Slashdot Mirror
Why Robot Trucks Could Be Headed To Afghanistan (And Everywhere Else)
malachiorion writes "I'm surprised I haven't seen more coverage of Lockheed Martin's autonomous truck convoy demonstration — they sent a group of robotified vehicles through urban and rural environments at Fort Hood, without teleoperation or human intervention. It's an interesting milestone, and sort of a tragic one, since troops could have used robotic vehicles in Iraq and Afghanistan. What's fascinating, though, is that Lockheed is hoping to get into Afghanistan just before the U.S. withdraws, to help ferry gear. Plus, they have their sights set on what would be the defense contractor's first real commercial product—kits that turn tractor trailers into autonomous vehicles. Here's my post for Popular Science."
It doesn't work.
I’ve been lurking Slashdot for over 10 years and never posted before. It’s a bit sad that my first post is going to sound like a eulogy
I don’t like the beta-look, I think it is going to break the community and I’ll join in on the boycott next week.
Just in the case nobody comes back, I wanted to thank you, Slashdot.
Thanks for showing me there’s more people “like me” and thanks for making me proud to call myself a nerd.
I remember the Good Times. When we could still Slashdot a site, when Rob proposed, when we called the ipod lame, when ‘we’ fought scientology (before it was cool to fight ‘m) and when we heard Firefly was made into a movie :)
And the tough times, when the community really showed it’s good side, 9/11 comes to mind as well as the deaths of several pioneers in tech.
Although Slashdot always has news 3 days after every other blog, it’s still months before my friends know any of it. If only I had set up a beowulf cluster of bitcoin miners when Slashdot first started posting about it :)
But the best part remains the commenting. I was and am still amazed by the depth some people go to post their comments. The relatable stories of the new guy, or the insights of the old guy (shout out to all you get-off-my-lawn-ers / low-id). And I remember being touched on a deep level by some very personal comments; a comment of struggling just with being who you are — and then getting a reply by multiple people who had the same experience.
Thanks also for always showing the other side of things. I never RTFA’d (something to be proud of, I guess), I new better what was going on than anybody else through the comments.
By posting, you show part of your thoughts, and seeing many people’s thoughts also makes opinions more moderate. I have a better understanding now of things I would otherwise strongly oppose. It sounds cheesy, but I know I’m a better person because of it.
Slashdot has been my home for a long time, eventhough it changed through the years. I hope it’ll stay, but I’ve grown pessimistic.
So, so long and thanks for all the fish!
I’ll see y’all lurking somewhere else :) (XKCD-forum, most likely)
I don't really see what good these autonomous vehicles will do. They won't do anything to help get rid of Slashdot Beta, so what's the point?
Breakfast served all day!
Slashdot is obviously being run by a bunch of autonomous jackasses who prefer to follow "trends" in the "latest" website designs than using what works.
Please post this to new articles if it hasn't been posted yet. (Copy-paste the html from here so links don't get mangled!)
On February 5, 2014, Slashdot announced through a javascript popup that they are starting to "move in to" the new Slashdot Beta design. Slashdot Beta is a trend-following attempt to give Slashdot a fresh look, an approach that has led to less space for text and an abandonment of the traditional Slashdot look. Much worse than that, Slashdot Beta fundamentally breaks the classic Slashdot discussion and moderation system.
If you haven't seen Slashdot Beta already, open this in a new tab. After seeing that, click here to return to classic Slashdot.
We should boycott stories and only discuss the abomination that is Slashdot Beta until Dice abandons the project.
We should boycott slashdot entirely during the week of Feb 10 to Feb 17 as part of the wider slashcott
Moderators - only spend mod points on comments that discuss Beta
Commentors - only discuss Beta
http://slashdot.org/recent - Vote up the Fuck Beta stories
Keep this up for a few days and we may finally get the PHBs attention.
-----=====##### LINKS #####=====-----
Discussion of Beta: http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl?op=view&id=56395415
Discussion of where to go if Beta goes live: http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl?op=view&type=submission&id=3321441
Alternative Slashdot: http://altslashdot.org (thanks Okian Warrior (537106))
Could robotic, self driving trucks make more of a mess than the beta? Seems unlikely.
I am declining to read or discuss this article, in protest.
I will not visit this site at all Feb 10 through Feb 17, as part of the slashcott. http://slashcott.com/
LOAD MOAR
If beta isn't stopped, it will be time to leave. Until that time, it's probably best to protest about it in shifts. Pick a time of the day to make your complaint known, then leave off visiting Slashdot for the day. Otherwise, today's protests will be just a flash in the pan. Constantly protesting is rather demoralizing, but it should continue until the beta is obligatory. Think of it, therefore, as a hike rather than a sprint.
i've been telling people for a while that the first we'll see of autonomous vehicles in any big way isn't in personal Google-style vehicles, but in the long-haul trucking industry.
Now I know that's true, because it's the only physically possible way to safely haul away the toxic mess that's the fucking Beta shit being sprayed everywhere like something out of a low-budget slashbeta horror flick.
Fuck the Beta,
b&
All but God can prove this sentence true.
