Obama Wants to Spend $4 Billion to Fill Our Roads With Autonomous Vehicles

Link to Gizmodo article

Today, US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx is announcing a nearly $4 billion plan that’ll help manufacturers and tech companies develop safe, automated vehicles in the next ten years with real-world pilot projects.

The article mentions 94% of fatal car accidents are due to human error. I saw somewhere else that it's 83%. There were 32,675 vehicle fatalities in 2014 according to Wikipedia. That's nearly 29,000 lives that could have potentially been saved by autonomous technology.

Big news, we won't see it fully implemented for a few years though.

a reply to: links234

Oh good. Now, there's going to be a bunch of start up companies trying to get in on the gov teat and then they'll fold, taking our money with them. 4 billion down the toilet.
Welcome to the new Solyndra

The economy is in a shambles, the National Debt staggering, we're fighting expensive wars on multiple fronts, our infrastructure is crumbling, Obama somehow wants us to feed, house,and clothe tens of thousands of Syrian refugees, but somehow we have $4 billion to give to Google and Tesla?

Pretty sure Google has plenty of money and Elon Musk is building spaceships so, I bet he doesn't have any trouble super sizing his extra value meals.

a reply to: links234

While they are at it maybe they could get the vehicles to fix the infrastructure of our road system with some of this 4 billion.

a reply to: links234

everyone can enjoy their choices. What a bunch of #. Everyone wil be acountable

a reply to: DAVID64

Well, actually.....if you follow the money you'll find out that for every Solyndra, there's been a lot of wealth created by gov't investment in new technologies. Those include Facebook, Tesla, First Solar and others.

To make a big profit on something like this, buy shares of stock in NXPI. Its not a startup and its all into the technology of autonomous cars. We may not like what the future is bringing, or even want any part of it, but the truth is that the big guy on the block with the big bucks makes the winners and the losers. And in this case its the Federal Government.

The Feds funded Google, and its the biggest "spy" on the internet. Profit from the misery of others and you'll surely profit'!

Yeah, I can see it now, snow and ice will obscure the sensors and these vehicles will cause accidents on the roads when they stop. So they will blame it on the people who rearend the cars, not the fact that the car was stopped in the middle of the highway.

autonomous vehicles could be a serious boon to the public transportation system. at the same time, how many jobs is that?

originally posted by: DAVID64
a reply to: links234

Oh good. Now, there's going to be a bunch of start up companies trying to get in on the gov teat and then they'll fold, taking our money with them. 4 billion down the toilet.
Welcome to the new Solyndra

Welcome to future.

If we do not lead the technology CHINA or some other country will.

Obama should invest DOUBLE because the payoff will be exponential.

Short term thinking

originally posted by: abe froman
The economy is in a shambles, the National Debt staggering, we're fighting expensive wars on multiple fronts, our infrastructure is crumbling, Obama somehow wants us to feed, house,and clothe tens of thousands of Syrian refugees, but somehow we have $4 billion to give to Google and Tesla?

Pretty sure Google has plenty of money and Elon Musk is building spaceships so, I bet he doesn't have any trouble super sizing his extra value meals.

Do you know how many jobs will go to the country that holds that patents on driverless cars?


Imagine if we had the same attitude towards cars, planes or computers.

I would love this, but gotta make sure the interior is easily cleaned..its main use is gonna be a cheap taxi service used heavily by drunk people..and its about time!

I see this all failing when the first fatal accident is caused by an autonomous vehicle.

You know it is going to happen.

I for one can hardly wait to get into my car and tell it to take me to the grocery store.

I think that it will lead to less accidents and give people more time to get things done.

It's a brave new world that we are entering. I'll enter in my self driving vehicle

I say go away with this notion.
Give them to Paraguay.

originally posted by: WeAre0ne
I see this all failing when the first fatal accident is caused by an autonomous vehicle.

You know it is going to happen.

If you really think self driving cars will not become the norm, you should think about how far computers have come in twenty years.

It's inevitable, especially considering how lazy people are lol

originally posted by: Wildbob77
I for one can hardly wait to get into my car and tell it to take me to the grocery store.

I think that it will lead to less accidents and give people more time to get things done.

It's a brave new world that we are entering. I'll enter in my self driving vehicle

"Until it spits a front control arm, wheel bearing or wheel. Maybe just a blow out at 70mph.

Even stalling in cross traffic. Then we'll find out how insurance will work when no one is at fault in the fatal collision.

originally posted by: rickymouse
Yeah, I can see it now, snow and ice will obscure the sensors and these vehicles will cause accidents on the roads when they stop. So they will blame it on the people who rearend the cars, not the fact that the car was stopped in the middle of the highway.

Can you source where you read about this being a problem?

i live in LA, people cannot drive. they will slow down, cut you off and road rage when possible. id take one of these cars to work any day, sit back and watch a movie. i would if i didnt already take the train to work, less cars, less dependency on arab oil, less traffic, less pollution, more jobs, better technology.

leave your bias out of it and look ahead.

originally posted by: OccamsRazor04

originally posted by: rickymouse
Yeah, I can see it now, snow and ice will obscure the sensors and these vehicles will cause accidents on the roads when they stop. So they will blame it on the people who rearend the cars, not the fact that the car was stopped in the middle of the highway.

Can you source where you read about this being a problem?

My backup sensors on the explorer are always messing up when they get some frozen slush on them. Even the temperature sensor for the outside air temperature works like crap when it gets iced over.

I thought we were having a water shortage in places some places and now they will be washing cars every day just so they don't malfunction. You do not need a source to state this, it is common sense.

originally posted by: rickymouse

originally posted by: OccamsRazor04

originally posted by: rickymouse
Yeah, I can see it now, snow and ice will obscure the sensors and these vehicles will cause accidents on the roads when they stop. So they will blame it on the people who rearend the cars, not the fact that the car was stopped in the middle of the highway.

Can you source where you read about this being a problem?

My backup sensors on the explorer are always messing up when they get some frozen slush on them. Even the temperature sensor for the outside air temperature works like crap when it gets iced over.

I thought we were having a water shortage in places some places and now they will be washing cars every day just so they don't malfunction. You do not need a source to state this, it is common sense.

people told elon musk he couldn't built a reusable, self landing rocket. what do they say now?