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The Future of In-Car Computing
Barence writes "PC Pro is running a collection of articles looking at the future of in-car computing technology. They discuss how smartphones will become the primary means of in-car entertainment, how satnavs will be integrated into fighter-jet style heads-up displays, and how cars will create wireless mesh networks that warn each other of upcoming delays and collisions. The also explore the issue of integrating driverless cars onto the roads. 'It's one thing having smart cars that can talk to each other and react accordingly, but if half of the cars are dumb, it's another issue.'"
So they are building in a "collision detection system" that I can hack and get the car next to me to drive off the road. Cool.
Indeed. Anything that relies on other cars telling your 'smart car' where they are is a disaster waiting to happen. Not to mention those little details like bikes, pedestrians and moose in the roads, none of which are likely to be part of the glorious 'mesh'.
The collision and delay reporting mechanism will be cool too, because we'll be able to feed fake reports into the system and ensure we get to work on empty roads.
That is not a tech problem, that is a driving problem. STOP FUCKING TAILGATING.
My '03 Pontiac has a heads-up display that shows my speed, and radio station briefly when I change stations. I went looking at new cars last year and didn't find a lot of models with the heads-up display. It's a great idea, and the technology has been available for at least 8 years, why isn't it as common as cruise control and interval wipers?
Mass transit or whatnot is clearly superior to an infinite number of monkeys driving cars at the same time.
On paper that seems correct... until you find yourself waiting in a queue with those monkey's to get onto a train/bus/subway which is already full of those monkeys and piloted by a monkey (or a computer programmed by monkeys)... suddenly you find yourself saying, I'd rather sit in traffic for an hour then next to these monkeys.
That's when they put the magnetic sensors under the road surface to check your RFID and if you get from place A to place B faster than the speed limit would allow, you'll get a pop up on your HUD with
Greetings Law Breaker
The State has determined you have exceeded the posted speed by an average of 25 KPH over the course of the past 6 blocks.
Do you wish to dispute this?
Yes No
You have selected "dispute this claim." Are you sure?
Yes No
You have confirmed that you are sure. Your vehicle will stop in 20 seconds to await your local police. Please pull to the side of the road to prevent impeding traffic.
Thank you, have a nice day.
[John]
Shit better not happen!
Mass transit or whatnot is clearly superior to an infinite number of monkeys driving cars at the same time.
Uh, no.
Mass transit sucks and always will so long as I have to go from where I don't want to start to where I don't want to get to at a time when I don't want to go and share it with people I don't want to sit next to.
The ideal would be a vehicle that would just carry me, and go from where I am at a time of my choosing to the destination of my choosing without stopping at numerous places along the way.
Oh, but we already have that. It's called a car.
They have that now. The collision detection system is the human who's driving. You can hack it by driving up beside them, and then pulling abruptly towards them. They're very likely to swerve right off the road!
The implicit question here is: you can already be a vicious asshole and try to kill people, but you don't. Why would you do so if their car happened to be computer-driven?
Also, frankly, give the computer driver a few generations, and it's responses will probably be much safer and more reasonable than a panicky human driver.
Remote hacking and viruses are a potential problem; preferably the car's autopilot will be entirely isolated from any network connection. You could still walk up, stick an ethernet plug in, bypass the security system, and upload malicious code. Or, you could cut the breaks.
For one, I'd imagine that if these made it in cars, they'd be sealed boxes with felonies for modifying them. Additionally, as "cute" as you might be in hiding your identity for your illegal mods, I'm guess that they'd still be trackable. And, you are presuming that a single signal from a single car will result in a crash in another car. That's not the operational mode I've seen described. My sister drive head-on into a solid concrete wall to avoid getting sideswiped. I've pointed out that such a decision was likely not the best choice for overall safety. However, my family thought me callous for pointing out basic risk analysis. I'd imagine that these cars would be programmed with basic risk analysis in mind. That is, a touch of cars traveling the same speed in the same direction has a near-zero chance of causing a secondary collision and would not harm anyone involved. But on car saying "I'm swerving" and all other cars driving head-first into trees to get out of the way seems absurd.
You might as well assert that you'd just hack the whole system to shut down all other cars remotely and program yours to drive on the sidewalk. That's probably more likely than the scenario you present.
Learn to love Alaska
Indeed, any car autopilot that only took into account other smart cars would be a horrible disaster waiting to happen. Obviously.
The only way cars could use this sort of communication is as mistrusted advice, which it could use to strengthen it's own observations. The same way you treat another car's turn signals, basically.
You could also carry a gun and shoot the driver of the other vehicle, which would presumably cause it to drive off the road. Why would any non-sociopath wish to do so?
IOW, in using the common road system you place yourself at the mercy of your fellow man, and making this system 100% impenetrable to external attack is kind of a waste of time. There are a great many easier ways to inflict harm upon another driver, and many of them are equally clandestine.
Mass transit or whatnot is clearly superior to an infinite number of monkeys driving cars at the same time.
Only in the subset of transport where you have a lot of people who all need to go from the same place, to the same place (or at least, places along the same route), and all at the same time.
I can't use public transport, because it doesn't go where I want, from where I want, when I want, and I can't carry a tonne of tools with me. If I can't do that, then your public transport systems stop working rather quickly.
"smartphones will become the primary means of in-car entertainment" ...and soon they will run on gas, and have steering wheels.
It's always nice when pundits predict stuff that's been happening for at least 5 years already.