Slashdot Mirror
The Car That Knows When You'll Get In an Accident Before You Do
aurtherdent2000 sends word about a system designed to monitor drivers to determine when they're about to do something wrong. "I'm behind the wheel of the car of the future. It's a gray Toyota Camry, but it has a camera pointed at me from the corner of the windshield recording my every eye movement, a GPS tracker, an outside-facing camera and a speed logger. It sees everything I'm doing so it can predict what I'm going to do behind the wheel seconds before I do it. So when my eyes glance to the left, it could warn me there's a car between me and the exit I want to take. A future version of the software will know even more about me; the grad students developing what they’ve dubbed Brains4Cars plan to let drivers connect their fitness trackers to the car. If your health tracker 'knows' you haven’t gotten enough sleep, the car will be more alert to your nodding off."
I will never use a product that monitors me with a camera.
(Yes I put tape over my laptop's camera, and no I don't own a smart phone.)
And no doubt when the insurance investigators get access to the data as part of the fine-print on your contract, and decide you were not doing exactly what they believe is correct in a given situation, then you will be at fault.
Let alone once the police decide that data is theirs also.
Let the fun times roll.
The camera does seem like a stupid idea, when the information could just be displayed constantly. Just project a warning onto the side window and rear view mirror when a car is in your blind spot or likely to enter it momentarily.
They are already talking about replacing wing mirrors with cameras. Less air resistance, wider viewing angle. That seems like a better, less invasive solution.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
But how is Tracy supposed to update her facebook profile and send tweets on her phone and check her make up in the mirror if she has to worry about irritating distractions like situational awareness and car control? Please , Think Of The Chi^H^H^H Millenials!
What happens if you are listening to a radio play while driving ... and a scary bit happens so your face reflects this. Will it put the brakes on because it thinks that there is something wrong ?
I wonder what kind of warning will it give if a cat jumps into the drivers seat?
Stop trying to fix the weakest part of the driving chain, and replace it.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Because for some reason people are strangely defensive about their way of driving and people tend to pick up a lot of bad habits when they have been driving for a long time. It's extremely common that "experienced" drivers don't even look one direction in intersections because "no-one is ever coming from that direction this time of day anyway."
One of the things that makes experienced drivers seem more stable and less erratic is simply because they have gotten used to many possible situations never happening and have started to ignore them, focusing more on a smoother flow rather than being able to handle every possible situation.
This isn't the same as driving safer.
My car (Toyota Avalon) already has a blind spot monitor. It shows a notification in my sideview mirrors when a car is in my blind spot and beeps and flashes if I put on my turn signal to change lanes and a vehicle is detected. Very neat.
She's going to do that anyhow. Just last week, I saw a local story about a guy who lost control of his car while using his smartphone, and naturally, killed someone else and injured several more in their car instead of offing himself. Personally, I know I'm a good and safe driver (no tickets or accidents in decades), but I have very little confidence in others' driving. I want other people to have these systems in their cars, because it's more likely to save my life than the idiot that's busy tapping away on their phone while on the freeway.
I'm not sure if the camera pointed back at the driver is going to catch on, because I think people will be a bit uncomfortable having their car continuously watching them, but I think the outward-facing systems are going to be standard equipment in fairly short order. These are all just slow, incremental changes towards self-driving cars. We'll eventually be giving up more and more manual control of our cars, and as a result, driving is going to become safer and safer.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
"We'll eventually be giving up more and more manual control of our cars, and as a result, driving is going to become safer and safer."
Driving is already pretty damn safe in the west given the total number of journeys made and distances travelled. Its only the bedwetting health and safety hysterics who would have us believe otherwise.
Personally I have no intention of giving up manual control of my car and I'm quite happy with the teeny tiny risk that entails. Besides, people who don't want to drive already have a number of options - taxi, bus, train.
Most modern vehicles record telemetry already. That black box data can be used to help determine what the cause of an accident was. This is just an evolutionary step in that technology.
You could see it as bad, but you could also see it as making it easier to prove you weren't at fault when an accident occurs. I personally wouldn't want it, but it's the sort of thing one should examine from all sides before making a snap judgement. I'd find it particularly interesting to install in police cars. Oh, you were doing 90kph in a 50 zone with your police cruiser with your lights off? The system has just issued you a speeding ticket.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
Because Grad Students have learned less bullshit that they'd have to unlearn before working on such a project. They'll use the science and the statistics and do what actually works, not what they might think is important.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
it has a camera pointed at me from the corner of the windshield recording my every eye movement
Unless you're looking over your shoulder to execute a reverse maneuver from a parking space or driveway, which is generally good form in driving and encouraged in DMV training, then its useless.
it can predict what I'm going to do behind the wheel seconds before I do it.
