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Google's Self-Driving Cars Now Know When To Honk (engadget.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Engadget: Google's self-driving cars are not only getting smarter by the day, but they're also getting a little bit more polite. According to the project's latest monthly report, the self-driving car team has recently been teaching the car's AI when and how to honk the horn and give the human drivers on the road a helpful heads up. In order to train its honking algorithm, the team tested a variety of honk-worthy situations, like a car backing out of a blind driveway or a car headed the wrong way down a one-way street. At first, the car would play a little honk sound inside the vehicle so engineers could record whether there was a legitimate need for a honk and provide teaching feedback. Once they felt the AI was ready, they let it blare its horn to the world. The report goes on to say Google has "sound-designed the self-driving car's 'hum' so pedestrians and cyclists around the car can hear it coming." The sound increases when the car speeds up, and decreases when the car slows down.
Only honking is not enough
Since Google's self driving car are running on computers and computer can differentiate different dangerous situations Google should make their cars 'talk' --- like "Watch out, I'm on your left lane!" or 'get the fuck out of my lane, asshole!', or something like that!
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
if (location - evilcorpHQ < 100) {
horn.honk(5000);
}
if (location - tinderuser.closest < 50) {
horn.honk(50);
horn.honk(50);
}
That usually come shortly after the horn honk...but had to be timed just right....
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
And in most of these locations, bicycling on the sidewalk is also illegal.
How do they know if a girl is worth honking at? Can they detect pretty girls?
This is a cool advancement, because it shows that the cars are getting good at sending a message. But do they LISTEN to honks?
Reminds me of my favourite bad driving trifecta. Was going to a burger place, going down the street and one ahole one cuts me off, 1min later another ahole is driving behind me with his high beams on blinding me, 1min after that we're all standing at a turning light behind a car waiting to turn. And waiting, and waiting... The light never went green because ahole three was too busy txting to realise she's not actually the front car anymore and no one is standing on the turning sensor so our light never went green.
I got out, tapped on her window and let lose:
YOU Get the fuck off your phone and drive up to the sensor!
YOU Watch where the fuck your going before you get someone killed!
and YOU your fucking highbeams are still on, OFF NOW!!!!!
It was the second most satisfying experience of my driving career.
Driving home in peak hour one day there's a car a few meters in front of me who clearly thinks he can travel faster than the backed up traffic. Ever chance he gets he jumps into the other lane which he thinks is moving faster only for that to be the slightly slower lane. 10min later he ends up behind me. Traffic breaks a little and we start moving a bit shy of the speed limit, truck in my lane and a break in the other, so I change lanes right as that idiot does. He honks and tailgates me as if that was his god given lane.
At some point we end up in the right lane, idiot still behind me, and we're behind a another truck I can't see around. There's a suddenly very large break in the left lane with no cars at all which I merge into (because I need to go left up ahead), but half way into the lane I change my mind (for a good reason) and jump back into the right lane.
Idiot behind my who already accelerated before I even started to merge honks, swerves into the left lane, accelerates, gives me the finger, and then rear-ends the parked bus (the good reason why I didn't want to go in that lane).
Some people just need to chill.