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Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
 Posted - 12/26/2004 : 01:54:02 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Ricky
This has probably been already done, but are there automatic sensors for detecting light and automatically turning the car lights on?
Yes. There are even cars with automatic high-beam dimmers (which respond to oncoming lights).quote:
Going completely insane, I think that if we could improve gps reliability, we could create a nation wide system to drive cars automatically. Type in where you want to go and sit back and relax. It would (theoretically) reduce car accidents to 0.
Military GPS is already good enough (the GPS available to civilians is purposefully degraded).
Imagine this: you're driving along in your humvee, when you're ambushed from one side or the other. You hit a button to start laying smoke out the back, and start monitoring your driving, and stomp on the gas for a while. After a few hundred yards, you smack another button, and your vehicle automatically makes a U-turn, and automatically drives through the thick cloud of smoke, precisely where you drove through.
I saw the demo reel years ago. It's very impressive.
On a slightly different but still relevant point, at least a dozen years ago a university engineering department developed a set of demonstration cars for highway "train" driving. Only the lead car in the train required a person to actually drive, the following cars just followed one another, maintaining a set distance apart. If, say, you were in the fourth car back, and saw your exit coming, you hit a button and your car would automatically switch lanes out of the train (and then return control to you), and the fifth and following cars would speed up a bit to close the gap.
So, combine the car trains with military GPS navigation, and the only piece still needed is an accurate GPS map of the roads themselves, including to-the-minute updates of accidents, construction, pedestrians and other hazards. Obviously, some forward-looking sensors are still required, hooked to "slam on the brakes" technology, but that's easy.
Oh, another thing which would be needed is a secondary system (perhaps embedded in the road) for use within valleys and tunnels, as GPS reception wouldn't be good in either locale.
At any rate, the idea is far from "completely insane." People have been working on it for years, and are still working on it, somewhere. It will come to pass.
filthy wrote:quote:
A deep-fry oil that tastes as good as bacon grease, but is actually healthy enough for you that you should eat at the fried chicken shacks and seafood joints at least a couple of times a week.
And while we're at it, the VitaSmoke: the odorless, nutrient-packed cigarette which doesn't cause cancer (or any other disease) but which still takes one to "Flavor Country."
Of course, I'm reminded of Woody Allen's Sleeper, wherein in the future, it is discovered that red meat and smoking are both good for people. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 12/26/2004 : 02:39:03 [Permalink]
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Automatic car headlight dimmers were done in the early '50s. It was another idea that looked good in print but not so hot in practice. The reason was that the photoelectric cell would kick down the lights at the wrong times. In some cases, a bright moon would make it all but impossible to keep the high beams on, and often, if the oncoming car was at the wrong angle, it would do it's thing too late.
A Darwin fish that bites when someone tries to pry it off.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
Posted - 12/26/2004 : 15:43:25 [Permalink]
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quote:
At any rate, the idea is far from "completely insane." People have been working on it for years, and are still working on it, somewhere. It will come to pass.
While we are working on it, we are still far from it. I would imagine it would take at least 10 years of testing before the public would trust it enough with their lives. Just imagine having a program that controlled your car to crash.
Another way we could have it is instead of gps (or along with it), is to have sensors on the car that recieve signals from the road. There would be a signal for where the road is, a signal for a red light or green light at a traffic light, a signal for a yeild sign, etc. There would also be signals on other cars, sending out their speed, direction, whether or not they plan to turn, and probably a boat load of other information (although thats all I can think of). As you said, you would also have to be able to detect pedestrians and objects on the road.
Overall, it seems ways to expensive with too little to gain, which is why I would lable it insane. |
Why continue? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug their superstitions to their breast.
- Isaac Asimov |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 12/26/2004 : 18:46:50 [Permalink]
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| Speaking of high beams, I wonder what moron decided to remove the foot switch for turning the brights on and off? As though there isn't enough shit on the steering column? It used to be so easy to just tap that switch with your left foot. Click on, click off… Now we have to drive on mountain roads with our left hand holding both the steering wheel and the to the turn signal bar which doubles as the bright switch by pushing it in or pulling it out. I need someone to reinvent the foot switch that kept both hands on the steering wheel and was much easier to use. Progress...bah! |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 12/26/2004 : 22:43:30 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Dave W.
