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Smart Cars to Save Stupid Drivers?
bl8n8r writes "Ford spokesman Mike Vaughn said they tested computerized optical scanning and a variety of warnings: a vibrating steering wheel, the sound of a car driving over rumble strips and a visual warning projected on the windshield. Researchers also tested a so-called "active" system in which the vehicle would actually adjust the steering automatically if it veered too far one way or the other."
Spinella said automakers have studied systems that use cameras to scan drivers' eyes or sense when they're loosening their grip on the steering wheel beyond normal.
What's normal? I routinely drive w/o my hands on the wheel. I also tend to take "half-naps" by closing one eye. If it doesn't learn my behavior how is it going to work for me?
It will be offered this fall on 2005 models of Infiniti's FX sport utility vehicle, then again next spring on the 2006 M45 luxury sedan.
Apparently only those wealthy enough can afford to be saved while the rest of the 1500 people a year that croak because of drowsy driving have to suffer.
Bah!
As long as it doesn't have a red, green, blue, and yellow waving flag somewhere on the dashboard...
"The NEW Volvo Titanic! With WinSafe Technology!"
Life would be so much easier if we could just look at the source code...
We're confident we can do it in ways that drivers will accept
I like to drive but I they could develop a car to drive for me than I will turn of the reigns without any squabble. But in this article they're making strong strides towards sleepy drivers by shacking the wheel when the drive nodes. Revolutionary yes (with a touch sarcasm) - Yet the driver will immediately unplug this devise when he's sitting at a drive movie theater with his girl friend and this thing goes off; she'll think he's a perv.
Coming from the Onstar speaker: "You are approaching 88 mph. Your flux capacitor is set to Europe at the time of the Black Plague. Are you REALLY SURE you want to take the DeLorean there?"
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
I think it's sad that people can't drive without computers verily so.
How do they expect evolution to produce a better human species?
Ford's Escape Hybrid gets 38MPG in a NYC driving marathon. Finally, an SUV that doesn't guzzle gas.
Link
So when you swerve to miss the idiot ahead of you who's wrecking due to his smart car BSODing, your car will automatically adjust the steering so you plow head on into him. Where do I sign up?
But in Texas, all of the major highways have a specific kind of etching on each side of the road in the pavement. When you go over this with your tire, it creates a really loud noise that vibrates the entire car. It would wake up just about anybody, and I think it's been around for a good number of years.
So if this is what they're talking about, it's pretty effective I think.
If these smart cars electrocute stupid drivers before they can start the car.
the really smart car should steer the stupid driver against the wall (or off a very high bridge) when the risk of nuisance is minimal for others.
See for yourself:
http://dune.moldova.net/qt/KA2.mpeg
Mod +5 Drunk
What if you're driving down a perfectly straight road and suddenly your car starts weaving back and forth because it's trying to correct its path because some dirt's gotten into its sensors and screwed them up? What if you're trying to turn and the car won't let you? What if you're trying to drive and the computer intervenes doing dangerous things? There'd better be a manual override...
Personally, I'd rather see smart drivers in stupid cars.
Really - the solution to drowsy drivers shouldn't be of a technical nature, but of educational nature. If you're drowsy don't drive the fsckin car .
but i bet they cant save my idiot cousin who got into 5 wrecks her first month of driving...
xao
http://TheHillforum.hopto.org
I haven't been able to get my /. email notification preferences to do that. Where is it?
Flying cars. Just give us all our own personal road in the sky to drive as fast and recklessly as we want. The computer can control all the difficult intricacies of pitch, yaw, and all that other boring stuff that would distract us from what matters most, speed.
Also having an autopilot would be nice for those among us who like to nap on the roads.
I have been pwned because my
It has to be literally 100 percent fool proof before an automaker will use it.
Well, looks like no matter how you build these systems, quantum uncertainty is going to prevent your product from comming to market.
-Colin
shouldn't this post be titled "Walking, Buses, and Trains to Save Stupid Drivers"...?
Imagine having this pop up and block your view:
http://www.visi.com/~tdo/bsod.jpg
Bet it won't even take long. They'll claim the audible/visual warnings triggered without cause (cause they were asleep and didn't realize it...) and the alarms confused them so much they drove head-on into a tree.
Darwin is (still)rolling in his grave.
Yes! Evil rules! Good can suck it! Suck it, good!
C'mon, isn't this like using an aimbot in a FPS? Force feedback steering wheel, visual cues on the windshield -- sounds like a really posh way to play Gran Turisimo to me.
I suppose if it helps decrease the number of car accidents out there, I should be all for it. However, I've found out that as much as we rave about stupid computer users, there's at least an equal amount of stupid car drivers out there. The big difference is that if you bork your machine, you inconvenience yourself and maybe a few others who get viruses over e-mail. You bork something with your car, lives are potentially at risk.
