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First 'robotaxis' enter service in Beijing

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14 Comments
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YukijinNov. 27  06:27 pm JST

You get in, the doors lock and it takes you to a re education camp.

You beat me to the punch. These cars are wonderful but with the CCP ruling the nation, can you trust these 'taxis'? Get in and say you want to go to Shanghai but it can automatically drive you on the highway to hell.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

If I could hack/code, I would sooooo turn the robot into a Hal 9000

”Open the doors please”

”I’m sorry, I can’t do that Dave.”

Lol, I'm afraid BMW already beat you to it with their CAN-Bus, which early on was notorious for locking occupants inside their cars and doing other strange things the driver didn't want the car to do.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

An Elevator is driver-less.

I am old enough to remember when there were not automatic elevators. They all had an operator sitting in them controlling the door, direction up or down and speed.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

As long as a human "co pilot" is needed it is not a driver-less vehicle.

When there is no human intervention or "co pilot" only then will it be an actual driver-less vehicle.

An Elevator is driver-less.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

If they put sensors in the highways, this us the only way, to have an autonomous car, training one car, is like training a child to walk, baby step, in a full sprint race

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

@hiro

A very cozy job then for the driver.

Driver is the fall guy to take all the blames for if the car ever got into an accident, since it's the driver's job to correct errors.

Considering the legal risks involved, I wouldn't want this kind of job.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

These cars cannot yield on red light, candidate for road rage

1 ( +2 / -1 )

You get in, the doors lock and it takes you to a re education camp.

Yes, a device scans your ID card for your social credit score and takes you to the appropriate destination.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

You get in, the doors lock and it takes you to a re education camp.

8 ( +9 / -1 )

Might be safer than some of the human taxi drivers I encountered in Shanghai :/ Standard Shanghai practice, first car in line swoops their left turn the instant the light turns green before oncoming traffic can cross the intersection. Then there was the taxi driver clanking the gearbox into 3rd gear (engine is barely turning over; chugga-chugga-chugga-chugga) in the middle of a u-turn on a busy boulevard. I wanted to scream because a modern VW engine in meant to rev and lugging them is not good for longevity. Left turns into oncoming traffic are legal as long as you use the horn for the duration of the turn (not really but based on local custom ...). Too many times I found myself sliding across that rear bench seat trying to put distance between myself and the side door that faced oncoming traffic, just waiting for the impact that we missed by centimeters. I don't see how automation could make the experience any worse.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

These cars are not autonomous as they seem, their is lots of human intervention involved

0 ( +1 / -1 )

A very cozy job then for the driver.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

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