FWIW, it will probably also beep if any of the sensors is covered with ice or snow. At least my wife's car does.
On the whole, I think many of the new capabilities are positive. A backup camera is useful, and I wouldn't mind automatic parking.
However, the rich feature set is largely obviated by atrocious and frequently incomprehensible user interfaces. Just one example of way too many, my wife managed to somehow (she has no idea how) turn the volume on the GPS (dubbed Miss Guided in honor of it's sometimes problematic routings) to zero. She called the dealer service department, but was apparently unable to describe the problem in terms they could deal with. Or maybe they simply didn't know how to fix the problem.
It took me way too many hours of my life to discover that I could restore the volume to normal by turning on the GPS, turning on the radio, driving somewhere, waiting for the radio volume to fade when approaching a turn indicating that the GPS was trying to talk, and then (and only then) adjusting the volume control.
If this is indicative of life in the future, you folks have a truly dismal experience to look forward to.
I don't think so. I've seen the 38 cent number in enough places that I'm fairly confident that it correct. e.g. "However, Germany is still paying nearly the highest electricity rates found in Europe at 38 cents per kilowatt-hour ($0.38/kWh). By comparison, Germanyâ(TM)s rates are 63% higher than the United Kingdom." http://www.globalenergymatters...
My impression is that in Europe subsidies tor wind, solar, producers are paid from taxes on electricity users rather than from general revenue. That would certainly cause rates to be elevated compared to the US. Especially if, as seems to be the case with German solar subsidies , the subsidies are poorly structured resulting in sometimes paying for power that can't be resold because no one wants/needs it.. But I've never looked into the mechanics.
As for German CO2 emissions: "Data from BPâ(TM)s Statistical Review of World Energy also make clear that German CO2 emissions have risen dramatically since the nuclear phase-out. Emissions have shot up from 802.3 million metric tons in 2011 to 842.8 million metric tons in 2013, a 5.1 percent increase.[16]." http://instituteforenergyresea... (Parenthetically, I don't see a 5.1% increase as being "dramatic". But it IS a step in the "wrong" direction)
In fairness, that is probably largely due to the German decision to phase out nuclear power. While I have doubts that was a prudent decision, it's certainly not an irrational decision and the Germans have every right to decide that the risks of nuclear power outweigh the benefits
"Wind and solar ARE cheap. That's why they're bing built so many places".
I think you've been misinformed my friend. Let me help you out with a quote.
Let me quote Warren Buffet.:Â"I will do anything that is basically covered by the law to reduce Berkshire's tax rate," Buffet told an audience in Omaha, Nebraska recently. "For example, on wind energy, we get a tax credit if we build a lot of wind farms. That's the only reason to build them. They don't make sense without the tax credit."
Might want to do a little research and move out beyond the inaccurate sources you probably have been reading.
"So the only way to avoid exponential growth in energy consumption for the next few centuries is to cut our energy usage right now. Did I get that right?"
You have it right. I'm sure the news that not only can they not have two SUVs parked in front of the yurt, but running water, indoor plumbing, refrigeration, etc are out also will come as welcome news to the 6 billion or so souls living in undeveloped and developing countries.
They won't mind. Riiiiiiight. Of course they won't. They LIKE living in poverty.
"The third one is the toughest. Nuclear power, today, is more expensive than wind and in some places, more expensive than solar."
Not if you can handle fourth grade arithmetic. If wind and solar are so cheap, why do you have to bribe people to build them?
The answer is that wind and solar are intermittent power sources and unless you can match them to a load (e.g. solar and air conditioning) you need to include the costs of storage and or (much of the cost of) backup generation. When you compute the actual costs of wind and solar as opposed to unrealistic sticker prices used by "green" advocates, they are not cheap at all for most applications. Nor are they likely to be cheap any time soon.
Note that the world leaders in green power -- Denmark and Germany have retail customer electricity prices approaching 40 cents a kw/hr. And German carbon emissions have actually been increasing despite their massive wind and solar buildout.
A final thought. India (6 reactors under construction) and China (21 plants under construction) are planning to build a lot of nuclear plants in the near future. Do you think Joe Romm's cost figures reflect the costs of an Asian built reactor?