There is a strong back room agenda behind this beta thing. I don't want to find the link and quote right now, but basically Dice Holdings has decided that Slashdot is unprofitable. Now they are either desperately doing stupid stuff in an attempt to draw in new users to make it profitable or they are trying to kill it with this beta so no one is left to mourn Slashdot's passing when they announce they are shutting it down. Honestly, nothing we can do can change this. Just like with other websites like YouTube where stupid redesigns happen, these "betas" rarely if ever will seriously consider feedback to dump the whole thing or allow using the old design. They are set on the general paradigm behind the beta. Dice is really only interested in this point at hearing about minor annoyances that won't affect too much overall and bug reports we have for it.
After years of not using a signature, I am going to make one to say the following: Fuck Beta
...slashdot beta.
I am sure that their trucks will be more well received. And unlike Slashdot beta, the troops will want to use them.
In other news, TheLadders.com > dice.com
I have been reading Slashdot since 2001, although mostly anonymously. Over the years, this site has exposed me to enormous wealth of knowledge outside my area of expertise. This was only possible thanks to the great community of people whose comments have expanded each post much beyond the scope of original submission. It is this community that makes this site and makes me come back here daily.
Now this community has clearly stated that proposed BETA changes are not wanted and even worse will drive many of the old users away from this site. Others have clearly outlined the faults of the new BETA and the effect it will have on commenting and moderation. This feedback should not be ignored.
Hence, please reconsider BETA or at least listen to the community feedback on how to improve it!
FUTILITY!!!! I've tried to upvote countless topics related to the suckiness of Slashdot's new UI. Or even topics that were just trying to discuss the issue (no bias in the title). NONE of these gets picked. Not one.
Fuck Slashdot Beta even more, because the admins are gaming the system to protect the beta UI from criticism.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
so the beta is obviously just a ploy to cram more ads into our already way-over-exposed-to-ads eyeballs, but the ads you do show SUCK...I keep getting ads for a hotel that I looked at several hours ago for a business trip that is already booked now...and at home I get ads for stuff that I already bought on amazon...give me a break! how stupid is this targeting? and why do we need more of it again?
I don't know what DICE was thinking (perhaps they weren't) but it doesn't take a genius to figure out they need to stop the beta site and stop it now. Unlike every other news aggregator, the majority of the people are here FOR the discussion forums. We also submit the news, vote on what should be published, comment on the news, moderate the comments, and moderate the moderators. DICE you don't do a damn thing compared to what the community gives to you in exchange for access to the site.
Pull your collective heads out of your various orifices and fix this while you have time. Without the community you have NOTHING to sell. Want proof? Look at comments on stories from a week ago versus comments today... with the community protesting you have nothing of value to sell other than a niche already covered by CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, Fox, and God knows how many other sites that now aggregate the news. Slashdot will NEVER be a mainstream site... Fix this NOW or the community will fix it for you.
if you have positive karma make sure to disable advertisements as part of your protest, for years i had the option but left them enabled to support /.
***puts on sombrero, readies Cheech Marin voice from Dusk Till Dawn**** *AHEM*
FUUUCK EEET!
Calling the number Dice lists for Slashdot results in a recording which in turn tells you to call 415-625-0856.
The receptionist type who answered was polite, said they'd already had several calls today, jotted down my complaints to relay once more to a guy who's involved with the beta, and said "we're withholding his snacks until this is fixed." They said it was nice to realize there were people out there who were passionate about the site.
Make your voice heard. Let them know that wasting screen space, butchering comment sections, etc are going to result in their visitors leaving en masse. If the phone is ringing all day, day in and day out, with users who don't want to see this place ruined, perhaps things will turn around.
If you look on the top of this vehicle, you will find a velodyne lidar, that sweeps the field of view at 15Hz with 64 beams. Here is there website: http://velodynelidar.com/lidar... .. From my understanding, there are 64 laser diodes mounted as a stripe, and 64 corresponding avalanche photodiodes , each group of 8 detectors is being fed to an 8-bit 3 gigasample per second ADC.
These units sell for $80K, and is one of the factors effecting wider adoption. I understand that there is a lot of demand among the auto and trucking industries if these can be made cheaper. This technology will become much cheaper as the cost of the ADC's drop. Right now, a 3GSPS adc costs about $600. A few years ago, this is what a 1GSPS part cost... process node shrinkage will make this kind of technology affordable, and open up a lot of other interesting ideas.
I can't think (radio signal interference) what could go wrong (rock slide) with this approach (mine).
Great (massive failure) idea!
I was thinking of them being stolen as they drove along unmanned. They wouldn't make it 5 miles.
Article had a picture of a truck that could make someone very wealthy if torn down to it's basic parts.
Then this part: "who, in other words, gets sued or charged when an unmanned automobile harms people or property?"
Urban myth or not you decide. While in Viet Nam you hear of the story - one time someone got run over by a 2 1/2 ton truck, the family got a lot of money as a settlement. When trucks drive through villages now they are subjected to having kids thrown under the wheels for a pay off.