Driveless cars (shuttles) coming to WDW.

[OhioStateBuckeye]

...There also are many other vehicles driven by people who don't know what the driverless cars going to do....

I assume the driverless car would follow the rules of the road and use turn signals and have brake lights and such.

I don't know what cars with human drivers are going to do on a second by second basis. I'd probably rather drive next to a computer driven car than by a car driven by a complete unknown quantity (is the driver next to me drunk, is it a parent who is being distracted by rowdy kids and might swerve into my lane, is it someone texting/on their phone).

 

[wareagle57]

Driverless cars are extremely safe. People being afraid and resistant of them is the only thing slowing them down from being widely implimented and eventually completely replacing manual cars. Sadly this will probably take 50 years instead of 5 largely in part because of the attitudes many people have expressed in this post, along with government meddling and labor unions. Slowing down progress is going to cost millions of lives.

No matter how scared you are of them, the fact is they are infinitely safer than the cars driven by idiots on the road. You may think you are a better driver than them, But most likely you are not. And eventually they will be better than even bye best human driver.

I'm excited Disney seems to be giving them a chance to prove to people how safe they are.

 

[dclpluto]

I'm 47 so hopefully when I get old and wearing a diaper I can still go places in my driverless car.

 

[Roxyfire]

I'm 47 so hopefully when I get old and wearing a diaper I can still go places in my driverless car.

Yes the freedom for not only seniors but also those with visual disabilities to get around safely as needed would be incredible. I do think there will be a demand for people to help and assist those who are physically handicapped or unable to go somewhere alone. But obviously there are a lot of unknowns in the outside world. A shuttle system like this at a huge destination for travelers worldwide like WDW could act as the perfect proof of concept. I do hope they're able to implement this in the next few years.

 

[SgtTibbs]

Ha! And they called me crazy when I suggested this would be perfect for WDW.

April 12:

I'm all for a large fleet self driving vehicles being used to shuffle guest between specific destinations. Sounds like this is a solid first step towards that.

 

[SgtTibbs]

I don't need perfection from new technology. I just need it to be better than what it replaces. Buses, taxis, friends they all have accidents. We ignore the risk of the familiar and over estimate the risk of new things.

 

[SgtTibbs]

I'm 47 so hopefully when I get old and wearing a diaper I can still go places in my driverless car.

Indeed, I've seen the effect on elder relatives when they loose the ability to drive their quality of life drops dramatically.

 

[dreiwhit]

I'm looking forward to the days where there are only autonomous vehicles and people driving is legislated away or highly restricted

Not wanting to stray too far off topic, but i'm NOT looking forward to those days. When people driving is legislated away or restricted, you can be more easily controlled. Think about it.

 

[mshanson3121]

Not wanting to stray too far off topic, but i'm NOT looking forward to those days. When people driving is legislated away or restricted, you can be more easily controlled. Think about it.

Not wanting to stray too far off topic, but i'm NOT looking forward to those days. When people driving is legislated away or restricted, you can be more easily controlled. Think about it.

Exactly. People have been comparing it to the advent of progressing to cars from horse and buggy. Except it's nothing like that. As YOU were still in charge, you still made the decisions, not a computer (that can malfunction) without any concious, moral or reasoning - ex. choosing life outside the vehicle over life inside the vehicle. So thank you driverless car for ditching the vehicle and seriously injuring or killing my child, just to avoid some animal on the road, or the guy that jumps in front of it or any other number of scenarios where you the computer feel the object outside was more valuable than my flesh and blood.

 

[ebotheblue]

These (or something very close to them) have been in use at Heathrow since 2011 to take travelers from the airport to the parking lot (same application as disney expect it is cast members to work). As far as google and I can tell there have been no accidents since 2011. If a person had been driving, you can almost guarantee that over the last six years there would have been some sort of accident.

 

[beer dave]

I'm 47 so hopefully when I get old and wearing a diaper I can still go places in my driverless car.

By then the car will probably change your diaper while delivering you to the bingo parlor.

 

[beer dave]

Yes the freedom for not only seniors but also those with visual disabilities to get around safely as needed would be incredible. I do think there will be a demand for people to help and assist those who are physically handicapped or unable to go somewhere alone. But obviously there are a lot of unknowns in the outside world. A shuttle system like this at a huge destination for travelers worldwide like WDW could act as the perfect proof of concept. I do hope they're able to implement this in the next few years.