You idiot!!! You are not supposed to use IPV6 and the Internet of Things to actually do stuff. They exist merely as a vehicle to transfer wealth from a client (you) to a service provider ("them"). Once you recognize and accept that, you will find that questions such as how to connect to a server with an unknowable address will no longer seem meaningful.
> Swift IS INTENTIONALLY C like, intentionally. ALL of those requests are utterly stupid when your talking about a language that is intentionally like C/C++
If C/C++ is truly the ultimate programming language, why change it in any way?
Am I the only person dubious about the quality of the opinions of a panel of BBC "experts" on anything connected to climate or energy?
Trust me on this, the Mojave and adjacent areas will be covered with working, cost effective solar before the Sahara becomes a serious target for massive solar investment. Right now, there is a lot of solar strung out between Las Vegas and Mojave, but once you get past the puff-pieces, the results aren't all that good.
If solar is marginal in a region with low land costs (lots of government land out there), good roads, genuine environmental concerns about fossil fuel emissions, and ready access to population centers, you can safely bet that it's not quite ready for prime time.
In a couple of centuries? Sure. In 2215, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see massive solar infrastructure in place in North Africa.
> Dune-polished Saharan sand is particularly (pun intended) bad at coating surfaces
Quite possibly true. But if experience in the US desert Southwest is any guide, wind blown sand does an excellent job of rendering surfaces like windshields opaque by covering them with tiny pits. Won't do wonders for efficiency. (Sand also does a number on auto paint jobs).
> Doesn't sound right to me. My bank constantly pesters me to "install the app" instead of using a browser. I don't see why I would need to check my bank balance while driving on the freeway...
Perhaps they've made a lot of loans to auto body repair businesses and are trying to protect their investment. Distracted driving and all that...
BTW, am I the only one who finds the phrase "Innovation in Financial Services" a bit less than reassuring? Sort of like "This vehicle is equipped with the very latest in untested braking technology."
> The F35 program burns through $230M every three days.
Indeed, $230 million will buy you maybe two F-35s -- with money left over for a nice dinner. Of course that's if you believe the current cost projections for the USAF version(why would anyone do that?). The Navy and Marine corps models come with more cup holders, wi-fi and simulated leopard seat covers. They cost a bit more.
"drivers in anything but freeway and some limited pre mapped city driving situations any time soon."
I imagine that they can do a bit better than that. e.g. navigate a parking lot on a "If it isn't moving steer around it and if it is moving wait for it to get out of the way" basis. But they are going to get stuck occasionally and need a bit of help -- which is why they'll need a driver on board who is capable of making decisions.
Overall, I agree. It'll surely be a decade or three before autonomous cars can consistently navigate arbitrary urban or suburban streets safely.
Increasingly, Musk seems like an old fashioned snake oil salesman.
All true. And the cycles have time scales that aren't too dissimilar to glaciation cycles.
A lot of people are looking at Milankovic cycles and trying to reconcile astronomical information which is probably very good with polar ice core temperature data that is maybe less so. So far, the results are kind of underwhelming. But maybe that'll change. Or maybe Milankovic is one component of whatever triggers and terminates glaciations and we don't have the other factor(s) well worked out yet.
FWIW, the highstand of the ocean during the last interglacial period roughly 120,000 years ago was probably about 8 meters (25 feet for speakers of American) above current sea level at Miami. That's without any help from human CO2 emissions.
On the bright side, sea level rise is slow and anyway South Florida will likely eventually make a magnificent coral reef. Many people would consider that to be an improvement.
By an odd coincidence, about 20 minutes after I posted that, my wife was confronted with a family emergency and needed driving instructions to a city around 400km from here. Google maps used to have a straightforward interface that worked well (albeit a bit slowly) with just about any browser. But about 6-8 months ago they replaced it with a modernized, low-contrast, monstrosity with one of the more opaque UIs I've ever encountered. Apparently it only works with a "modern browser", because I had to go through three PCs and 5 browsers to find one (Chromium as it happens) that would actually display and print driving instructions. I'm sure the folks at Google are very proud of their shiny new UI. I can't think why.
I think perhaps I am expected to upgrade the user end of this workflow. i.e. I need to be replaced with a more modern user.
As far as I can see, hiring a "professional" UI/UX person is roughly equivalent to replacing your amateur alchemist with a professional. At the end of the day, you still don't have any gold.