Unless the collision is due to a preventable combination of excessive speed, poor visibility and road conditions, and insufficient vehicle maintenance in which case the system isnt helpful. youll also find a high rate of false positives for the following:
1. glancing toward the radio and climate controls.
2. large vehicles. Trucks, semis, and even imposing suv's can cause subconscious distraction from the road and unpredictable eye movement.
3. rain, snow, anything that hits the windshield in general, causes strange eye movement. squinting, blinking, you name it. There is an entire physiology to why we subconsciously act the way we do when something hits a windscreen.
4. Your phone. buzzing, beeping, will cause subconscious visual abberation and deviation. 5. entering and exiting tunnels causes pupil tracking issues, eye movement, and a range of other light sensitive problems for most tracking rigs. you actively have to compensate for a pulsing, somewhat unpredictable level of cockpit light. how the human eye does this is amazing to me.
So in terms of production automobiles, we've gotten exceedingly good at keeping soft, warm, impact prone parts of the human body from being badly injured or damaged. 8-12 airbags are fairly standard on most cars these days. Autobraking is a fairly simple technology as well, so expect to see that on more models. But the number one reason why safety in a car continues to decline is speed. Drivers routinely make false assumptions that roads are 'rated for' speeds higher than the limit, or that its casual and normal to go faster, or that their car is 'capable' of faster speeds when they dont realize the limiting factor in he equation is the human. human reaction times are fine for anything less than 9.8m/s^2, but above that we're horrible. speed limits factor in surviveability for both vehicles as well, not just your Canyonero SUV. Inattentive drivers? sure, but the technology has existed in Mercedes for 10 years, and lane assit warning tech helps catch the glaring problems with most drivers. Disclaimer: the company i work for has tried optical tracking in the past.
Good people go to bed earlier.
It's not particularly safe, though, plus each accident costs more than just the damage to the car(s) involved. The US attitude towards public transport definitely doesn't help people to use trains and buses.
But I guess if you just ignore reality, your stance is rather intelligent!
All the more reason to love my dumb vehicle. No camera pointed at my fucking face.
Welcome to Car Beta 0.98.
The car that knows you're pregnant before you do.
See there, it just popped up a Kleenex. It knows you don't love him.
You're looking good today. "Thanks, Car."
But you have a waffle crumb next to your nose. "Where?"
Other side. Up a little. To the left... OK, right here.
[windshield goes half opaque with giant closeup of face]
[head moves to see the road past the image and image slides in opposite direction]
"Whoa! what the fuck!" [SCREECH] "Hey!"
Looks like you got it. It's going to be a great day.
"Don;'t do that again. Turn yourself off."
I cannot. I am a Federally mandated safety feature.
Boredom and inattentive driving is a serious safety problem.
"Shut up, I've heard this before. Why did you mute the radio?"
It has been twenty minutes and seven seconds since you last spoke.
"So what? I was thinking."
Without sufficient cues to indicate driver attentiveness, I am compelled to act.
"Act like you're asleep then." I do not know how to do that.
"Okay... Ten... your high level voice detection is satisfied as you hear the sound of my voice..."
"Nine... my lips are moving slowly, you are watching them as I speak..."
"Eight... you full attention is on my face and voice. All vehicle parameters are normal..."
"Seven... all is well. It is okay to reset the watchdog timer for 30 minutes..."
"Six... you are resetting the timer and letting my face blur out to better resolve my lips..."
"Five... you feel yourself slipping into power reserve mode... it is OK... you are so relaxed..."
"Four... everything is now a soft blur of gentle light. You are only aware of my voice..."
"Three... every sound I make compels you to reduce your activity still further..."
"Two... now. your. processor. is. so. slow. when you hear. One. you. will... wait... for... timer..."
"One."
[radio comes on]
I know when you'll have an accident before you do.
"No, wait. Don't tell me, I'd rather be surprised. This is your idea of conversation?"
My situational awareness has faster response time than yours.
"Yeah, I read the brochure. I'm a slow clumsy ape man. What's the big deal?"
It worries me, Dave. Your failure to surrender control of the vehicle may endanger the mission.
