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Ask HN: Why aren't remote human drivers a thing?

4 points by s_r_n ↗ HN
I saw an article today where Steve Wozniak said he didn't think autonomous cars would come to fruition during his lifetime. However, I have not read very much about any sort of innovation around a system that uses human drivers to control vehicles remotely. Why isn't this idea being explored more?

14 comments

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TheEndless
Maybe because it still requires a human to be occupied during the task, and they also don't have physical safety stake in the activity. I don't think I'd feel quite at ease if a driver over the Internet had my fate in their hands. Also that brings up the fact that latency and failure of wireless communications could mean death.
udayrddy
I do not see any use case with it. If I have to remote control it, I would rather control directly. Isn't the whole purpose to make use of your time on other works instead of driving?
jolmg
Maybe the idea is that as soon as you're detected to be sleep, a driver from some company gets alerted and takes over your driving until you wake up.
thecrumb
Tunnels? Overpasses? Trees. Thinking about how many times my satellite radio fades out.
raztogt21
no skin in the game for the remote driver
icedchai
Connectivity in general. You need a 100% reliable, low latency, high bandwidth connection. Milliseconds matter in an emergency.
MS90
The USAF is able to deal with latency issues when controlling and targeting drones on the opposite side of the planet, though I do believe they use local people with line of sight connections to handle takeoffs and landings.

I don't see why something like their systems couldn't be applied here. Well, other than the fact that you'd need the resources (see: cash and massive satellite network) that the USAF has...

convolvatron
usaf importantly doesn’t have any liability in the case of accidental death
shoo
Reaction time requirements are probably much more forgiving for drones -- don't need to suddenly brake or change course due to the movements of other tightly packed drones around you during the daily commute
abhinuvpitale
There is also the question of trust, one of the biggest non-technical challenge to overcome would be to convince general public to get into a car which doesn't have a driver. It would be similar to getting into a rollercoaster.

No control whatsoever of what might happen next despite every bit of your trip being pre-planned to the dot.

gshdg
USAF has billions to throw at the problem.