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Cars that Can't Crash?
johnsee writes "Microsoft is working with Ford Motor Co towards car that can't crash. The future of cars according to Gates will involve high-definition screens, speech recognition technology, cameras, digital calendars and navigation equipment with directions and road conditions." From the article: "Also on Friday, Microsoft unveiled its Performance Peak Initiative -- a line of computer systems to help the auto industry better coordinate supply chains, streamline design, production and sales and fill vehicles with computer gadgets."
For best straight line ever seen on Slashdot:
Microsoft is working with Ford Motor Co towards car that can't crash.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
I smell an episode of Fear Factor in the making....
The Braying and Neighing of Barnyard Animals Follows.
... to begin with...
Paul B.
Blue Windshield of Death jokes in 3... 2... 1...
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
microsoft...
can't crash...
must... make... joke... before head explodes...
It Is the Nature of Information to Transgress Artificial Boundaries
Bill Gates wanted to look good and impress everyone with his success. He decided to measure the accomplishments of Microsoft against General Motors. The comparison went like this:
If automotive technology had kept pace with computer technology over the past few decades, you would now be driving a V-32 instead of a V-8, and it would have a top speed of 10,000 miles per hour. (160,000km/hr)
Or you could have an economy car that weighs 30 pounds (14 kilos) and gets a thousand miles to a gallon of gas. In either case the sticker price of a new car would be less than $50.
In response to all this goading, GM issued a press release stating the following: "If GM had developed technology like Microshaft has, we would be driving cars with the following characteristics:"
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Will I have to pay yearly license fees to drive my car, or will it just one day swerve off the road if I let my licenses lapse? Can they catch a virus from neighboring cars at the parking lot? Will it come with Clippy? "Hello! you seem to be flying off the roadaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh" (car flies off road, rolls, and catches on fire).
Must resist urge to make bluescreenofdeath jokes.....
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
Gates and Bill Ford Jr., Ford's chairman and chief executive, said high-definition screens, speech recognition technology, cameras, digital calendars and navigation equipment with directions and road conditions will set car companies apart from their competitors.
That's nice and all, but how will these technologies help cars to 'not crash'? It seems like a digital calendar will lead to more crashes.
Driver: "Car! I said DON"T CRASH! DON'T CRASH!"
94% of Repubs and 21% of Dems voted to renew the Patriot Act
...everyone.
This is the scariest thing I have ever seen.
Perhaps the Dept of Homeland Security should notify the president that Microsoft and Ford are working on WMDs!
instead of these virtual things, they'd still crash. Trains do.
Now I'm the grandest Tiger in the Jungle!
May I be the first
No.
The Braying and Neighing of Barnyard Animals Follows.
I have 10 simple, low tech ways to which will guarentee fewer car crashes. Most of these already come with your current car, and the rest are simple and free to implement.
1. Breaks
2. Steering wheel
3. Side mirrors
4. Don't speed
5. Don't drink while drunk or high
6. Use your turn signal
7. Leave enough space between your car and the car in front of you.
8. Check over your shoulder to look in the blind spot before making a lane change.
9. Be considerate of other drivers.
10. Don't drive in LA.
And a bonus 11th point to feed the trolls:
11. Revoke the drivers licenses for anyone with 3 serious tickets in the last 5 years.
94% of Repubs and 21% of Dems voted to renew the Patriot Act
...they can design an unsinkable cruise liner.
Oh wait.
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
Making progress here is long overdue. The government has been studying this for at least 15 years.... I did some research work on this in the early 90's: Collision avoidance systems (radar or laser based) drowsy driver detection, etc.
google IVHS (intelligent vehicle highway system) for starters.
Not the Microsoft would be my first choice to design mass-produced life-threatening embedded systems.
What would stop a car, trying to avoid a potential accident, from steering itself off the side of a cliff?
And what about choices that real people may have to decide. If I lost control of my car and the options were
1) Attempt to crash into brick wall
2) Attempt to crash into side of a hill
3) Do nothing and continue on course to plow into a group of children crossing a street.
What would the car decide? What's the failsafe if the magic computer stops working? What level of control is still in the hands of the driver? These are questions people will want to know the answer to, not a bunch of marketing oral-ejaculation about how this is the greatest thing since seatbelts.
Its the safest vehicle ever.
unfortunately due to a restrictive EULA you will not be permitted to sell it once you've used it, and you can be arrested for opening the hood.
Starsucks
"FORD Owners Recommend Dodge"
Yes the story invites the inevtiable, insipid jokes about Microsoft and unstable software. Some are even clever. Some might even be funny.
It is worth pointing out the scale of this proejct for those who can't (or won't) accept it: cars are simpler than general purpose computers. Yes, cars are complicated machines with lots of interworking parts. However, the hardware installation on a car is fixed (within paramters) whereas today's general purpose PCs are not.
The flexibility of modern computer peripherals makes for seemingly endless combinations of hardware and existing software. Microsoft attempts to support quite a few of those combinations, with the mixed results we see today.
But cars are a different beast. I bet it's possible to get good test coverage of this car software through test driving. The scope is that much smaller. Think of your favorite console game; has it crashed recently? Ever? It is possible to create software that passes some reliability metric with a fixed hardware platform. A general purpose OS would be hard pressed to make that guarantee.
Microsoft could get this right technically speaking. It remains to be if they do.
Oh, and is it a good idea? I wouldn't buy one :)
you will find that when you inserted the key into the ignition, you waived all warrantees of suitability for purpose, waived all liability, and in the case that there was liability anyway, limited it to the price of the software . . .
hawk
How many redundant posts will we see in this thread?
That makes me wonder though, how many duplicate posts will we see in this thread?
Sounds like peril sensitive sunglasses
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
I've seen the car of the future in countless sci-fi movies and books already! But, hey, if Gates says it, then for sure it must be right around the corner. Ho hum..
God help us all if these are the things to come. In fact, I prefer my technology to
Even my first-gen iPod still works! I dunno, I'm past the disliking Gates and his empire and now I'm just sick of him telling everyone what the future's gonna be and the fact that Microsoft's gonna get you there.
Hang it up man, hang it up.
Just a few weeks ago my wife and I were leaving a restaurant's parking lot after dinner and the engine was running really rough. I mean really, really rough, and this truck has always run fine before. It coughed and it gasped, and the power was just not there. I stopped and started the engine, but it still continued to run rough. I got maybe a half mile down the road when I realized I wasn't even going to make it home.
I pulled to the shoulder, and was going to phone my son to come pick us up when I said "hey, what happens if I reboot this thing?" So I turned off the engine, let it sit totally dark for about five seconds, then started it up. It started right up and took off, no problems, no choking, no gasping.
A cold reboot fixed my truck.
And now Microsoft wants them to run WINDOWS on this thing? Words fail me.
John
CLIPPY: Sorry, I don't understand your input, Shell Gas?
"The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair.')"
Yes, but how many redundant posts will be mislabeled "Funny"?
In other news...
Ford stock crashes on fears of new Microsoft car models.
After making a second consecutive right turn, Clippy appears. "It seems like you're turning. Would you like help about this topic?" You say no.
AutoFormat kicks in, causing your car to automatically turn right at every intersection. You manage to get rid of that, but now every time you try to turn left the steering wheel is AutoCorrect'ed to the right.
You finally just let the car drive you wherever while you listen to MSN radio. You don't get where you wanted to go, but at least you didn't crash.
nah, the question is:
"where do you want to go today"?