Japan is rolling out driverless cars 5 years later : http://asia.nikkei.com/Tech-Science/Tech/Japan-to-conduct-road-tests-with-eye-on-2020-Olympics.
Many of the countries that are charging very high taxi fares (like USA and Japan) are researching into driverless taxis.
Even in Singapore where taxi fares are 1/4 of the rates in Japan, there are researchers collborating with MIT people .
So would we be eliminated in 5-10 years time by robots and 50,000 pure Singaporeans jobs (which is like half-a million workers factories after considering 1:9 local foreigner ratio) be wiped out?
You think and worry too much. If robot taxi bang or get banged in an accident, whose fault? CDG claim ka ki?
If they want to intro robot workforce, the first place will be a robot that cleans the table and clears the rubbish. But the robot costs how much? Robot maintenance contract worth how much? If the robot cock up and hits the customer, who pays? Kopitiam claim ka ki?
So practically speaking, a robotic workforce got to prove themselves on the front line in a war through drones, robot mules to help soldiers carry heavy loads on the battlefield such as the LS3, autonomous weapons such as phalanx and the PETMAN robot soldier which cannot differentiate between civilians and enemies of course.
Many technologies we use today originate from military R&D. For instance, the first general purpose computer to be built was the ENIAC. It was used by the US Army to calculate artillery firing tables. After years of refinement through practical usage, it was commercialised for civilian use.
I give another example. Martial arts originated from ancient warriors coming up with the method to kill their enemies with either bare hands or with weapons. It did not start off from someone thinking of a way to do exercise. Kung fu was meant to kill. Not to win medals in the SEA games or Olympics. I always remind my kids when I teach them that martial arts was invented to attack and kill enemies in ancient China.
So whenever you see some thing new, first ask yourself whether the military is already using it. If not it means it still got many years of research and improvement to be done.
In the military, when the robot accidentally kills someone, they dont need to worry about insurance claims. Its only on Singapore roads where we find workshop agents running to victims of a car accident asking whether they need help to do an insurance claim.
Not I worry too much..... just felt that this could be a threat since it is also being researched in Singapore. In the real world, people do not pump in money for research without real benefits in future...... so this is a real possibe scenario.
Hardly any research or engineering from NUS, NTU or A-STAR research institutes in Biopolis resulted in a breakthrough product with global sales.
If you think I am talking nonsense, please name me something Singapore's scientists researched, commercialized and end-users like yourself are using now. Singapore has the world class universities which is correct. But in terms of innovation, we are at the bottom.
Dont worry about the driverless taxi NTU is making. I fetched the professor who was involved in it before. Research in Singapore will provide some local head-line news in Straits Times every year. But after a while, it becomes dead silent.
I have seen this bloody nonsense cycle for too long.
As I said earlier, you need a big country like US and China where their researchers can test their latest research ideas on the battlefield and/or with their huge domestic market. Singapore simply does not have the critical mass to do such things even with a 6.9 million population. Dont forget US is constantly involved in Middle East wars. In order to fully develop our research expertise, we need to help out in global conflicts, and send soldiers to fight using our research innovations. Without this we can only speculate. For instance, say we come up with a drug. How do we know its useful unless we are able to find people to test on?
What more a driverless taxi? Dont worry until America starts a working fleet. It is still a long way off.
Currently, there is the introduction of third-party mobile phone applications such as 'Uber', and taxi drivers are already not happy.
Do you think driver-less taxis would be welcomed here?
If they want, they should instead find ways to reduce the costs incurred by the taxi drivers.
For example, create a new type of taxi which uses less petrol/fuel or no petrol/fuel at all, or create one where the engine is more energy efficient.
Alternatively, work on the rental fees, by subsidizing (or simply removing) some components of the rental fees.
Originally posted by jurongresident:Currently, there is the introduction of third-party mobile phone applications such as 'Uber', and taxi drivers are already not happy.
Do you think driver-less taxis would be welcomed here?
This one depends on from whose perspective; taxi rental companies, public or self-employed taxi drivers.
