First, let’s distinguish between “driverless” and “self-driving” cars. My Tesla is self-driving when I employ its autopilot features, but I must keep my hands on the steering wheel. “Driverless” means there’s no driver — also called “autonomous” cars.
I have driven over 75,000 miles using Tesla’s self-driving features, giving me plenty of time to imagine what it would be like to have the car drive itself without me ready to take control at any moment.
Tesla’s current autopilot features are two-fold. First, there is “traffic-aware cruise control,” which maintains a safe distance from vehicles ahead, including braking to a full stop when necessary. It also reads speed limit signs and alerts me when I’m going over the speed limit by an amount I specify. Then there’s “auto-steer,” which reads the highway lines and keeps the car centered in its lane. The car will change lanes if I use the turn signal — but only if it’s safe and doesn’t involve crossing a solid line.
In my experience, these “driver assistance” features make for safer driving. When auto-steer is used, the car reminds me to keep to my hands on the wheel. The car will sound an alarm and display a message if it hasn’t sensed my hands on the wheel for a minute or two. If I ignore the instruction to put my hands back on the wheel within a minute, auto-steer is disabled and I can’t use that feature again until I stop and put the car in Park.
I think it’s just fine that Tesla continues to improve the car’s driver assistance features, but I’m convinced that going full-driverless would be a big mistake. Accidents involving self-driving cars have recently made the news, although it has been reported that in each accident another, human-controlled car was at fault. In one video you can see a car careening diagonally towards you from across the highway.
We all have been taught the importance of driving defensively. What such videos demonstrate is that a self-driving car can’t drive “defensively.” A human driver could have seen those other cars coming and taken evasive action. A human could detect a ball coming into the street and look for a child chasing it. A human could detect another driver driving erratically and know to keep a safe distance while perhaps contacting the police.
Current self-driving software depends on lane painting. More than once my Tesla’s auto-steer function has attempted to follow lines that would have taken me into oncoming vehicles if I hadn’t reacted immediately.
How would a driverless car negotiate an intersection when there’s a power failure and the traffic lights are dark? How would it react to a cat, squirrel or debris on the roadway? How about potholes? A lot of day-to-day driving entails making eye contact with other drivers and responding to other drivers doing unpredictable or illegal maneuvers.
What about an alternate merge where two lanes reduce to one lane? Or an on-ramp where only one car should proceed on each green light – and merge while accelerating?
Would the driverless car slow down when a deer has finished crossing and look for others that may be lurking nearby, possibly obscured by foliage? Would a driverless car be able to follow the hand gestures of a traffic cop or someone guiding cars into a grassy field for parking at a social event?
You may recall that the recently suspended driverless experiment was being conducted in Phoenix. Why? Probably because their roads are never covered by snow and are rarely obscured by rain. How is a driverless vehicle going to negotiate a snow-packed roadway or visually detect black ice?
The number of possible hazards and surprises is so great that no geek in Silicon Valley would be able to tweak the software into predicting and handling all of them. As I drive my Tesla using auto-steer regularly, I have experienced numerous such scenarios, which is what inspired me to write a column on his subject.
Now, let’s talk about trucks. A couple of years ago, a self-driving Budweiser semi made a run from its Ft. Collins brewery to Colorado Springs — with CDOT vehicles and State Patrol cars surrounding it for safety. A trucker was in the cab for safety, but can you imagine that a driver might ever not be needed to monitor that truck’s operation? Remember, airplanes can fly and land themselves on auto-pilot, but the FAA requires at least one pilot to be in his or her seat at all times — and pilots don’t have to watch for cars, pedestrians, animals, bicycles and potholes, or even other airplanes most of the time.
Truck drivers are known for their diligent communication and service to fellow truckers and motorists. They contribute to keeping our highways running smoothly, sometimes coming to the aid of fellow truckers or motorists. Let’s keep them on the job, and give them improved driver assistance features to make their driving safer, versus endangering the rest of us by removing them from their trucks.
Comment below to share your own thoughts on this topic.
I’m not in the heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) business but I do have a pretty good understanding of the different methods of cooling a home, so I thought I’d review them this week. I welcome input from HVAC experts, so maybe I’ll have an update/correction for you next week.
Last Saturday, the Lions Club of Golden dedicated to “All Golden Veterans” a gazebo it funded for the city’s Vanover Park. This is the 5th gazebo that the club has provided for city parks. Visit 
It’s not uncommon for us to get a phone call or drop-in from someone who would like to buy but who might not be in a position do so at this time. They are looking for a rental, and for that we refer them to trusted companies that specialize in rentals. Sometimes the caller or visitor will inquire about rent-to-own, but we explain that it is nearly impossible to find a seller in this market who would consider rent-to-own when they can sell now for top dollar.
As you might expect, these figures are subject to adjustment, since (1) the listed price may not be the final sale price, (2) the home may need renovation work, and (3) there may be other costs associated with purchasing and owning the property. These and other conditions are spelled out in the lease agreement that is signed by the prospective tenant.
At right is how an MLS listing appears when displayed on the company’s website, showing the listing price on the right and the estimated initial rent on the left.
This Sunday, April 22nd, is the 48th anniversary of Earth Day. Here are some of the ways you can participate in this annual event and do your part in preserving this planet for future generations.
As homeowners 65 and over well know, they get a discount on their home’s property taxes once they have lived in their home for at least 10 years. It’s called the “senior property tax exemption.” For those who qualify, 50% of the first $200,000 in actual value of their primary residence is exempted from property taxation. At 100 mills, that’s worth $720. Rita and I have been in our current house for six years, so we can look forward to saving about that much on our property taxes if we stay put for another 4 years – and if the state legislature continues to fund it, as I’ll explain below.
Last week I got a call from a reader who sold a house with structural defects last year, defects he had properly disclosed. He was concerned because he thought the current seller might not be disclosing those same defects to prospective buyers. He feared that the seller had simply covered up the defects when he finished the basement, hiding them from unsuspecting buyers.
Prior to January 1st, the Sellers Property Disclosure asked sellers to answer “Yes,” “No,” “Do Not Know” or “N/A” to each item, as shown on the disclosure at right from one of my own transactions.
What was nice about the previous version was that it required an answer to every item, even if that answer was “do not know” or “not applicable.” I’m not a lawyer, but it seems to me that if there were to be a civil trial over a failure to disclose a known defect, it would be more convincing to show that the seller answered incorrectly rather than simply remained silent on the issue at hand.
