Name: Test Driving A "Self Driving" Car On A Busy Street | November 23, 2021
Uploaded: 2021-11-29T21:01:30.000Z
Duration: 10 min 1 s
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I don't usually say that on a Tuesday, but this is our last show of the week.

After today, we'll be off until next Monday for the Thanksgiving holiday, and I didn't want the Friday to roll around without you getting the chance to hear that.

Last Thursday, when we told you about pollution in India, we mentioned it's not the only place in this region with the problem.

About 80 miles northwest of the Indian capital is the Pakistani city of Lahore.

It is frequently near and recently at first place in an international ranking of most polluted cities.

The likely reasons are similar to the ones that caused problems in India.

In the fall, after monsoon season ends, the rains and winds die down, so there's less moisture and movement in the atmosphere to sweep the pollutants away.

Meteorologists say winter temperatures can also keep smoke from rising, so more pollutants get trapped near the ground.

Some experts blame farmers for contributing to pollution because they typically burn off their old crops this time of year to prepare their fields for new ones.

The smoke from that can gather in the air.

Others say the issue is caused by low-quality fuel that's used to power cars and trucks.

Whatever the reasons are, some residents in Lahore are calling for the Pakistani government to take action.

That government says it has, that it's told factories and refineries to reduce their emissions, that it's banned low-quality gasoline, that it's planning to require less pollutive motorcycle engines, and that it's looking at ways to plant more trees in the city.

Smog so dense you can only see a silhouette of this building that's just a few yards away.

On the streets, people are wading through the thick smog.

One resident says it's so bad people are covering their eyes and walking right into traffic.

This is Lahore, Pakistan, which regularly ranks among the most polluted cities in the world.

Now, this city, which we call the city of flowers, the city of gardens, is gripped by smog; it is engulfed in smog.

On Saturday, Lahore topped IQair's daily ranking of the world's most polluted cities again, a rank often challenged by New Delhi.

Residents cough, everything smells of smoke.

According to a paramedic at a local hospital, patients are coming in with sore throats because of the smog, not COVID.

As the haze grips the city in a chokehold, residents are getting desperate.

When we leave the house in the morning, the pollution causes irritation to the eyes.

The government should find a solution for this smog.

A local report says anti-smog squads have been deployed across Lahore.

They're identifying and sealing factories that aren't meeting the city's standards.

In neighboring New Delhi, smog towers in some areas are sucking pollutants from the air.

Residents are now asking the government to install more as the smog continues to affect people's health and livelihoods, like this rickshaw driver's.

The whole day I drive around without any passengers. There's passengers; they prefer cabs.

They say, "No, there's too much pollution, we'll take a cab."

Despite some measures to fight smog, the increasing pollution makes the site of a clear sky still a distant dream.

10-second trivia: Which inventor is famous for his contributions to the alternating current electrical system?

It was the eccentric genius Nikola Tesla who discovered the rotating magnetic field in the 1880s.

As more and more carmakers offer increasingly autonomous modes, which means computer-assisted driving, you might be wondering if fully self-driving cars are just around the corner.

In our special on this topic almost three years ago, we said experts predicted that a city with driverless cars was still decades away.

There have been several advancements in autonomous technology.

The Tesla electric car company, for instance, is regularly updating its software, but there've been a number of accidents blamed on this as well.

And a CNN reporter recently found that in some areas, the tech has a long way to go.

Oh, we've got a situation in front of us; whoa, whoa, whoa, uh, no, we're going on the wrong side of the road.

Whoa, whoa, wha⏤ oh, no, no, no, it wanted to hit the truck.

So, we are turning on the full self-driving data.

Okay, the car is now officially, technically, sort of driving itself.

Whoa, whoa, that was a really sharp turn the car just tried to make.

Oh, we've got a situation in front of us. Whoa!

What we just had in front of us was a UPS truck coming onto our lane, we had a guy in front of us with a cargo bike

To avoid hitting the guy on the bike, the car seemed to want to put us straight into a giant UPS truck.

I would prefer not to hit a UPS truck today, so I took over.

It does seem to need an interruption every couple of blocks or so.

Sometimes if the car is hesitating a little bit, I have to intervene.

You also have to be ready to take over at any time.

Oh, uh, no, we're going on the wrong side of the road.

We're not trying to make this car screw up; we're not trying to have a laugh at Elon Musk's expense.

We're really just trying to see how it handles driving in the city.

We're going down a pretty ⏤ just straight, normal road; there's not a lot of pedestrians here.

And when you're going down a straight road with not a lot of pedestrians, the car actually seems to be doing okay.

We're doing right around the speed limit, you know, um, we're not hitting anything.

The car can see cones, the car can see trucks, the car can see even pedestrians on the other side of the street; seeing might not be totally the issue here.

It's knowing what to do in challenging situations, stuff that experience teaches you.

We're driving down Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, where thousands of drivers drive every day.

It's a main artery through Brooklyn ⏤ commuters, trucks, people going to their jobs.

A lot of human drivers do this every day, so a car should be able to handle it just fine.

Oh, but we're stopping at the intersection ⏤ oh, now we're going again.

And... now we've got a... we've got a green light and the car hesitated, 'cause it says no right turn, but we can go straight and that's where we wanna go.

Now, this will be challenging; we've got a fence in front of us.

But the car was supposed to move into the next lane anyway because we're going straight and it didn't; it was pretty much headed right for those fences.

- So I had to take over there.  - Whoa, whoa.

This is officially not truly ready for public consumption.

A lot of people have issues with this being called full self-driving; first and foremost, it's not fully self-driving, I have to sit here.

If it was fully self-driving as promised, that would let you take a nap while you're driving along.

And now this big truck is gonna go, we're gonna see if we're gonna go around the big truck.

Oh! I'm just gonna give it a little... little gas, help it ⏤ nope, nope, nope, it wanted to hit the truck.

Um, so we're gonna just use a human driver to go around the truck.

I am a little skittish; I'll fully admit that.

So I am taking over more than someone who's used to have the system perform, and because of that, maybe I'm skewing things a little bit.

But that is the observer effect, 'cause it's a little like teaching a teenager how to drive, and you're always watching, you're always waiting, you never know when it might try something new, and that's where the anxiety comes from.

You know, it does seem to be making other drivers upset.