Uber brings forward trialling driverless taxis in UK - Next Spring

[Mr Bump]

Uber brings forward trialling driverless taxis in UK

The autonomous cars with no human safety driver at the wheel will be trialled in London next spring.

www.bbc.co.uk

Uber will trial robotaxis - autonomous cars with no human safety driver at the wheel - in London next spring.
The ride-hailing app will work with the UK artificial intelligence (AI) firm Wayve, which has been testing out the technology on the city's streets with human oversight, in line with current legislation.
The announcement comes after the UK government changed its rules about the driverless cars once again.
It was originally aiming for the tech to come to British roads in 2026, then the date was changed to the second half of 2027.
But it now says it is introducing an accelerated framework for small autonomous "bus and taxi like" commercial services to get them underway earlier.
It is not yet clear whether the vehicles in Uber's trial will be available for customers to use - the firm says it is still working out the details.
It has previously said it intends to add them as a regular option via its UK app as soon as legislation allows.

 

[Garry Edwards]

I think that Uber are being very generous, they say that they won't be charging any extra for the driverless taxis, but passengers who need help, for example to load shopping, wheelchairs etc into the car may feel that they should charge less . . .

And, with no drivers to rip off, they'll have to find new ways of overcharging their customers.

 

[AndrewFlannigan]

And, with no drivers to rip off, they'll have to find new ways of overcharging their customers.

I hope that, before the test begins, the government will publish the names of every politician and official who has signed off on it, just so we know in advance who to blame, if things go wrong.

 

[Mr Bump]

I hope that, before the test begins, the government will publish the names of every politician and official who has signed off on it, just so we know in advance who to blame, if things go wrong.

why such a negative attitude , driverless cars will be an amazing technology advance?

 

[AndrewFlannigan]

why such a negative attitude ,

Because previous evidence suggests that, due to premature release of the technology...

(a) they won't work properly,​

(b) the people running them will cover up the problems instead of coming clean,​

(c) the cover up will lead to a major incident (or worse, incidents)​

​

driverless cars will be an amazing technology advance?

I very much doubt that they will be anything of the kind.

 

[Garry Edwards]

I embrace new technology where it is beneficial, but my knowledge of how Uber operates makes me doubt whether they are a good choice for trialling this roll-out.

 

[the black fox]

I’m in Devon at the moment I don’t know about driverless cars but I have found out about gormless,brainless ,arrogant drivers in the last few days

 

[LCPete]

I’m in Devon at the moment I don’t know about driverless cars but I have found out about gormless,brainless ,arrogant drivers in the last few days

Agree thing thing at the moment seems to be switching lanes to the right directly in front of the car already there on the dual carriageway
happened to us a few days ago and seen morons do it to others twice today
Rather than drop in behind on the dual carriageway the gormless idiots have to get in front

 

[AndrewFlannigan]

I’m in Devon at the moment I don’t know about driverless cars but I have found out about gormless,brainless ,arrogant drivers in the last few days

My experience is that drivers in Devon are the same mixture of good, bad and indifferent as anywhere else in Britain.

 

[the black fox]

Makes me wonder where half of them learned to drive .. I drove down last weekend on the m6/ m5 towing our caravan the legal tow limit is 60mph and over that is not only illegal but also tail wagging dog dangerous. But we were overtaken by lots of other caravans all the way down ..the mind boggles

 

[Mr Bump]

Because previous evidence suggests that, due to premature release of the technology...

(a) they won't work properly,​

(b) the people running them will cover up the problems instead of coming clean,​

(c) the cover up will lead to a major incident (or worse, incidents)​

​

I very much doubt that they will be anything of the kind.

what about people with limitied ability to drive themselves like disabled people that can enjoy full mobility with driverless cars.
what about people in advanced years that simply need a bit of help with driving so will have the ability to buy a car that also has a driverless option?

 

[AndrewFlannigan]

what about ...

We'll just have to wait and see, won't we?

 

[mj4456]

I've never used uber as we have a ‘reasonable’ taxi service where we live, I say reasonable as a great many drivers have no idea of the geography and when told the destination turn round and ask “how do I get there?”, how will uber cope with all the new build schemes that aren’t added to the sat nav system yet?

 

[woof woof]

Sort of related to this.

I've been watching a Chinese lady on YouTube commenting on Chinese politics, economics and tech and all I can say is I hope this "new technology" has as little to do with China as possible. Hopefully nothing but since that's not going to happen we'll need strong and enforced legislation and that's not going to happen either. I suspect what will happen is that there will be "issues" but some people will still get a lot richer.

 

[kiteninja]

Bring it on, small talk in taxis is tedias at best.

 

[Mr Bump]

I've never used uber as we have a ‘reasonable’ taxi service where we live, I say reasonable as a great many drivers have no idea of the geography and when told the destination turn round and ask “how do I get there?”, how will uber cope with all the new build schemes that aren’t added to the sat nav system yet?

I think its important not to "overthink" the technology its not just google maps linked to a car its AI and about 10 cameras and sensors also
its early days but we do need this tech if we are going to make the roads safer and more accessible to other road users such as disabled or elderly that simply have the right of free movement on our roads system, if you look at some vids on youtube and teslas self driving tech it is awesome, give it 5 more years...

 

[AndrewFlannigan]

I think its important not to "overthink" the technology....

I'd argue that it's very important to think carefully about two tons rolling along the road without a person in charge.

Before trying this we need extremely strong laws. We have to put the people running these companies in the dock when, inevitably, things go horribly wrong.

...we do need this tech if we are going to make the roads safer and more accessible to other road users such as disabled or elderly that simply have the right of free movement on our roads system

Possibly it's a good idea to think about the elderly and the very young, who wish to use the pavements beside those roads or cross those roads. This technology gives a very good impression of problems waiting to happen.

if you look at some vids on youtube and teslas self driving tech it is awesome, give it 5 more years...

I think I'd be happier if you added a "0" after that "5".

 

[mj4456]

Will driverless cars be able to look at the idiot driving in front or alongside and think “this is a numpty I’m gonna back off and give him/her some room, just in case”? and avoid an accident.

 

[AshleyC]

As a software developer I'm only too aware, despite rigorous testing, of how bugs get in the system. I would never , voluntarily, get in a driverless car.