I once had the misfortune to work on a project that was blessed withTWO UI experts. Those two dudes agreed on absolutely nothing except that the existing UI sucked.
I switched from Thunderbird to Alpine many years ago because I simply lack the patience to deal with modern GUI mail programs. Funny thing how Eudora in 1995 was fast and efficient on WFWG on a 386 CPU with a slow modem on a noisy phone line while modern GUI email progams seem to take forever. I'm told that is called progress.
Handling attachments is kind of klunky in Alpine though. If I got a lot of emails with attachments that I actually wanted to look at, I suppose I'd use some GUI monstrosity. BTW, Another virtue of alpine that you didn't mention is that one can use expect scripts with it.
"I have always thought that for automated vehicles to be a reality, ALL traffic has to be automated"
Almost surely not. Today's autonomous vehicles do pretty well in routine traffic except that people tend to run into them occasionally. As the percentage of automated vehicles increases, the cowboys, clowns and lunatics will be more and more constrained by the behavior of the cars around them. May be less romantic, but the roads will probably be a hell of a lot safer.
The real question is possibly how towns will finance their police departments when (almost) all the cars are driving legally.
"Kinda defeats the whole purpose of the autonomous car, might as well just drive rather than having to pretend to drive and ready to take the wheel instantly..."
I suspect that will evolve into, you have to be in the driver's seat and not totally dysfunctional. But the car will tell you if it needs help. You can text, listen to music, think beautiful thoughts, sleep, plot revenge on your coworkers for real or imagined slights, etc. You just have to be available if the car needs help with a difficult situation.
And eventually that'll evolve into the car will check with the qualified driver if there is one and otherwise will pull over as safely as it can and call for assistance.
Slashdot Mirror
FWIW, it will probably also beep if any of the sensors is covered with ice or snow. At least my wife's car does.
On the whole, I think many of the new capabilities are positive. A backup camera is useful, and I wouldn't mind automatic parking.
However, the rich feature set is largely obviated by atrocious and frequently incomprehensible user interfaces. Just one example of way too many, my wife managed to somehow (she has no idea how) turn the volume on the GPS (dubbed Miss Guided in honor of it's sometimes problematic routings) to zero. She called the dealer service department, but was apparently unable to describe the problem in terms they could deal with. Or maybe they simply didn't know how to fix the problem.
It took me way too many hours of my life to discover that I could restore the volume to normal by turning on the GPS, turning on the radio, driving somewhere, waiting for the radio volume to fade when approaching a turn indicating that the GPS was trying to talk, and then (and only then) adjusting the volume control.
If this is indicative of life in the future, you folks have a truly dismal experience to look forward to.
> Wrong on all accounts.
I don't think so. I've seen the 38 cent number in enough places that I'm fairly confident that it correct. e.g. "However, Germany is still paying nearly the highest electricity rates found in Europe at 38 cents per kilowatt-hour ($0.38/kWh). By comparison, Germanyâ(TM)s rates are 63% higher than the United Kingdom." http://www.globalenergymatters...
My impression is that in Europe subsidies tor wind, solar, producers are paid from taxes on electricity users rather than from general revenue. That would certainly cause rates to be elevated compared to the US. Especially if, as seems to be the case with German solar subsidies , the subsidies are poorly structured resulting in sometimes paying for power that can't be resold because no one wants/needs it.. But I've never looked into the mechanics.
As for German CO2 emissions: "Data from BPâ(TM)s Statistical Review of World Energy also make clear that German CO2 emissions have risen dramatically since the nuclear phase-out. Emissions have shot up from 802.3 million metric tons in 2011 to 842.8 million metric tons in 2013, a 5.1 percent increase.[16]." http://instituteforenergyresea... (Parenthetically, I don't see a 5.1% increase as being "dramatic". But it IS a step in the "wrong" direction)
In fairness, that is probably largely due to the German decision to phase out nuclear power. While I have doubts that was a prudent decision, it's certainly not an irrational decision and the Germans have every right to decide that the risks of nuclear power outweigh the benefits
"Wind and solar ARE cheap. That's why they're bing built so many places".
I think you've been misinformed my friend. Let me help you out with a quote.
Let me quote Warren Buffet. :Â"I will do anything that is basically covered by the law to reduce Berkshire's tax rate," Buffet told an audience in Omaha, Nebraska recently. "For example, on wind energy, we get a tax credit if we build a lot of wind farms. That's the only reason to build them. They don't make sense without the tax credit."
