60 Minutes: How soon will self-driving cars become part of our lives?

[Tugg Speedman]

This weekend (October 4)

October 2, 2015, 11:06 AM|Self-driving cars are already on the road in test drives with watchful researchers in them. How soon will the computerized cars become part of our lives? Bill Whitaker reports on Sunday, October 4 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/preview-hands-off-the-wheel/

The video tease above is pretty interesting.

[Spotcheck Billy]

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/0H5k--n7sFI" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/0H5k--n7sFI</a>

[jesmu84]

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/sljrbjOhD6U" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/sljrbjOhD6U</a>

Boom.

[MU82]

However soon will be too effen soon.

[forgetful]

However soon will be too effen soon.

I was talking to a student about this today. I completely disagree.  However soon, will be too late.  The roads will be substantially safer when we take the human out of the driving.

[MU82]

I was talking to a student about this today. I completely disagree.  However soon, will be too late.  The roads will be substantially safer when we take the human out of the driving.

Perhaps, if the private enterprises and the government work together nearly perfectly to design the right cars and the right roadways.

In other words, I like the Rams' chances to win this year's Super Bowl better.

[mikekinsellaMVP]

Perhaps, if the private enterprises and the government work together nearly perfectly to design the right cars and the right roadways.

In other words, I like the Rams' chances to win this year's Super Bowl better.

This.  For all the talk of what autonomous driving will do, the limiting factor in the next 25 years isn't the technology -- it's the infrastructure.

[muwarrior69]

I was talking to a student about this today. I completely disagree.  However soon, will be too late.  The roads will be substantially safer when we take the human out of the driving.

...and leave it the hackers.

[MU82]

This.  For all the talk of what autonomous driving will do, the limiting factor in the next 25 years isn't the technology -- it's the infrastructure.

Can you imagine today's Congress trying to come up with bipartisan ways to raise the money necessary to build our interstate system?

Jeepers creepers, we'd still be driving down dirt roads.

[forgetful]

...and leave it the hackers.

I trust hackers far more than the morons on the road now, or the drunks, drug addicts, phone using, make up applying, eating idiots we have to deal with right now.

[MUsoxfan]

Can you imagine today's Congress trying to come up with bipartisan ways to raise the money necessary to build our interstate system?

Jeepers creepers, we'd still be driving down dirt roads.

Yep

[martyconlonontherun]

Got nailed in a speed trap in a small Texas town tonight. Assuming these cars know the speed limit its one more reason I'll rather let the car drive while I work on a laptop.

[mu03eng]

It's funny how someone being killed by one computer controlled car is a catastrophe where as almost 1.3 million people die in the US every year with another 20-50 million injured and we don't think twice about driving ourselves anywhere. We average over 3200 traffic deaths a DAY in this country, shouldn't that be the bar we set for driverless cars, at least kill fewer people than humans are doing themselves?

What infrastructure do people think we need to build to support driveless technology?

[mu_hilltopper]

It's funny how someone being killed by one computer controlled car is a catastrophe where as almost 1.3 million people die in the US every year with another 20-50 million injured and we don't think twice about driving ourselves anywhere. We average over 3200 traffic deaths a DAY in this country, shouldn't that be the bar we set for driverless cars, at least kill fewer people than humans are doing themselves?

What infrastructure do people think we need to build to support driveless technology?

Uh, that stat is way off.  In 2015 there were 38,300 traffic deaths or ~105 per day.

But point taken.

[martyconlonontherun]

It's funny how someone being killed by one computer controlled car is a catastrophe where as almost 1.3 million people die in the US every year with another 20-50 million injured and we don't think twice about driving ourselves anywhere. We average over 3200 traffic deaths a DAY in this country, shouldn't that be the bar we set for driverless cars, at least kill fewer people than humans are doing themselves?

What infrastructure do people think we need to build to support driveless technology?

That must be per month. Or worldwide?

Our country needs major infrastructure overhaul anyways so I'm down with this major improvement and capital investment.

[MU82]

It's funny how someone being killed by one computer controlled car is a catastrophe where as almost 1.3 million people die in the US every year with another 20-50 million injured and we don't think twice about driving ourselves anywhere.