Personally I think if it ever evolves to that level, it would be only more compelling to introduce driverless cars in developed cities where taxi fares are a lot more expensive than Singapore's like Tokyo, Zurich, Berlin, Nice, London, New York and Sydney.
yes robotic vehicles can operate in enclosed areas
if u still havn't notice, go down portsdown area, down there got sign big big saying testing of driverless vehicle or something like dat
infact google driverless vehicle have been running around america leow
The driverless google car is fine. Not many issues i can think off. They can also test all they want in portsdown road. Driverless taxis however are a different game. I can think of two major issues that it will create, besides insurance liabilities and additional costs due to extremely high OMV. Those will be the crippling factors preventing taxi operators from introducing them. I prefer not to say them here.
I really will not be worried. CDG will be depending on humans for a long long time. I am confident the government will not approve this once they examine the issues.
Robotic whores also very popular in Nippon now.....
Dun under estimate a robotic mistress. Bring one home. Lao chao bo no interest, you fark the robot. Next morning, I guarantee the robot inside the rubbish bin. Otherwise I chop.
Originally posted by f1taxidriver:The driverless google car is fine. Not many issues i can think off. They can also test all they want in portsdown road. Driverless taxis however are a different game. I can think of two major issues that it will create, besides insurance liabilities and additional costs due to extremely high OMV. Those will be the crippling factors preventing taxi operators from introducing them. I prefer not to say them here.
I really will not be worried. CDG will be depending on humans for a long long time. I am confident the government will not approve this once they examine the issues.
Let's hope the government would not approve of them..... 50,000 pure Singaporeans jobs would be wiped out. The two casinos only brought total of 20000 jobs of which only 10000 went to Singaporeans. Factories are shifting out of Singapore. Even neighbouring in lower cost Malaysia, Intel is starting to shift out to Vietnam and China. There is no way the government could generate 50,000 pure Singaporeans jobs if taxi-drivers are eliminated as this number exceeds the number of SAF regulars employed. Don't think any 5 MNCs could generate this many pure-Singaporeans' jobs too.
Originally posted by f1taxidriver:The driverless google car is fine. Not many issues i can think off. They can also test all they want in portsdown road. Driverless taxis however are a different game. I can think of two major issues that it will create, besides insurance liabilities and additional costs due to extremely high OMV. Those will be the crippling factors preventing taxi operators from introducing them. I prefer not to say them here.
I really will not be worried. CDG will be depending on humans for a long long time. I am confident the government will not approve this once they examine the issues.
Portsdown road is a not-so-busy mostly two lane road whereby speed-limit is at most 50km. It is far from our normal road and highway road situations. And this is 14 years of R&D as MIT first started to develop their first driverless car prototype in 2002 to participate in the DARPA Grand Challenge 2004.
If it evolves ever to that stage, compelling cities to implement driveless cars would be (based on taxi fares compiled on April 16, 2011 with our fares of US$3.23 – US$6.45 for 3km trip):
1) Zurich, Switzerland (6.19 times)
2) Tokyo, Japan (3.9 times)
3) Berlin, Germany (3.58 times)
4) London, England (3.55 times)
5) Sydney, Australia (3.26 times)
6) Paris, France (2.69 times)
7) Rome, Italy (2.6 times)
8) New York City, USA (2.16 times)
9) Taipei, Taiwan (1.9 times)
10) Vancouver, Canada (1.77 times)
Based on GDP-per-capital ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)_per_capita ) , we are comparable with these countries. But our taxi fares are only a small fraction of these countries. So if there is any compelling reasons to implement driverless taxis, it would be these countries implementing them fully before we would consider implementing them.
what next? Self-driven buses? I bet Scania will build the first one.
Originally posted by Keepthechange666:Robotic whores also very popular in Nippon now.....
did you mean that Aiko droid?
Originally posted by iveco:did you mean that Aiko droid?
Aiko just a maid right or receptionist......
Originally posted by bowah:No lah, what scania, MAN already got driverless bus in Germany liao, infact driverless bus is just like old time electrical operate Bus, now in some country, still have, no driver , like LRT, need a track to guide it.
I went to japan, tokyo and yokohama to look for robotic sex dolls, but all slim slim, I asked the japoon san if got Bak bak one, he scolded me..Bahkero!, told me to get out.
Buy the pcc machine la, selling everywhere in Tokyo......
Just a robot hand, but si beh effective, I try before......
Of course real hand better, warmer.....
Robot hand, adjust temp like iron like that......
U need to store the sex doll in a coffin. Your home got space or not?