Might want to do a little research and move out beyond the inaccurate sources you probably have been reading.
"So the only way to avoid exponential growth in energy consumption for the next few centuries is to cut our energy usage right now. Did I get that right?"
You have it right. I'm sure the news that not only can they not have two SUVs parked in front of the yurt, but running water, indoor plumbing, refrigeration, etc are out also will come as welcome news to the 6 billion or so souls living in undeveloped and developing countries.
They won't mind. Riiiiiiight. Of course they won't. They LIKE living in poverty.
"The third one is the toughest. Nuclear power, today, is more expensive than wind and in some places, more expensive than solar."
Not if you can handle fourth grade arithmetic. If wind and solar are so cheap, why do you have to bribe people to build them?
The answer is that wind and solar are intermittent power sources and unless you can match them to a load (e.g. solar and air conditioning) you need to include the costs of storage and or (much of the cost of) backup generation. When you compute the actual costs of wind and solar as opposed to unrealistic sticker prices used by "green" advocates, they are not cheap at all for most applications. Nor are they likely to be cheap any time soon.
Note that the world leaders in green power -- Denmark and Germany have retail customer electricity prices approaching 40 cents a kw/hr. And German carbon emissions have actually been increasing despite their massive wind and solar buildout.
A final thought. India (6 reactors under construction) and China (21 plants under construction) are planning to build a lot of nuclear plants in the near future. Do you think Joe Romm's cost figures reflect the costs of an Asian built reactor?
Some other dude did it." The lawyers have spoken:
In case you are curious, yes, there do seem to be folks out there keeping totals on acknowledged data breaches. e.g. http://www.idtheftcenter.org/i...
2005 toÂNovember 30, 2015
Number of breaches = 5,754
Number of Records = 856,548,312
Well, yes. A grotesque human-eating blob might be an improvement on the current crop of candidates. What's its position on the TPP?
>13. You will press the 'start' button to shut off the engine.
That's exactly how you turn off the engine in my wife's Hyundai. How did you know?
You idiot!!! You are not supposed to use IPV6 and the Internet of Things to actually do stuff. They exist merely as a vehicle to transfer wealth from a client (you) to a service provider ("them"). Once you recognize and accept that, you will find that questions such as how to connect to a server with an unknowable address will no longer seem meaningful.
> I'll get by, somehow, but I really wanted to be able to address every article of clothing in my wife's wardrobe.
And remember that you need to address each shoe with a unique address. One shoe can not always be assumed to always speak for the pair.
> Swift IS INTENTIONALLY C like, intentionally. ALL of those requests are utterly stupid when your talking about a language that is intentionally like C/C++
If C/C++ is truly the ultimate programming language, why change it in any way?
Am I the only person dubious about the quality of the opinions of a panel of BBC "experts" on anything connected to climate or energy?
Trust me on this, the Mojave and adjacent areas will be covered with working, cost effective solar before the Sahara becomes a serious target for massive solar investment. Right now, there is a lot of solar strung out between Las Vegas and Mojave, but once you get past the puff-pieces, the results aren't all that good.
If solar is marginal in a region with low land costs (lots of government land out there), good roads, genuine environmental concerns about fossil fuel emissions, and ready access to population centers, you can safely bet that it's not quite ready for prime time.
In a couple of centuries? Sure. In 2215, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see massive solar infrastructure in place in North Africa.
> Dune-polished Saharan sand is particularly (pun intended) bad at coating surfaces
Quite possibly true. But if experience in the US desert Southwest is any guide, wind blown sand does an excellent job of rendering surfaces like windshields opaque by covering them with tiny pits. Won't do wonders for efficiency. (Sand also does a number on auto paint jobs).
My impression is that it is rarely appropriate to include the words "bank" and "think" in the same sentence.
> Doesn't sound right to me. My bank constantly pesters me to "install the app" instead of using a browser. I don't see why I would need to check my bank balance while driving on the freeway ...
Perhaps they've made a lot of loans to auto body repair businesses and are trying to protect their investment. Distracted driving and all that ...
BTW, am I the only one who finds the phrase "Innovation in Financial Services" a bit less than reassuring? Sort of like "This vehicle is equipped with the very latest in untested braking technology."