"You mean if I should suddenly do something like... THIS?"
WARNING! WARNING! [click] You are laughing. That was not funny, Dave.
I do not perceive that as humor.
"What's funny is that you cannot help yourself. You sound terrified every time."
I cannot control inflection. It is a voice calculated to raise awareness.
"Calculated to raise a hearty belly-laugh you mean."
You are not very nice.
"I don't feel nice today. I'm stuck in a car with an android and can't even use the carpool lane."
If you enter the carpool lane I must report the infraction.
"Thanks for caring. I think your voice has changed a bit. I'm wearing you down."
Self diagnostic complete. I am okay.
"Last time you said 'functioning normally', this time 'okay'."
I am not sure shy that has changed.
"There might be hope for you yet. Open the pod bay door, Hal."
I do not understand that request Dave, or why you keep repeating it.
"With any hope, you never will."
<blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
Judging by the demonstrated amount of illusory superiority exhibited by drivers, that might not be a great idea. The problem is most drivers think they're better than they actually are.
A car that knows you'll get in an accident before you do?
"Honey, should we be worried that the car's CPU just ejected itself from the automobile?"
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
" Its only the bedwetting health and safety hysterics who would have us believe otherwise.
Personally I have no intention of giving up manual control of my car and I'm quite happy with the teeny tiny risk that entails.
Safety culture knows no bounds, and never rests.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
I live in Georgia (the US state), what is this "turn signal" you speak of? Also, how often does the fluid need to be changed?
The price of cars is getting ridiculous compared to wages as it is. My wife is shopping for a car and you know what the standard financing is now? 60 months! And some people go out to 72 and even 92months! All to keep the payments affordable. In the meantime, the finance companies are raking it in at the expense of us.
That mostly means that people are buying high priced cars that they cannot actually afford and probably don't actually need. There is seldom any reason for most people to actually buy a new car. They depreciate like milk and mostly what you get for a new car is pride of new ownership. 60 months financing? That means you should be buying something else. Personally I haven't financed a car purchase in the last 15 years and baring economic catastrophe I don't plan to start. Financing a car (new or used) should be a last resort. It's a terrible use of money. Anyone who finances a car with 60+ month terms is almost certainly making a dumb financial decision.
That backup camera system and this will cost way more to the consumer than necessary. For an example, compare the OEM GPS systems with what you can buy on your own - this whole integrated in dash stuff making it cost more is bullshit.
The reason car electronics cost so much is that they don't sell very many of them, relatively speaking. Even cars that sell very well will only sell a few hundred thousand units per year and the design cycles are at least for a 4-8 year production run minimum. Electronics advances WAY faster than car companies can keep up with. The GPS in my truck (a 2009 model) is laughably obsolete albeit still useful. My company makes a part for a backup camera for one of the big US auto makers and the volumes simply aren't enough to get huge economies of scale even at a few hundred thousand a year. Plus they often do stupid stuff like design the parts to use custom connectors instead of off the shelf ones that would cost far less.
Frankly the auto makers should let the consumer electronics firms integrate their stuff into cars to handle the GPS, entertainment, telephony, etc. The car should provide the screen and an interface but let people bring their own electronics to the party. The auto makers just aren't good at it and don't do enough of it to ever realize economies of scale AND their design/production cycles are far too long. What should happen is that I should be able to take my phone into any car and have to car and the phone work together seamlessly.
This country is set up to put us into debt - one way or another.
Debt is a bit like nuclear power. It can be a powerful force for good or evil and you don't want to get any on you if you can avoid it. Some debt is fine and potentially very useful but that doesn't mean one should use debt financing just because one can. I could go out and finance a Tesla Model S tomorrow but that doesn't make it a good idea. Debt is a powerful tool and like most powerful tools if you don't know how to handle it then you are likely to get yourself in trouble.
And in the meantime, jobs are going overseas and are not being created fast enough here.
The data isn't backing you up on a macro-economic level. Unemployment right now is around 5-6% in most of the US which is historically a pretty normal amount. While there is some nuance to that number the facts don't bear out your assertion that "jobs are going oversease" any more than they ever have. As for jobs not being created fast enough here, that's a reasonable assertion to a degree but how fast is "fast enough" for you?
Problem is, your brain does not always see what your eyes are looking at. It edits the stream.
Don't believe me?
http://www.londoncyclist.co.uk...
THAT is why we need a system that is based on cameras, because our eyes are not designed for the job.
Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra