Most of this stuff is already on cars- the big factor is car to car and car to ground information. Most new cars are going to be capable of being network hubs, high speed communication on them...
I've met with a few people on this- as I was trying to find a project for my alma matar. The goal is to reduce congestion, reduce time at lights, and use the hardware to improve fuel economy/reduce emissions. Other theories think one can prevent accidents and whatnot.
My school is working on network security, which is a rather big bag of things to condider.
To me, the #1 goal is to reduce driver distraction, and then keep things flowing.
Think about this- if you are stuck in traffic, how many of you get improved attitudes, and not pay attention to other drivers? So if traffic congestion is lowered, well....
How about we just suck it up, drive, and leave the government doing what it does best, nothing?
Cars themselves are too easy to drive already. If you want to reduce distractions, reduce the luxury.
Auto-driving cars will be a great thing when they are finally produced.
The transition... that's going to be a bit scary.
Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:Mazdax605 wrote: My 83 Plymouth Sapporo talked. I guess I am ahead of the curve.The door is a jar.
Reminds me of the old Eddie Murphy bit on talking cars.
There's a lot of tech to be worked out before it's even practical. GPS is NOT accurate enough (up to +/- 200 ft in elevation accuracy) for accurate elevation data, so that a car traveling over an overpass could be told that it's in imminent collision with a car or truck going under it on a main roadway or vice versa (and if either of those cars has automatic braking, which one tries to stop on a clear road at speed when it THINKS it's about to hit another car? Already see that as a problem on cars with auto braking systems going around tight right hand corners with oncoming traffic that it thinks is in its lane...).
Ranger50 wrote: How about we just suck it up, drive, and leave the government doing what it does best, nothing? Cars themselves are too easy to drive already. If you want to reduce distractions, reduce the luxury.
The problem is that "we" have proven that we can't do it on our own. Us few that enjoy driving and take it seriously are far and few between. So in a world of idiot texting, coffee drinking, smoke in one hand burger in another, we have to regulate everyone.
I think we should mandate at least one auto-x event for every year of license renewal. MAYBE people will learn to drive.
Pretty soon cars will just hitch together to draft each other, then multiple people can carpool in a single car to improve efficiency, and the cars could stop at dedicated places for people to get on and off, then there will be dedicated routes and roads that only have pavement for left and right tires...haven't I heard of something like this before?
"I'll give you my car keys when you pry them from my cold, dead hands"
CGLockRacer wrote: Pretty soon cars will just hitch together to draft each other, then multiple people can carpool in a single car to improve efficiency, and the cars could stop at dedicated places for people to get on and off, then there will be dedicated routes ...haven't I heard of something like this before?
Sure, sure, you have... but the last time a government started herding a large group of people into rail cars for "efficiency" it didn't work out well for the passengers and eventually - the whole thing went to hell.
Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:CGLockRacer wrote: Pretty soon cars will just hitch together to draft each other, then multiple people can carpool in a single car to improve efficiency, and the cars could stop at dedicated places for people to get on and off, then there will be dedicated routes ...haven't I heard of something like this before?Sure, sure, you have... but the last time a government started herding a large group of people into rail cars for "efficiency" it didn't work out well for the passengers and eventually - the whole thing went to hell.
Now I've got AC/DC Highway to Hell stuck in my head.
Chris_V wrote: There's a lot of tech to be worked out before it's even practical. GPS is NOT accurate enough (up to +/- 200 ft in elevation accuracy) for accurate elevation data, so that a car traveling over an overpass could be told that it's in imminent collision with a car or truck going under it on a main roadway or vice versa (and if either of those cars has automatic braking, which one tries to stop on a clear road at speed when it THINKS it's about to hit another car? Already see that as a problem on cars with auto braking systems going around tight right hand corners with oncoming traffic that it thinks is in its lane...).
There is certainly a lot of tech to be worked out but who said they would be using only GPS? Altimeters, proximity, accelerometers, GPS, cameras, ... all work together now to do everything from driving robot fork trucks around a warehouse to switching high-speed rail trains to flying commercial aircraft. Making them converse isn't hard either - check out a completely automated manufacturing facility (germany, denmark and japan) for a real cool example.
IMO, figuring out who is paying for the damages when two cars that thought they were right try to share the same space because... say... it's collision avoidance system lagged due to slow network relaying packets (ever played an online racing game on a wifi?) or a piece of malicious code is set loose pretending to be a moving vehicle. How do you secure it? How do you share the road with cars that don't have communications once you have decided that sharing is good? What happens when people find out there is a backdoor that lets Big Brother have your data and execute an electronic halt in case they need to talk to you?
Big problems. Technology is much easier methinks.
Folks who think of this stuff are out of touch with reality. Sick people write malicious viruses for fun and I can only imagine the mayhem that will come when this system is hacked.
Anybody who believes this part:
This data does not include personal details about the driver or vehicle, the DOT said. Vehicles or a group of vehicles can be identified through a defined procedure "only if there is a need to fix a safety problem."
deserves what they get. I won't have one of those insurance company plug ins, for instance.
You'll need to log in to post.