formal (legal) requirements available for an auto-take off system, nor is there certification in place.

Or to put it differently; just because a plane is equipped with an autopilot (every commercial plane is) doesn’t mean it can do each and every task of the pilot during any phase of the flight. Even during autoland it’s the pilot that will lower the gear, lower the flaps, arm the speed brake and set and adjust the appropiate speed.

On the little planes I fly we have very advanced autopilots, but no autothrottle and the autopilot can’t land either. 50 feet above the runway I need to take over!

Although I don’t see any technical reasons why we wouldn’t be able to build such systems the aviation industry has probably long decided that it was not economically viable to automate this part (very short) part of the flight.

Very few accidents happen during the actual take off roll. It’s a very short duration, planes are very reliable as it is. There is little economic benefit to be gained, pilots can and are well trained to handle take off and any emergencies. Balancing nose wheel steering with rudder and ailerons is something that will come relatively easy/natural to aspiring pilots but is a real bitch to program and automate.

There are some planes with full (hands off) auto take off capabilities. (military) The American F18 Hornet does a fully hands off carrier launch!

Jeroen

[The Brutailer]

Pathetic! First the onset of Electric Vehicles and now this nonsense! Sad, sad times to be petrol head. As it is, this generation is lazy..pretty sure they won’t mind such cars wherein they get to spend more time glued to their phones.

That said, it’ll reduce pollution as well as accidents. But then a wise man once said, “I don’t need to earn more money, but I like more money”. By that analogy, I don’t need to drive my own car but I like driving it!!

[abhijeet080808]

I am not sure why the center console is slightly oriented towards the right side. Heck, why do we even need a center console in such a car? It is much more logical to have 2 separate consoles for the 2 front passengers.

[deetjohn]

Originally Posted by greenhorn

A lot of us suffer from motion sickness, and get extremely disoriented and nauseous sitting/travelling backwards! I hate backward and side facing seats for this exact reason, and would never buy a car with them

In that case, seats which swivel are the best bet. Then, each passenger can just select the view he/ she wants. Will also help immensely during ingress/ egress as well.