Where's the lane? Self-driving cars confused by shabby U.S. roadways

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Where's the lane? Self-driving cars confused by shabby U.S. roadways

Where's the lane? Self-driving cars confused by shabby U.S. roadways

LOS ANGELES | BY ALEXANDRIA SAGE

Volvo's North American CEO, Lex Kerssemakers, lost his cool as the automaker's semi-autonomous prototype sporadically refused to drive itself during a press event at the Los Angeles Auto Show.

"It can't find the lane markings!" Kerssemakers griped to Mayor Eric Garcetti, who was at the wheel. "You need to paint the bloody roads here!"

Shoddy infrastructure has become a roadblock to the development of self-driving cars, vexing engineers and adding time and cost. Poor markings and uneven signage on the 3 million miles of paved roads in the United States are forcing automakers to develop more sophisticated sensors and maps to compensate, industry executives say.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently called the mundane issue of faded lane markings "crazy," complaining they confused his semi-autonomous cars.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos-autonomous-infrastructure-insig-idUSKCN0WX131

[Jackie Wilson Said]

1. This was inevitable. That portion of the GOP which took power in 2010, the ones who hate

government, they are responsible.

[Skink]

5. I'm planning on using my Drone to get places.

[dogman]

2. What if it snows?

Seems like painting roads is nice but not practical. Maybe these are going to be fairweather urban vehicles?

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

4. The software needs to recognize ruts

or use GPS to know where it is.

The technology has some growing to do. I think it will get there. I hope it gets there before I'm too old to drive. I want a car that drives itself to where I tell it.

[dogman]

6. A number of years ago there was a plan to install a wire in the pavement.

The concept was to have it run down the center of the lane on the interstate. You would drive over it and hand off control of your vehicle. When you neared your exit it would hand back control and you would get off at your destination. You could avoid driver fatigue and enjoy the scenery on the long runs.

[MisterP]

3. "clear road or embankment, clear road or embankment? hmmmm"

[madinmaryland]

7. It's going to cost at least $3-4 trillion to fix all of the roads, and probably more

to upgrade the roads here to allow that to happen. Not going to happen. Self driving cars are probably 50 or more years away.

[gratuitous]

8. Sad to say we can't afford this

We're still paying on a couple of elective invasions and occupations. Gee, was it only 13 years ago those were all shiny and new? Now they're all scuffed and dilapidated, and nobody wants to play with them anymore, but we're still paying for them. Sorry, no road repairs or maintenance. Sorry kids, you're going to have to make do with those shabby school buildings for another 50 years or so. Be assured, though: We'll still sing that we believe the children are our future like we mean it. We just won't act like it. You'll understand when you're older.

[EX500rider]

9. "Sorry, no road repairs or maintenance." Actually the US DOT budget is 77 billion dollars a year.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Transportation

[gratuitous]

10. The budget request for 2017 is $98.1 billion

That pays for the Federal Aviation Administration (not big on building or repairing roads); Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (ditto); National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; transit, railroads, pipelines, maritime, and administration expenses. Actual federal highway funds in that $98.1 billion total about $43.266 billion, which is less than half the Department's budget.

https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/docs/DOT_BH2017_508%5B2%5D.pdf

That's a lot of money, but when you're talking about the nation's roads, it's like throwing a bucket of water at a raging house fire. Double or triple that annual allotment (by, say, cutting the annual defense budget by about four weeks), and we could put a lot of people to work for a result we could actually use.

[EX500rider]

11. Of course all 50 states also have a state level DOT with a budget also.

[U4ikLefty]

12. Are you seriously implying that we spend enough $$$ annually on transportation

infrastructure and maintenance?

I hope not.

[oberliner]

13. Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads.

When the heck are we going to have flying cars already?