Driving with these error-correcting systems turned on may make people rely on them too much...like a moron admin that thinks he's 100% safe after installing a firewall. This is good only if they hammer the point home that people should not rely on this to keep them safe.
I'm already getting ready for this. I've installed FreeBSD as the OS for my 1965 Cadillac hearse.
I just read about something similar: http://www.trivalleyherald.com/Stories/0,1413,86~1 0669~2070611,00.html.
It's about a sensor that when your speeding towards a light at 5 MPH or more above the speed limit it changes the light to red and makes you wait. Which is supposed to allow you time to cool off.
This is a bit off topic b/c we are talking about internal car technology and drowiness but I think it's interesting none the less.
UID 1000000 is just around the corner.
All well and good, but if you really want to sell the system, you need warnings for more common dangers. For instance, you could add radar and lidar detectors, and enhance the optical scanning to detect police cars. The system could then indicate the location of these dangers on the screen, using the optical scanning to help filter out store security systems and such from real threats, as well as detecting cops using passive techniques. Oh, and you'd not put this in Volvos but rather Mustangs.
Researchers also tested a so-called "active" system in which the vehicle would actually adjust the steering automatically if it veered too far one way or the other."
/. without worrying about being a hazard anymore!
Finally!
Now when I'm talking on my phone, reading the newspaper, and eating breakfast on the way to work, I can look down to pick a DVD or refresh
"Smart Cars" programmed by "Stupid" programmers, killing smart drivers...
I think we can all enjoy the versitility of things like vinyl, analog devices and hacker friendly consumer electronics (see: all the support for the dreamcast in the Poll). I just fear that after a while cars might be restricting smart/clever driving with "safeguards" and eventually get some smart driver killed...
As long as you can shut off things here and there, this system sounds kind of nice...
Visual feed back won't work if your sleeping. Plus i routinely drive sitting on my hands, and just using my knee to adjust my steering.
I worked on the B-2 Bomber's Flight Control System. We had a "stick shaker" wired to the pilot's controls that would vbrate when a stall condition was detected. This was activated after a warning light and tone were already used to alert the pilot. I have no experience with any other flight control system, but I would suspect that this is not unique to the B-2.
Perhaps another slashdotter can post and let us know.
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
If this is safety in the same way that Windows provides ease of use, it will certainly help a lot of people shoot themselves in the foot.
Smart car prevents stupid drivers from removing themselves from the gene pool, thus degrades the overall quality of gene pool...
You're obviously one of the people these cars are designed to save.
And even cheaper than getting a smart car for every stupid person. Get ready for it. Get ready for it.
...but that's crazy talk.
The bus, the subway, the train, the bike, and walking.
- I don't need to go outside, my CRT tan'll do me just fine.
To me, the most interesting part of the whole Smart Car debate, is the human facets of it, whereby humanity has to decide if they are going to relinquish control of their driving to a more automated system. The benefits are there, indeed, but some people just hate giving up power (which will cause the big problems, if you ask me). Eventually this will lead to a total-control model, whereby drunk driving would become a thing of the past, tickets would be a thing of the past, driving lessons would be a thing of the past, and speed limits would be a thing of the past. Accidents will likely still occur until the system had all the kinks worked out of it.
I'm trying to steer sharply away from the deer that just ran in front of the vehicle...
but the steering wheel gives me a giggle and turns me back into the poor creature now smeared all over my hood.
I'll pass.
1. Guy tries to change lanes or turn in a curve.
2. Car won't change direction of travel, keeps going straight regardless.
3. Car crashes into divider.
4. Guy sues car company for throwing in this stuff.
Christopher S. 'coldacid' Charabaruk -- coldacid.net
Hi. I'm Troy McClure. You might remember me from such cybercar films as "My Mobo the Car" and "Terminatorino IV"
I'm surprised the car companies are going for this. This seems to be a huge liablity problem for them. Right now if you plow into a crowd of school children it's your fault. But if this thing malfunctions, or if someone can argue that the auto-steer system has *anything* to do with the accident, wouldn't there be a ton of lawsuits? Car companies have deep pockets.
This post cannot be rebroadcast without the express written constent of Major League Baseball.
Ontario has those too, although they're used differently. They are placed in regular intervals leading up to intersections. Most intersections still don't have lights, stop signs, or anything like that (at least in rural Ontario); apparently scoring the road in this way is cheaper than some alternative means of keeping drivers alert near intersections.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
Let's say it all works just exactly as advertised and is adopted.
It will make things safer for a short time. Then everyone will get less alert, because they'll expect the car to take care of warning them.
People will make their own decisions about whether they are too drowsy or intoxicated to drive, and if driving is a little easier they'll let themselves get a little drowsier or intoxicated than they would have before, and things will be just about as safe as they were before.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
"It has to be literally 100 percent fool proof before an automaker will use it."