Well yeah, but there are all kinds of stats like this.

We freak out over terrorist attacks here, but more people are shot by toddlers. And not terrorist toddlers.

All kinds of examples of these kinds of things that feed into our human nature.

[forgetful]

Well yeah, but there are all kinds of stats like this.

We freak out over terrorist attacks here, but more people are shot by toddlers. And not terrorist toddlers.

All kinds of examples of these kinds of things that feed into our human nature.

How do you know the toddlers were not terrorists.  Has this been investigated?  Clearly our pre-schools and pre-pre-schools are being infiltrated by Les Assassins des Fauteuils Rollents. 

[mu03eng]

How do you know the toddlers were not terrorists.  Has this been investigated?  Clearly our pre-schools and pre-pre-schools are being infiltrated by Les Assassins des Fauteuils Rollents.

Quite frankly I thought toddler was French for terrorist

[mu03eng]

That must be per month. Or worldwide?

Our country needs major infrastructure overhaul anyways so I'm down with this major improvement and capital investment.

The less as always, Google with caution...but the point remains, the bar isn't no deaths or accidents, it's fewer than we cause ourselves

[Benny B]

Quite frankly I thought toddler was French for terrorist

French or not, every toddler can terrorize you.

[rocket surgeon]

I trust hackers far more than the morons on the road now, or the drunks, drug addicts, phone using, make up applying, eating idiots we have to deal with right now.

You forgot, shaving, make up placing, curling irons and those little portable "steely dans" thingys

[Skatastrophy]

I'm happy that you old fogies will not be dangerously driving when you're senile. My grandma is still a driver in Wauwatosa, WI so watch out when you're there.

Jokes aside: This technology will do wonders for Senior independence.

[Juan Anderson's Mixtape]

Those toddlers were simply exercising their 2nd amendment rights.  God Bless America!

[MU82]

I'd love nothing more than self-driving cars. I hate driving. If I ever move back to Chicago, I will live downtown so I don't have to own a car.

I'm just skeptical that government and/or private enterprise will be able to build the infrastructure necessary in my lifetime for self-driving cars to succeed on a wide scale.

I mean, the infrastructure that brings water to many of our major metro areas is crumbling and rotting, yet nobody can find the trillions necessary to rebuild them.

So I'm supposed to believe that trillions of dollars are going to be made available to redo our entire highway structure for driverless cars?

[Benny B]

I'd love nothing more than self-driving cars. I hate driving. If I ever move back to Chicago, I will live downtown so I don't have to own a car.

I'm just skeptical that government and/or private enterprise will be able to build the infrastructure necessary in my lifetime for self-driving cars to succeed on a wide scale.

I mean, the infrastructure that brings water to many of our major metro areas is crumbling and rotting, yet nobody can find the trillions necessary to rebuild them.

So I'm supposed to believe that trillions of dollars are going to be made available to redo our entire highway structure for driverless cars?

I think you're vastly overestimating what infrastructure is necessary.  The industry recognized long ago that the ultimate success of self-driving vehicles rests on the ability of the cars' ability to operate independently, i.e. with minimal support from the "grid".

Consider this... look at the safety features the highways have in downtown Chicago: multiple lanes, center medians, barricades, lights, those little reflective things embedded in the ground... those don't exist in rural Colorado.  But while any car that can drive on the Edens can drive in suburban Denver, not every car being driven from Naperville to the loop every morning is capable of driving to Vail in the snow... I suppose you could try, but you're going to fail.  And if you don't think people are that dumb, fly to Denver after the first major snowfall of the season, rent a car, and a day or two later when the roads are clear and the sun is shining, drive west on I-70 and count how many Priuses and Jettas you still see stuck in the ditch.

In other words, the "self-drive" infrastructure in Chicago will be much more complex than the infrastructure in Peoria, but those differences will be driven by the interests of beefing up safety, not meeting the minimum requirements for self-driving cars.  There will still be limitations on where self-driving cars can go, but - just like today - those limitations will be inherent to the vehicle's capabilities, not the infrastructure.  The main difference will be that the self-driving Prius's limitations won't be overridden by the moron behind the wheel... if the weather is bad, the Prius ain't leaving SoDoSoPa.