> The F35 program burns through $230M every three days.
Indeed, $230 million will buy you maybe two F-35s -- with money left over for a nice dinner. Of course that's if you believe the current cost projections for the USAF version(why would anyone do that?). The Navy and Marine corps models come with more cup holders, wi-fi and simulated leopard seat covers. They cost a bit more.
And all the models are priced without engines.
"drivers in anything but freeway and some limited pre mapped city driving situations any time soon."
I imagine that they can do a bit better than that. e.g. navigate a parking lot on a "If it isn't moving steer around it and if it is moving wait for it to get out of the way" basis. But they are going to get stuck occasionally and need a bit of help -- which is why they'll need a driver on board who is capable of making decisions.
Overall, I agree. It'll surely be a decade or three before autonomous cars can consistently navigate arbitrary urban or suburban streets safely.
Increasingly, Musk seems like an old fashioned snake oil salesman.
All true. And the cycles have time scales that aren't too dissimilar to glaciation cycles.
A lot of people are looking at Milankovic cycles and trying to reconcile astronomical information which is probably very good with polar ice core temperature data that is maybe less so. So far, the results are kind of underwhelming. But maybe that'll change. Or maybe Milankovic is one component of whatever triggers and terminates glaciations and we don't have the other factor(s) well worked out yet.
You sayin that American TV might be BAD for kids? I think there might be laws against asserting that. If not, there probably will be.
FWIW, the highstand of the ocean during the last interglacial period roughly 120,000 years ago was probably about 8 meters (25 feet for speakers of American) above current sea level at Miami. That's without any help from human CO2 emissions.
On the bright side, sea level rise is slow and anyway South Florida will likely eventually make a magnificent coral reef. Many people would consider that to be an improvement.
By an odd coincidence, about 20 minutes after I posted that, my wife was confronted with a family emergency and needed driving instructions to a city around 400km from here. Google maps used to have a straightforward interface that worked well (albeit a bit slowly) with just about any browser. But about 6-8 months ago they replaced it with a modernized, low-contrast, monstrosity with one of the more opaque UIs I've ever encountered. Apparently it only works with a "modern browser", because I had to go through three PCs and 5 browsers to find one (Chromium as it happens) that would actually display and print driving instructions. I'm sure the folks at Google are very proud of their shiny new UI. I can't think why.
I think perhaps I am expected to upgrade the user end of this workflow. i.e. I need to be replaced with a more modern user.
As far as I can see, hiring a "professional" UI/UX person is roughly equivalent to replacing your amateur alchemist with a professional. At the end of the day, you still don't have any gold.
I once had the misfortune to work on a project that was blessed withTWO UI experts. Those two dudes agreed on absolutely nothing except that the existing UI sucked.
I switched from Thunderbird to Alpine many years ago because I simply lack the patience to deal with modern GUI mail programs. Funny thing how Eudora in 1995 was fast and efficient on WFWG on a 386 CPU with a slow modem on a noisy phone line while modern GUI email progams seem to take forever. I'm told that is called progress.
Handling attachments is kind of klunky in Alpine though. If I got a lot of emails with attachments that I actually wanted to look at, I suppose I'd use some GUI monstrosity. BTW, Another virtue of alpine that you didn't mention is that one can use expect scripts with it.
"I have always thought that for automated vehicles to be a reality, ALL traffic has to be automated"
Almost surely not. Today's autonomous vehicles do pretty well in routine traffic except that people tend to run into them occasionally. As the percentage of automated vehicles increases, the cowboys, clowns and lunatics will be more and more constrained by the behavior of the cars around them. May be less romantic, but the roads will probably be a hell of a lot safer.
The real question is possibly how towns will finance their police departments when (almost) all the cars are driving legally.
"Kinda defeats the whole purpose of the autonomous car, might as well just drive rather than having to pretend to drive and ready to take the wheel instantly..."
I suspect that will evolve into, you have to be in the driver's seat and not totally dysfunctional. But the car will tell you if it needs help. You can text, listen to music, think beautiful thoughts, sleep, plot revenge on your coworkers for real or imagined slights, etc. You just have to be available if the car needs help with a difficult situation.
And eventually that'll evolve into the car will check with the qualified driver if there is one and otherwise will pull over as safely as it can and call for assistance.