"Make something fool proof and someone will build a better fool."
HAH! I kid.
With the automotive industry pushing for Drive By Wire to control the steering wheel, and Microsoft pushing for there software in cars, it really brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "Blue Screen of Death".
If you could imagine your computer system in your car freezing up and cutting the contol to the steering, gas and brakes, well, it really would be a Blue Screen of Death.
Can't they stop for a moment and think that cars are getting way too complicated?
Bike helmets and the banning of all the fun playground equiptment (merry-go-rounds, swings, etc) has stalled natural selection in our species. This is not a good thing.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Your complaint appears to be a subset of a larger complaint, and of a larger debate. "Safe for wealthy drivers." Why should somebody (and his family) be safer on the road than you just because he can afford a Volvo, Saab, etc. while all you can afford is a used Ford Pinto?
Then again, why should somebody who makes more money be afforded superior health care just because he can afford to pay more for it?
Are you suggesting that if someone places less value on short term leisure and recreational activities, invests more in his education, works harder and longer, and as a result earns more money, that he (and his family) should be relegated to the same relatively unsafe car (and relatively unsafe medical care) as the person who invested and worked less?
Only Women Bleed (Sex, Sharia remix)
This is basically to help tired drivers nothing can help stupid ones. There were a couple of times I was driving when I shouldn't because I was to tired. Most of the time there wasn't much I could do about it. Some areas of the Highway don't have breakdown lanes so I couldn't stop and rest there. For about 45 Minutes of driving. By then I am only 15 minutes away from my house so I try to trudge the last few bits. Many times when I start these trips I am caffeinated so I am defiantly not tired when I left. But when it runs out and it is late It is tough combined with the white noise the car makes it makes it tough.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
from
http://www.mysteryguide.com/read.php?id=183
"Name: Kat Hak Sung ()
Date: 04-24-03 20:08
It is no eddie murphie in the U.S.A.
I sometimes hide in my trailer filled with porcelain. It will stay fills unless they let me in at Galt to sell figurines again. Porcelain blocks the tronic particals that beam from police goggles. Porcelain sells better at not at Galt tan at Galt than at Galt, but when you are at other flea market have more of corrupt police and their microwave and goggles and water turn off. I do not have an apartment at Galt.
From November 1990 to May 1990, I live with head in porcelain toilet to protect my brain from tronic beams and bombardment by microwave particles. Mrs. Chen never thought to think. On three times that year, they shut off my water. I see one white man and two white men near my door, men with tools like plumber. I think they are shutting off my water to make me get rid of porcelain toilet. In prison all toilets are made of tin and no protection from police gaurds and EM sleep waves and tronic goggles from FBI.
The sudden lit of tail lamp was so bright red, like in my hands' reach. I made an emergency braking. The cargo in my van rushed forward with inertia, bang hit the front window glass . I could hear the crack sound of porcelain. Breaking porcelain makes them happy. Luckily I didn't hit the trailer. It was only inches away. My body was wet all over by sweat. Strange for me, such a big scare didn't drove sleepy away EM waves. I fell into drowse again and slept driving thruugh nevada until there was another emergency brake to wake me.
I found the truck driving at only 30 miles per hour. Sometime later, when I opened my lid, I found the truck sped away on a busy highway where he could not drive at 30 miles any more. It was in 1992.
One Tuesday morning on my way to galt from berryessa. On highway 205, a strong sleep desire fell on me. It was a straight highway where tronic beams can shoot straight down road for many miles, so I tried to drive with eyes closed a little while because I do my best night driving when I sleep. With eye closed, you do not see undercover police agents standing in road ditch. But once eye closed, it's hard to open my lids again like there is duct ape on my eye. I had to fight against drowsiness with extraordinary effort. Then I turned on to highway 120. It was a narrow road with only one lane each way. In dim, I suddenly found there was a dark shadow before me. it was a big truck with a trailer leapt into the road. In the front was white police man with silver goggles with red lights, and trailer said plumping company. It stopped on road and started to move when I approached.
I came to America to realize my dream. But America is not like movie "coming to america" with Eddie Murphie, where poor immagrant can get off boat and work hard and become a prince. Now I think of moving to work logging oil in the Amasonas near Manuas full of piranas. America is more like "Silkwood starring Sharon Stone. There is no "due process" or nonextortion with police goggle know you. "
Especially the 'auto correct' bit.
That means no erratic driving, and no way for a police officer to potentially head off an accident from a drowsy or drunk driver.
And I admit, I have been one of those people who have fallen asleep at the wheel, and have realized that I was in a different lane than I remembered having been in. I have probably been saved by the little rumble strips along the edge of the highway at least half a dozen times.
But I'm not comfortable with this if it means that drowsy people are more likely to drive, because their car will warn them if something might go wrong. And there's no way in hell that I want rich alcoholics having an extra excuse for throwing back a few extra before they hit the road.
In some ways, I'd almost prefer that they just took the driving completely away from humans. [well, all animals... I don't want there to be some monkey driving, even though I know in Cannonball Run [2, I think], he wasn't really driving]
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
I think one of the most promising technologies will be scanners that watch the eyes and perhaps other biometrics to detect nodding off, and sound some sort of alarm. Most people could use something like this now and then.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
I think this is more of an evolution issue.
Let Darwinism take hold. Make cars that turn off the brakes when the driver falls asleep, THEN we'll see who's actually dumb enough to try it.
After six months, we might even have world peace...
-B
I found out the hard way that a C172 has a stall condition warning - it would go into a dive and my pants get really wet!
Cmon... look at MS word. Every new version tries harder and harder to do more for you. What you end up with is a frankestein monster that beats you with a car, when all you wanted was a ride to the mall. Maybe this is why I use notepad as my main editor.
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
Teach people how to drive.
15 hours of how to move in traffic isn't driving instruction. People need to know what to do when they understeer and oversteer. They need to have done it before, over and over, so they learn how to react.
Controlling a car isn't hard, and the majority of times people think their car is out of control, its not so far gone a knowledgable driver couldn't recover safely.
We just don't teach anyone how to drive in this country. Fifty bucks and fifteen hours behind the wheel of a minimum wage driving teacher shouldn't cut it.
And here come the "+5, Funny" mods for tired old sexist jokes that aren't.
"Tee-hee! Women are bad drivers!" Which is of course why insurance premiums are higher for men.
Sure, it's a joke...but try that excuse on a black guy after telling a racist joke and see if you don't get punched in the face.
-Carolyn
Like Daddy always said: if you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with bullshit.
So, anyone can help me understand we we should opt to keep stupid people ON the road?
This is anti-darwinitism. Against natural selection.
...every time you make something idiot-proof, somebody invents a better idiot!
Well said. Mod parent up. Same result with replacing "women" with "Americans".
RIGHT??
How is a smart car going to save Windows from stupid drivers?
Change your name to Homer Junior! Your friends can call you Hoju
There goes my fun when I drive a rental... :-(
Here's the right way to make driving safer:
1. No driving below the age of 18; if you can't be charged as an adult for a crime, you can't be given the responsibility of driving a vehicle that can kill if you're careless.
2. No driving until you've completed a TRUE driving school, one that teaches you accident avoidance and skid control, like motorcycle schools and high-performance driving schools currently offer.
3. No driving until you've learned to change a tire, check your oil and diagnose a broken fan belt...and until you know what every gauge in your car means.
4. If you want to drive a truck, SUV, or performance car, you have to take an additional course focusing on the specific dangers and control issues that these vehicles have before you can get license plates and/or permission to drive that class of vehicle.
5. Your license is a lifetime document, and after a certain number of points, you lose your license for good.
6. MUCH stiffer penalties for speeding and reckless driving*.
This will never, ever, ever happen, because people in the US for the most part believe driving is a right, not a privelege.
*in Chicago, speeding tickets were cheap, and you could get probation (to avoid the ticket showing on your record) even more cheaply. I sped more often than not. In Los Angeles, speeding tickets are a few hundred dollars, and getting traffic school to avoid the ticket showing on your record costs EVEN MORE. After my first speeding ticket in Los Angeles, I stopped speeding. Period.
Speaking of "somebody had to say it..."
The Dalai Llama
...yeah, yeah, I know... but how much bandwidth did it really waste?...
My sig could be your sig!
though Darwin can engineer smarter drivers, engineers can save stupid people.
And thus the cycle continues.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
I hope the system doesn't force one to stay on the road... sometimes, in order to exit a freeway, you have to go over rumble strips, or those reflectors on the side of a road.
Oh well, the universal competition between the engineers and the universe continues... the Universe is still winning...
The Penguin Producer
There is nothing worse than technology forcing people to change their lives or the way the do things for the sake of a "perceived safety".
What about passenger side air bags? How many have a lock out device, when there is a full back seat in the vehicle? None that I know of, but if there is no back seat (such as a front bench in a truck with out a crew cab) you get that "option".
I had a situation where my youngest daughter (10 months at that time) was horribly sick, while my fiance' needed to be in the back seat to watch over baby (baby throwing up 5 minutes or so).
Meanwhile, my 7yr old son, ended up riding in the front seat, with that nasty airbag without any sort of disable device. Situation didn't allow for alternate configuration as we were 50 miles in the middle of nowhere.
Guess how comfortable "I felt" with my unsafe situation, cause by the "perceived safety" of airbags. After all, children under the age of 12 shouldn't sit in the front seat. WHY??? Because the airbag could harm a child under 12yrs of age.
Interesting isn't it? Technology that is forced mandatory (in canada at least), yet hasn't been thought through enough to take in account of this particular situation (and a situation that is **TOTALLLY** in realm of certain posibility).
Gone are the days of Father and son going on a fishing trip, and son having that fun, spiffy, neat-O privlidge of riding in the front seat of the car. Perhaps I'm totaly a lammmmmmer, but when I was a kid, I remember that being a "treat".
They've taken away my "treat" with a "saftey airbag." (go figure huh?)
Perhaps a bit off topic, but it get's the point across. There are times when technology can create a worse situation than they are trying to fix. What about the ingenius idiots that will have the attitude that they can drive longer even when they are tired, because they have the old "super vibra-steering-wheel gizmo" to wake them if the doze off.
Xystren----
"You can't legislate stupidity." - J. Ventura
Check out the bitchy replies from the 16 year-old AC's who didn't read the subject line.
I am oppressed by the AC's! Oppressed, I say! I demand immediate moderation of their insensitive comments to "-1, Kneejerk".
Heh.
-Carolyn
Like Daddy always said: if you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with bullshit.
Let Darwinism take hold. Make cars that turn off the brakes when the driver falls asleep, THEN we'll see who's actually dumb enough to try it.
Driver: Protected by crash zones, air bags, and safety belts.
Innoncent bystander plowed by that car: Protected by nothing.
P.S. What difference would it make if the brakes work or not when the person is asleep? They're not braking, they're sleeping.
You can't take the sky from me...
It's easy to sit there playing armchair quarterback on someone else's mistake. Face it, we ALL make mistakes and do stupid things while driving - and the advanced systems found in newer cars (ABS, VSC, et al) help our cars forgive us and regain control.
I can say in all the years I had my sport coupe it was never wrecked, due in part to the ABS system. It saved my ass at least 3 times I can recall. It forgave me leaving me to only contemplate the depths of my own stupidity rather than pay dearly for it.
When I was shopping for a new vehicle, ABS was a must, and the VSC system is also very cool - it really does work, helps the car do what you want and not what you told it to.
There is no such thing as idiot proofing unless you eliminate the chance for an idiot (random element) to interact with a system. How many drivers are prepared to surrender all control of their vehicles to a computer system?
so an oncoming car is going to take me out, I turn hard right to get out of the way, so the "smart car" things I am fucking up and forces me back into the oncoming car.
sounds like a microsoft thing.
Too many times have I narrowly averted changing lanes when somebody was hanging there. (I suppose this could screw up your habits if you also drive another car which does not have this feature.)
I think it was playing video games which vibrate the controller which gave me the inspiration.
They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
I've seen a lot of comments about how this is "anti-Darwinism" in action. That's a bullshit reason not to like it. Climate control is anti-Darwinistic, too, but how many people complain about having it?
!#@%*)anks for hanging up the phone, dear.
... to our last breeding pair of idiots, then we'll worry about protecting them.
help me i've cloned myself and can't remember which one I am
Researchers also tested a so-called "active" system in which the vehicle would actually adjust the steering automatically if it veered too far one way or the other."
Driver: Holy Crap! Theres a large boulder in the middle of the road!
Driver swerves to avoid boulder.
Car corrects back into original path, head on to the boulder.
Driver: What the hell!
Car: I'm sorry Dave. I'm afraid I cant let you do that.
"Our funds have never taken part in toxic or death spiral convertible financings of any sort" -BayStar's managing partne
The best solutions would be reducing the amount that people drive. Urban planning, mass transit, car pooling...Those would really save lives by reducing the exposure.
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.
Despite what Bernie Eccelstone says, F1 cars are practically driving themselves. This year, he threw out launch control and three years ago he banned 2-way telemetry, since cars were dynamically adjusting things like brake bias on every turn.
F1 should embrace this stuff, and eventually go to a driverless format. You think I'm joking, but I'm not. Ferrari, BMW, Mercedes and jaguar, along with Honda and Toyota and Ford, should all be duking it out to create the ultimate race car, minus a pilot.
At this point, F1 is only really about the tech anyhow, and Montoya has been saying for a couple years now that F1 cars could break the one minute threshold at Indy, except that the human body can't stand that much force, esp. in braking. Baaaaah, toss em! Let's see cars that absolutely FLY. It needs 4 wheels, and it has a weight and dimension minimum, and then, it's all on from there! THe advances those guys would make would be gigantic in just a few years.
Pay attention to WTF you are doing and you will have fewer problems.
There are two reasons why the driving laws in the USA are so lax:
1. There is almost no public transportation.
2. Zoning laws.
People here have to drive because they have no alternative. Outside of the north-east corridor (such as here in Arkansas) it would be economically impossible to stop people from driving. Everything is simply too far apart. There is also a total lack of provisions for walking/biking/horse riding, unless you like walking in a muddy ditch or on a busy road. That's why people caught driving without a license get a slap on the wrist (maybe).