Not to mention cutting out the road rage factor.

 

[beer dave]

Not wanting to stray too far off topic, but i'm NOT looking forward to those days. When people driving is legislated away or restricted, you can be more easily controlled. Think about it.

You better not carry a cell phone. You know then they can track you.....

 

[MamaBelle4]

Exactly. People have been comparing it to the advent of progressing to cars from horse and buggy. Except it's nothing like that. As YOU were still in charge, you still made the decisions, not a computer (that can malfunction) without any concious, moral or reasoning - ex. choosing life outside the vehicle over life inside the vehicle. So thank you driverless car for ditching the vehicle and seriously injuring or killing my child, just to avoid some animal on the road, or the guy that jumps in front of it or any other number of scenarios where you the computer feel the object outside was more valuable than my flesh and blood.

You know, these commercials with the cars that "sense danger and brake for you" makes me wonder. In many situations, it is safer to swerve than to slam on your brakes. If someone is tailgating you and not paying attention and your car stops abruptly because it senses danger ahead, you just may well become an accordion, when you could have swerved to the shoulder and avoided a collision altogether.

 

[Harry Wallace]

It will be similar to the self driving shuttles they have at London Heathrow T5, where you say where you want to go (limited to where there are stations obviously) and you get in. No stopping to let people off. Whether they'll have a fixed track like the Heathrow ones remains to be seen, but they are far safer than buses and even monorails. Disney can deploy as many as they need on the system to meet demand at the current time which will make it cheaper for them.

 

[beer dave]

My current car has a feature included with the cruise control where the driver can select a following range and the car will follow the one in front of it with a pre determined spacing. My steering also has an active control that counteracts the slope in the road and keeps the steering wheel "straight" whenever driving "straight"...... All it needs is an outside directional source instead of me..... like a transmission from the guardrail? .......and it's a Chevy.....

 

[beer dave]

You know, these commercials with the cars that "sense danger and brake for you" makes me wonder. In many situations, it is safer to swerve than to slam on your brakes. If someone is tailgating you and not paying attention and your car stops abruptly because it senses danger ahead, you just may well become an accordion, when you could have swerved to the shoulder and avoided a collision altogether.

I agree except if all the cars had these controls then no one would be tailgating you...... again the fault is the human. Computers don't get stressed out because they are late.

 

[wareagle57]

Exactly. People have been comparing it to the advent of progressing to cars from horse and buggy. Except it's nothing like that. As YOU were still in charge, you still made the decisions, not a computer (that can malfunction) without any concious, moral or reasoning - ex. choosing life outside the vehicle over life inside the vehicle. So thank you driverless car for ditching the vehicle and seriously injuring or killing my child, just to avoid some animal on the road, or the guy that jumps in front of it or any other number of scenarios where you the computer feel the object outside was more valuable than my flesh and blood.

Just because you can dream up a scenario where something bad could happen, doesn't mean that technology should be given up on, or that it's not still infinitely better than what we have now. The very few deaths that take place when all cars are driverless will be very tragic yes. And one reason is because they will be so rare, like a plane crash.

To your hypothetical situation, there is no reason the car would not be able to do risk assessment or even be able to tell what exactly is in the road. And with all cars being driverless, all cars will be at a safe distance from each other and be able to slam on the brakes without causing a collision. They would also be better at swerving than 99% of human drivers. And the cars would be programmed to protect those inside the car over those outside the car. Or at least they should be and can be. The odds of your kid being killed by a driverless car swerving to miss a cat are much lower than the odds of your kid being killed by a drunk or distracted driver. Or even themselves. You may feel like you are in control, but you're not.

 

[dreiwhit]

You better not carry a cell phone. You know then they can track you.....

I'm not talking about tracking, i'm talking about CONTROL. When you reduce people's mobility, you can control people.

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

I'm not talking about tracking, i'm talking about CONTROL. When you reduce people's mobility, you can control people.

I consider driverless cars to be a technology that would drastically increase mobility rather than reducing it. Of course, as always, it depends on how the technology is implemented and the laws our Congress and legislators decide to make that affect it. We always need to be aware of potential laws that affect our freedom and press our representatives to support our freedoms. Again, the human element can make or break our technological progress.