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Jaguar Land Rover Makes System For Mapping Potholes For Autonomous Vehicles
An anonymous reader writes: Jaguar Land Rover is developing a system that identifies potholes and other obstructions in the road and shares them via the cloud with highway authorities, and, potentially, other drivers with access to the report network. The project's research director Dr. Mike Bell says that such a network could help autonomous vehicles avoid potholes without crossing lanes or endangering other drivers. The team is also working on a stereo-camera system capable of identifying possible obstructions in the road. Dr. Bell says "there is a huge opportunity to turn the information from these vehicle sensors into 'big data' and share it for the benefit of other road users. This could help prevent billions of pounds of vehicle damage and make road repairs more effective."
"This could help prevent billions of pounds of vehicle damage."
Mike Tyson does damage in pounds. Potholes cause economic damage. Silly Brits; measuring car damage as a weight. I'm surprised they didn't say "millions of stones of damage!" ;-)
The northeastern United States has some of the worst potholes in the country, which are largely the result of heavy road wear from traffic combined with cold winters that either create or expand cracks in the pavement. The problem is that it gets so cold here in the winter that road crews are unable to apply asphalt to the road and have to use this "cold pack" stuff that serves as a temporary fix until it gets warm enough to spread asphalt. The "cold pack" is prone to erosion and often wears out multiple times during the winter.
I could see the road departments here using these sensors to figure out where the cold pack is eroding and fix it before it degrades completely.
It seems like the 4x4 Range Rovers might have a 'off-road' setting where they hit the pothole on purpose to give their occupants that authentic off road feel. Around here you see lots of Range Rovers that have never seen anything more challenging than the ramp up into the parking garage at the mall while their owners shop for be-dazzeled jeans with the knees pre-ripped at the the factory. Of course these same cars are outfitted with snorkels, light guards, and rhino bars up front. All chromed and shiny.
Autonomous vehicles will have terribly expensive tire, rim, and suspension repair work in my state every year. Michigan has the worst roads in the nation, and avoiding potholes and subsequent vehicle damage requires illegal driving behavior. Examples that I can think of off hand include driving the wrong way on a two-lane road over a double yellow line, driving halfway in one lane and halfway in another lane, deliberately crossing onto paved shoulders, high-speed swerving maneuvers, and other behaviors that autonomous vehicles will probably not be programmed to do. Expect to pay $1,000-$2,000 per year for your autonomous vehicle, at least if you own one here.
Worse than money, though, is bad accidents. Potholes in Michigan cost the average person about $500/year with defensive driving, but potholes were so bad one year on a road I drove every day that they caused a wheel to fall off. Only because I had just turned off onto a less-used road was I able to stop safely.
I'd be quite upset if my autonomous vehicle was trying to be legal, and as a result caused a total and possibly risked my life.
In a free market, the larger players buy out the smaller players, create enforced monopolies, prices rise and service falls and eventually people start dying. Government steps in and is force to write a whole slew of regulation to prevent to try to prevent recurrence and of course break up the monopolies, to big to fail means to big to allow to exist.
Free market internet and the backbone players will no longer cooperate and start demanding a publishing fee for all content, they will also censor at will. Any new players they will actively bankrupt by temporarily dropping prices at the critical capital investment phase whilst revenue is still to be generated.
They never ever charge a fair price based upon actual costs. They charge the highest possible price for the lowest possible service that is at the limit of what their majority market can afford and the minority beyond that, well, screw them is the response.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
Yes, what causes the billions in economic damage is not pounding by Mike Tyson, but speed bumps This will hopefully provide clear and irrefutable evidence that some speed bumps cause severe to cars even as speeds well below the prevailing limit. Hopefully leading to class actions against the local governments.
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