These comments do express the opinions of my employers, and, personally, I think they're complete rubbish.
That reminds me...
:)
How long until you can sit in your driveway playing Project Gotham Racing/Gran Turismo in a real car??
That would be really cool...
---- It puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again. It does this whenever it's told.
For a Boeing aircraft, the pilot is ultimately in control. As the plane nears stall the control mechanisms (even when fly-by-wire) generate stick shake in the column to make the pilot aware of the performance limit. The interface is very tactile (the large central control column.
For an Airbus, the machine has the final say. There is a less tactile sidestick controller and if the pilot pulls back too far, the control system will nose the plane down.
There are two schools of thought and I am sure different users would have a different preference.
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.
I think it is a good idea and it would be interesting to see it widely implemented. I'll be 21 not too long from now and still won't have a driver's license. I've failed the driving portion of the test twice in the past 4 months because my turns are too sharp. :-P
A simple guaranteed to work solution:
Not only would this reduce traffic related accidents, auto insurance, etc. it would have the handy side effect of removing stupid people from the gene pool!
Merlin
Note: I overheard the spike idea on a radio comedy show or at least it was similar.
I think the Urban Legend was: At a recent COMDEX, Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated: "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving twenty-five dollar cars that got 1,000 miles per gallon." Recently General Motors addressed this comment by releasing the statement: "Yes, but would you want your car to crash twice a day?"
My friend recently bought the new Volvo SUV. Volvo treated him to a rather fun event where he went to the California Speedway in Fontana, California and was allowed to test the various safety features of his car on a closed course. One of the things he was allowed to do was drive the car at 50 miles per hour, and then yank on the steering wheel as hard as he could to the left. Normally this would cause any vehicle to roll, or otherwise lose control. The Volvo simply ignored him, and only allowed him to turn as much as was safe for the speed. I guess the theory is that it is better to hit whatever you are trying to avoid than to roll over.
What if what you are trying to avoid is a gaoline truck? Or a 1000 foot drop? Or a six year old?
~ The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.
The "In Soviet Russia..." jokes began surfacing on the internet because of the Family Guy episode where Peter plays around with his car's navigation system, and turns it to Russian. The navigation system says: "In Soviet Russia, car drives You!".
(variant: Another InSovietRussia joke in that episode: Navigation system: "Turn right at fork in road. In Soviet Russia, road forks you!").
This is one of the closest, and on topic, post to the original, modern, joke in recorded Slashdot history.
Here is more info. Have fun.
This technology has been a part of 18-wheelers for years...I for one think it's great that they are incorporating it into the mainstream, whether "most" people can't afford a Volvo or not..=/
"Like fish, we should look for holes in the net..."
2004 models
2003 models
2002 models
older models #2
older models #1
Wh47 d1d j00 541, 31337 15n't t3h r0xor5 ne m0r3???
How about we stop just doling out driver's licenses as though everyone should have one? It's not perfect; stupid drivers will probably still be able to get their hands on a vehicle, but I'm certain it'll at least impact the number of idiots out on the road.
Who's been giving these people a license to drive, anyway?
That guy who's trying to inch his way through on-coming traffic, even though there's a big, large sign saying NO LEFT TURN...how did he get a license?
How about that person in front of me on the freeway slamming on the brakes while it's raining? How did that license ever come to be?
Perhaps before we start trying to save the stupid drivers, we should save ourselves by not letting them drive.
Now those idiots who don't know enough to pull off and take a nap, use their cell phone, apply make-up, shave, etc will actually survive long enough to procreate.
We're doomed I say, doomed!
....it's to save you and me FROM the stupid drivers.
Well, of course, prior to the introduction of "energy-absorbing" steering columns... in the mid-sixties or thereabouts... the steering wheel to all intents and purposes did have a huge spike in the middle of it.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
The plane slowly passed the runway and 'landed' in the forest beyond the airport.
http://www.planecrashinfo.com/w880626.htm
> your current auto is no less safe tomorrow as it is today because of this technology
EXACTLY. There is one thing they could do, albeit the front-end investment is high. Stop using asphalt. Seriously how old is this material? When was the last time we saw a serious innovation in road surfacing? What about that hard rubbery stuff they make indoor tennis courts out of? Make a smoother version and lay the stuff down! Think of the added traction, flexibility of the road, lack of potholes, better heat retention so a little less ice-prone, etc etc etc.
I'm sure materials science folks could come up with something. Something far superior to asphalt and the tennis court stuff.
Here in PA they spend millions a year fixing the roads. We have one of the worst combinations of terrain and weather for asphalt integrity. Look at the weather radar sometime and see how often multiple contrasting weather systems swirl together right over PA. It's not just the weather but the wildly fluctuating temperature changes, -10 to +45 and then back again with rain-freezing rain-snow, then rain again all in 8-12 hours is NORMAL here much of year.
Sure it would cost the same as a dozen years of asphalt repair. But COME ON, how many times are we going to keep perpetuating the same problem?
Another thought, we have power cables and copper wires running _next to_ most roads. How about running 2 fat copper wires under the road near the common tire-contact areas. hook them up to those nifty solar panels and traffic signal power. In the winter that could heat the asphalt to just 33.x degrees. Whoala, no ice.
Somebody's going to tell me spreading and cleaning up mega-tons of salt and cinders, plus all the accidents is somehow cheaper?
100 years of driving and our roads are still only one step above dirt.
Operator, give me the number for 911!
A correct, concise definition. I always liked another defintion of stall (actually "stall speed") I overheard once:
"The speed where an airplane stops acting like and airplane and starts acting like a rock."
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
If necessity is the mother of invention, then apparently, stupidity is the father.
This is wonderful. This way, if I have to steer around an obstacle in an emergency, the car--which is obviously smarter than I am, in the same way that Microsoft's software products are smarter than I am, and therefore must make my decisions for me--will correct my defective steering and plow me directly into the obstacle.
Good deal. Next time, I'm buying Chrysler.
Ok... I'm from the San Francisco Bay area where there are FAR too many people crammed into one location. Unfortunately that location happens to be on the freeway around 8 when I'm trying to get to work. So I truly get to deal my fair share of idiot drivers.
I believe that educating drivers is step 1, but what if the Wright brothers said, "I'm not making this flying machine it's just going to fail and cause deaths." Would we still be using boats to get to our next business trip? Whether it was in 1911 when Orville tested his crude autopilot or when Honeywell went on to utilize the airplane auto pilot to aid in bombings, it still got made and is a critical piece in modern aviation.
Sure, if something can go wrong, it will go wrong. Does that mean that we shouldn't make space shuttles because someone can put in a gear backwards? Of course it doesn't. It means that we put our heads together and create a new paradigm in transportation...
So should we have never come down from the tree's? Should we have never left the ocean to begin with? Do we like our digital watches?
Okay... I'm done... I'm gonna hop off of my soap box now.
The article was about research into new methods that would require new outlays of cash to come into effect.
This is instead of spending money and research into better/cheaper/more convenient public transit systems. If you live in a predominantly residential area and your work is in a predominantly industrial/commercial area, there is no excuse for public transprotation to drop the ball there. This is not your fault. This is a public policy and city/county planning fubar.
I'm not saying it's a viable option for everyone today. I'm saying that we should be putting more time and effort into it for the future.
And of course in the case that you are definitely not a target for public transit, if you can get others who would find public transit more convenient to use, there would be fewer people on the roads competing with you; Your commute times would reduce/be more pleasant.
- I don't need to go outside, my CRT tan'll do me just fine.
A stupider driver will always come along.
if we give smart cars to stupid drivers there will be more stupid drivers. Didn't darwin teach us anything? Give me a smart car, and then I an be protected from stupid drivers, thus making it more likely that I will produce another smart driver. Not to mention that stupid drivers won't hit me when they do something stupid. They will just kill themselves.
I tried for 5 years to come up with a clever sig...only to realize that I am not clever.
"Smart Cars to Save Stupid Drivers?"
:)
Say it like you've never had, or never will be, involved in a car accident. I've never known anyone to pay attention behind the wheel 100% of the time. Perhaps this editor is going to taste karma someday. Yeah, keep telling yourself they are all stupid.
> Human life is more valuable than money.
I take it that means you donate all your money to charity?
Otherwise, you're doing what everyone else is doing - putting a finite monetary value on human life. Which, much as we might hate to admit it, there is - money represents (in some sense) _human effort_[1], and saying "human life is more important than any amount of money" is like saying "human life is more important than any amount of human effort". Which, of course, is false - saving a single life is rarely worth the full life's time of 1,000,000 people.
Since human effort is finite, money is finite, and human life has a finite monetary cost.
[1] Money represents effort in that effort can be used to generate money and money can be used to generate effort; nobody is arguing that money is apportioned according to effort.
"I take it that means you donate all your money to charity?"
I've donated quite a bit, yes.
"Otherwise, you're doing what everyone else is doing - putting a finite monetary value on human life."
Donations to charity, whether they happen or not, do not place a value on human life.
"Derp de derp."
> I admit, I have been one of those people who have fallen asleep at the wheel, and have realized that I
> was in a different lane than I remembered having been in. I have probably been saved by the little
> rumble strips along the edge of the highway at least half a dozen times.
Did it ever occur to you to GET THE HELL OFF THE ROAD?!?
Bloody hell, you're like a walking advertisement for this thing! "Keep falling asleep at the wheel but can't be bothered to stop being a dangerous driver? At least this car will wake your moronic ass up before you veer across three lanes of traffic and hit the rumble strips!"
Your post is clear evidence that people are NOT choosing wisely when they are and are not capable of driving; adding another safety check isn't going to change that; the hope is that it'll mitigate unsafe choices like yours.
Ford already has that stupid "check engine" light. It's about as descript as "general car fault." This sounds like a great way to soak up extra money at the service center to "re-enable" your car.
Who remembers the couple of years worth of cars that talked? Bing - "The door is ajar". Bing - "The door is ajar". Someone thought it was a marvelous idea and less annoying than the constant beeping.
My point? For all that people pretend they want to be protected and made safer, they are seldom happy with methods that make them aware of their failings.
I was taking one day at a time, but then several days got together and ambushed me. (from a Rhymes with Orange comic)
Brake bias has been required to be physically adjusted for years now, to prevent just this.
They also removed automatic upshifting this year, last year you just pressed the gas and went. No need to modulate the gas or shift.
F1 still has a long way to go removing stuff before the problem of mechanical boredom is removed.
In NYC I saw a guy playing the trumpet while driving. Luckily you can keep a hand on the wheel while playing. Not as dangerous, but I thought it was pretty classy.
I wish I knew how to play the trumpet.
J
I may have been seen a few times driving down the rode with my pants off, using both hands to undress the girl in the passenger seat and uh... wait..
Hmmmm there seem to be some voices in my head telling me to stop this story. I usually listen to them.
J
All these new safety features are standard in the upcoming revived edition of the Pinto.
Si tacuisses philosophus mansisses. If you had kept quiet, you would have remained a philosopher.
Women in general (IN GENERAL) are indecisive drivers
This should read: Women in general are indecisive
(I'm seriously paraphrasing here)
I think that the thing that most shows how stupid people are is the fact that helmets exist. We, as people, recognized a pattern in activities that kept cracking our skulls. So, what did we do? Instead of stopping the activity which leads to the skull-cracking, we put a piece of foam and plastic around our heads.
"Can anyone argue that cruise control has actually increased road safety? I've seen plenty of statistics that say otherwise."
References please. I wuld be astonished to learn that a gizmo that has been proved to reduce road safety is legal for fitment by the manufacturer.
natural stupidity beats artificial intelligence anyday
I agree
All your stupidity belong to us...
/. readers minds?
In soviet russia, car drives YOU!
i wonder what other cliche's come to
I can't speak for the other fields in this list, but I am an EMT (volunteer), and have ridden in many ambulances. Based on this, I disagree with your using ambulances as an example of a safe combination of driving and talking on a radio/cell phone. The truth is that the driver of the ambulance very rarely uses the radio. Jobs on an ambulance are divided up. Minimal crew is two people, so on the way to the call, the driver has one job, driving, while the second medic is responsible for radio traffic, navigation, reading maps, etc. Similarly, on the way to the hospital with a patient, the driver does very little with the radio. Typically, all the driver does with the radio is signal that the ambulance is enroute to the hospital, and then signal that it is at the hospital. Most ambulances that I have ridden on have automated this task so that the driver can push a single button for each. Additionally, the driver could easily radio these in just before starting driving (for the enroute call) and just after parking (for the at hospital call). Communication to the hospital covering the patient condition, expected arrival time, etc. is usually covered by the medic in the back, not the driver. There may also be communication asking your location, but that is usually when not on a call/on the way to a call, again not handled by the driver. If it is on the way to the hospital, it is a short answer, not a conversation, and even then the driver may choose not to respond until he's on a clear stretch of road. So, there are cases where the driver would be on the radio, but not in the majority of calls, and even then it uses a different speech style than a cell phone conversation. While I do not have personal experience on a fire truck, I assume that similar division of driver/radio operator would apply there.
So, what the use of radios on ambulances establishes is that it is safe for a PASSENGER in a vehicle to be on a cell phone.
This isn't you by any chance?
Net sa best, mar it koe minder
It would be great for drunk drivers if it automatically called the cops if the driver was recklessly driving.
i think what we really need is smart cars that save people OUTSIDE the car. like, for example, motorcyclists who are constantly getting clobbered by SUV's driven by already ridiculously safe drivers talking on their self phone and ignoring the driver.
i would like these cars to apply an electric shock whenever a driver switches lanes without checking their mirrors...
in this age of communication i'm just not getting through
Riiiight, the onstar system in your volvo-powered kit car. I ought to see if they'll install one on my VW trike, next
Delorean: Thousands of cars completely assembled on factory assembly lines.. You have an odd definition of "kit car". We'll sit back and wait until you come up with a Popular Mechanics back-of-the-magazine ad from 1983 or so where you can send away for DeLorean kits. I think I'll be waiting a while on that one!
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.