Intelligent Road Studs

Copley writes "The BBC have a short story about 'intelligent' cat's eyes (reflective road studs). I remember reading about the principle of these years ago. It seems that they've reached the real-world trial stage. The whole concept is pretty cool - the studs monitor weather and traffic speeds and change their colour accordingly. As you drive along, rather than see your own headlights reflected, you see a line of active lights indicating what you can expect ahead of you: stationary traffic, ice, etc. As I recall, one idea proposed was for your own car to leave a trail of lights behind it, the length of which related to your speed. The trail thus indicated the 'danger-you-are-too-close-you-moron' zone behind you. Drivers could then avoid driving within another car's trail. Neat idea, but I somehow doubt even the most technical of safety systems is ever going to change the driving habits of some of the brain-dead, tail-gating idiots I often have to share the roads with... Perhaps intelligent road studs with assault weaponry to take out bad drivers would be more useful!"

Comments

i'd like to see them work, but not here

[lambent]

Too many hosers with a liscense already treat driving like a video game. And when people start paying too much attention to the blinking lights embedded in the roads ... watch out.

An idea who's time...

[ferralis]

...may never come. These would be quite interesting in other applications, but it seems to me intelligent signs using E-Paper technology could convey information in a more intuitive manner than color-changing reflective studs.

Cars, too, are being designed with more and more impressive technology, many are capable of noticing that you are tailgating, some may even begin to slow the car automatically soon (a system I'd be quick to disable... having the car take over unexpectedly would quickly cause me to froth at the mouth).

If the studs were ever cheap enough per-unit, though, I can imagine all kinds of other uses for them... an array of 'em would make things disappear nicely to a casual glance if they merely changed color to match their surroundings...

Trail of lights

[Rufus88]

your own car to leave a trail of lights behind it, the length of which related to your speed

Simple design: each light stays on for two seconds after you pass it. This enables drivers behind you to obey the "two second rule". If you come upon lights before they go out, you know you're following too closely.

Re:Trail of lights

[Rufus88]

Really though, is counting to two that difficult?

No, but keeping track of the precise spot on the road where the other guy was when you started counting, can be difficult.

fog prone areas

[74Carlton]

Fog prone areas could definitely benefit from the trail of lights based on speed idea, since you wouldn't actually have to see the person in front to know they were there and how far back to be. Well, really if it's that foggy you probably shoudn't be scooting down the highway, but that never stops folks.

Re:I hate tailgaters

[menscher]

I prefer to give a good hard hit on the brake pedal to wake them up

I've actually come up with a plan for how to do it to maximize the likelihood of fatality to the SUV-driving tailgater behind me. Here's how it goes:

1. Hit your brake, while moving a little to the right. They'll instinctively brake and move to the left.
2. Now, brake a little harder, but cut back to the left. They'll either swerve off the road, or cut back to the right. If they go to the right, they'll be maximizing pressure on the front left wheel. That is the way SUVs are statistically most likely to roll.

Now, technically doing this is premeditated murder, but who's to say you didn't see an animal in the road, and were avoiding it?

Disclaimer: make sure they're paying attention if you do this... otherwise they might just hit you without braking at all.

Oh, and yes, I'm a professional bastard. >:-]

Re:Following distance? We don't need no stinking f

[cft_128]

I'm sure on rural intestates that is fine, but in any freeway with many on and off ramps driving in the right lane is positively dangerous. People come flying into the lane to exit at the last minute, or cars come onto the freeway going way too slow.

I've heard that in some European countries the custom is to only use the right lane (or left if it was the UK) for people that are merging on or off the freeway, making things much safer overall.

That's funny.

[Inoshiro]

"But then again I drive fast and I respect the whole "faster traffic to the right" thing, so I'm never really in anyone's way. "

On any freeway, highway, or large motor way I've been, they have large, bold signs saying, "slower traffic keep right " as that's both the entry and exit lane. It makes more sense for the traffic there to be slower.

Re:Idiots

[RockClimbingFool]

so does going 10 miles an hour below the speed limit in the left lane.