On a slightly different but still relevant point, at least a dozen years ago a university engineering department developed a set of demonstration cars for highway "train" driving. Only the lead car in the train required a person to actually drive, the following cars just followed one another, maintaining a set distance apart. If, say, you were in the fourth car back, and saw your exit coming, you hit a button and your car would automatically switch lanes out of the train (and then return control to you), and the fifth and following cars would speed up a bit to close the gap.
Yes, the futuristic cars and highways in Steven Spielberg's Minority Report exhibit behavior almost certainly modeled on such ideas.
As far as GPS stuff, those Predator drones can take off, fly to a target, drop its bombs and return and land without any human intervention whatsoever. And there was that robot race over the summer (what was it called?), that had basically fully autonomous SUVs racing across the desert. Once the course map was given to the robot teams, they had something like 3 hours to program in the course and set the cars off, after which no intervention was allowed. From what I recall, not many of the vehicles finished. While one can program a straight flight path, driving is a whole 'nother ballgame. Dips in the road, ruts, potholes, and rocks are all things which a vehicle needs to be able to dynamically respond to on the fly. While plane can basically "fly blind," that is, rely exclusively on GPS coordinates, cars need cameras to "see" the road its traveling at all times, compute a new course if an obstacle appears, and steer the vehicle to the new course while moving at high speeds. The technology for that isn't quite here yet, but it does give one a new appreciation of the human brain's capabilities.
And correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't GPS have an error somewhere like +/- 3 meters? Again, not a big deal in the air, but not nearly accurate enough to maintain highway lanes. I think that "train" experiment Dave refered to operated with lazers which latched onto a lead car, which as he said had to be manually driven.
Still, I share his optomism. It's only a matter of time before cars drive themselves, at least in specific situations.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
| Edited by - H. Humbert on 12/26/2004 22:48:21 |
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 12/27/2004 : 10:47:03 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by H. Humbert
And correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't GPS have an error somewhere like +/- 3 meters? Again, not a big deal in the air, but not nearly accurate enough to maintain highway lanes.
Current GPS available to civilian consumers has an accuracy that poor, yes. Military GPS units can pinpoint location to within 10 cm. The civilian receivers, if I'm not mistaken, simply are prohibited from using data from more than three or four satellites, while the military GPS uses the data from as many satellites as the receiver can 'see'.
I would imagine that if a GPS-based road system works out, then we'd see the government allow (and strictly regulate) high-accuracy GPS receivers for cars and trucks. After all, the civilian GPS is only of poor quality because the government doesn't want foreign militaries (or terrorists) to get 10-cm accuracy off the shelf at Wal-Mart. But a safer road system would present a highly compelling reason to loosen the stranglehold on precise GPS. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Siberia
SFN Addict
Brazil
2322 Posts |
Posted - 12/27/2004 : 12:07:19 [Permalink]
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Either Minory Report style, or I, Robot style... I especially like the parking idea |
"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa
"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 12/27/2004 : 16:15:02 [Permalink]
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Speaking of expensive, vehicular gadgets, something useful would be radar-type sensors in the front and rear of the heap to set off a warning when you're either following or being followed too closely. Self adjusting for speed, of course.
I figger that after having to listen to them for a while, idiots would get a little sense and the rest of us might not be so likely to land in ER.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 12/28/2004 : 00:27:12 [Permalink]
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A soup spoon that won't dribble minestroni into your beard no matter how slob-like you are.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Wendy
SFN Regular
USA
614 Posts |
Posted - 12/28/2004 : 06:13:53 [Permalink]
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| Tupperware® that safely incinerates left-overs the moment they start to get funky. Cleaning out the fridge would just be a matter of dumping out odorless ashes. |
Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do on a rainy afternoon.
-- Susan Ertz
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Siberia
SFN Addict
Brazil
2322 Posts |
Posted - 12/28/2004 : 07:54:17 [Permalink]
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| Babel fish. Damn, I could use one. |
"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa
"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
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