Automatic Brakes Stopped Berlin Truck During Christmas Market Attack (dw.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Deutsche Welle: The truck that plowed into a Berlin Christmas market, killing 12, came to a halt due an automatic braking system, according to German media reports on Wednesday. The automatic braking system potentially saved the lives of many more people in the recent terrorist attack. An investigation by newspaper "Suddeutsche Zeitung" and broadcasters "NDR" and "WDR" found the Scania R 450 semi-trailer stopped after between 70 and 80 meters (250 feet). The system was reportedly engaged after sensing a collision. Previous reports speculated that the truck had driven erratically and stopped due to the heroic actions of the truck's Polish driver, who lay fatally wounded in the cabin. In 2012 the European Union adopted regulations requiring all new trucks exceeding 3,500 kilograms be fitted with advanced emergency braking systems. The systems initially alert drivers and then take evasive action. The regulation was adopted to reduce the number of rear end collisions by trucks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Could have stopped. Should have stopped.... Technology is evolving fast.
If this technologically non-savvy terrorist had no idea about automated braking, just think about technologically savvy terrorist who will be able to program automatic trucks to ignore collision by hacking certain sensors. We are talking about automatic road killing robot.
How would you stop such autonomous cargo truck with no driver to shoot at?
That's what we need now.
We must be accepting of all people even the ones for whom murdering infidels is part of their culture.
If it wasn't for her insane refugee policy Angela Merkel could have stopped the truck attack all together.
The system was reportedly engaged after sensing a collision.
The regulation was adopted to reduce the number of rear end collisions by trucks.
So, ... this system reduces the number of rear end collisions by slamming on the breaks after it hits something?
i don't see any double edged sword : you can get a vehicle to accelerate without braking with a stone and a bit of tape, and "ignore collision" is the default mode without that system. But the problem would not be to accelerate without a driver, the problem would be to drive at all. You would need to remote control the vehicle, a much harder problem. Even if you used a driver-less car you would need to change the software to bypass all securities. Needless to say, it is much easier terror wise to get a cheap drone, attach 500 kg of remotely detonated plastic, and use that, you got remote control together with a camera built in.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
...already solved this particular problem.
You place them in camps 'temporarily' then 'process' them through a building that they are not allowed to visit the other 'detainees' after entering...
But I guess that solution is not long in the cards, thanks to Merckel.. or Obummer if you're American and prefer someone closer to home to blame.
Any asylum seeker found guilty of committing a violent crime should be booted immediately.
Funny, Trump suggested this for illegal immigrants, instead of refugees, and he was called a racist for saying it. I see people decided you are insightful for saying something very similar, just a different country with different people. The difference is Trump was talking about those illegally in the country, instead of approved to be there.
I'm not sure why this is an acceptable view to have now, where it was completely irrational and crazy just a month ago. Perhaps people should keep this in mind when trying to figure out how he won the election.
Fortunately you have to be kind of an idiot to want to murder people like this anyway.
There's some evidence to suggest otherwise:
Which academic pursuit has been the most prevalent among Islamic jihadis?
It’s not the oddest question to come up at a dinner party, especially at the University of Oxford. But when it comes up between a Middle East expert and a sociologist, idle talk yields to a quest for data. That’s how political scientist Steffen Hertog and sociology professor Diego Gambetta soon found themselves poring through records of 404 people from 30 countries engaged in political violence between 2005 and 2007. Their answer? Engineering.
Of the 178 whose academic focus could be ascertained, 44 percent of those were engineers—most of them in electrical engineering, civil engineering, and computer studies. The next-largest group, Islamic studies, had fewer than half as many, at 19 percent [see table below, ”Fields of Study”].
* http://spectrum.ieee.org/telecom/security/extremist-engineers
There's no call for gun BANS. Only better gun control.
It's really quite simple.
Stop making it so easy to get a gun, there will be fewer guns, therefore fewer people will get shot.
Stop letting nuts get guns, and there will be a LOT fewer deaths from guns.
If you're really scared of criminals, arm the police. Oh you do? But here's some other things to remember
1) If they know you're armed, they will bring one too. And they're away and know it's a dangerous situation, whilst you're asleep in a home you know is safe because you're armed.
2) They just want your TV. It's fucking insured. Let them have it. Your TV isn't worth taking someone else's life.
3) When you come home pissed, your missus will hear an intruder and shoot you dead with your own gun. That sucks. Even if you survive.
4) if a criminal needs a gun, he knows where to get one. your house.
Why was this story published? It's exactly the kind of information the next would-be mass murderer would need to refine his attack.
I'm astonished by the amount of detail law enforcement is willing to give on cases like this one. Safety features on the truck, details on how the attacker fled (and how much success he had using those methods). Nobody except greedy media companies benefits from these being common knowledge, and we should stop indulging them.
most rear end collisions by trucks is caused by a truck loosing its breaks.