Autonomous Vehicles, page-3

There is absolutely no doubt that a new approach is required. All of the current systems being deployed are only potentially efficient in closed environments where normal real world driving has to deal with an almost infinite range of circumstances created by the idiosyncratic behaviour of people both as drivers and pedestrians not to mention the action of wild or domestic animals and birds is removed.

The underlying problem which autonomous vehicles have to over come is that people expect machines to be perfect whereas people generally tolerate other peoples varying abilities particularly so when it comes to driving or riding vehicles on public streets.

Close to 50 years ago I was required to undergo as part of my then employment an advanced six week driver training course. To enter the course you had to hold a New South Wales drivers licence. At the end of the course you either passed or failed and were ranked. There were two individuals who tied for first place with scores of 98.25 out of a possible 100 and there were two failures one by two marks and he was given the opportunity to return for a further seven day course and one who scored 35 out of the possible 100 who was told there was no hope.

The point being before during and after people tolerated all of the course participants driving on the roads of New South Wales even the fellow who scored 35.

We have all suffered the frustration of the shopping centre car park at Christmas and the person who either because they lack sufficient skill or are so stressed they cannot think clearly trying to park in a space big enough for a semi holding up lines of cars. While we may in the privacy of our vehicles call for this person to be retested once the person has parked or given up I suspect that most quickly forget about this person whereas if it was an autonomous vehicle that was unable to get the vehicle into the parking spot there would be calls for these sort of vehicles to be banned from car parks.

Until such time as true Artificial General Intelligence arrives it is my opinion expressed a number of times that autonomous vehicles will not be seen on Australian roads until they are capable of performing flawlessly. Machines are judged very harshly in our society. No one I know would tolerate a refrigerator that occasionally forgot to stay cold or an air conditioner that occasionally switched from hot to cold. Most however would tolerate another person forgetting to shut the door or put the milk back in the fridge or forgetting to turn on the air conditioner if they arrive home first.

The wonderful thing about BrainChip and AKIDA1000 is that it is the first of three maybe four steps along the road to Artificial General Intelligence and that the first step which is about to be taken is so far ahead and so multifaceted that unlike Waymo and others it can be used in health care, agriculture, smart homes, improved driver experience, while moving towards autonomous driving once Artificial General Intelligence has been achieved.

When AKIDA1000 is released and confirmed to be on spec the world will be BrainChips oyster.

Of course my opinion only so DYOR.