Robocars, just like any car on California roads

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

Anybody use the original Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I microcomputer and read the book "TRS-80 Assembly Language Made Easy"?

No, but I've used a card punch machine, and the first computer program I wrote ran on a machine with magnetic core memory :-)

[digital rules]

Saw this on the news today. (Ouch) Pretty embarrassing for Volvo.

http://fusion.net/story/139703/self-...ian-detection/

[Hersbird]

Originally Posted by digital rules

Saw this on the news today. (Ouch) Pretty embarrassing for Volvo.

Volvo says horrible 'self-parking car accident' happened because driver didn't have 'pedestrian detection' | Fusion

So it wasn't a test done by Volvo but just some dudes in the Dominican republic that started a test of a car collision avoidance system with the famous words, Hey y'all watch this." (Or Hey y'all ver este!)
The first time I saw that here it was presented as an actual test of an automatic parking feature failure, meaning the computer accelerated the car into the crowd. Now it seems it was humans purposely gunning the motor right into the people expecting the car to take over and stop them.
It's not embarrassing in that Volvo built a system that can be overridden by the human. If they made it so it stopped no matter the driver input then the anti-automation camp would complain we have taken away their ability to run down crowds of pedestrians.
There are videos out there of actual failed tests, this is not one of them.

[P-hack]

Well it says something that the feature to not kill pedestrians costs extra. "City Safety" isn't really. Don't know if it is a language barrier or a BS sales job, but pretty sure they thought the car they just paid for would stop.

This is how google car sees the world, a couple polygons on some map data. I think it would fail the vision test.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by P-hack

Well it says something that the feature to not kill pedestrians costs extra. "City Safety" isn't really.

So why should I have a "City Safety" feature on my car, when I basically never drive in cities?

Don't know if it is a language barrier or a BS sales job, but pretty sure they thought the car they just paid for would stop.

I think the correct word is 'stupidity'.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by P-hack

Google has reached a point where they can literally tilt the table on public opinion, on any subject...

I have entertained the notion of autonomous cars (and lawn mowers, and vacuum cleaners, ...) since way before Google was ever a company.

You might disagree with how the masses forfeit their privacy, but Google builds the things consumers want. If the majority doesn't want autonomous cars, they won't be built in significant quantities.

Originally Posted by P-hack

traction controls are pretty crappy these days

Traction control has never been better. My TSX can accelerate in snow faster than I can because it can monitor wheel spin and react in milliseconds to limit throttle opening. I'm very skilled at accelerating in the snow, but the computer is simply better.

Just the other day I performed an emergency swerve to avoid a crate in the road while traveling 65 MPH. I had to sharply steer back to avoid crossing the 3rd lane over, which I hadn't been monitoring as an escape route. This obviously put me into a fishtail, which the car quickly stamped out by applying brakes to the appropriate wheels. Normally that fishtail would have lasted twice as long.

The useless/too expensive technologies will die, and the useful/affordable ones will proliferate. That is the Darwinian cycle of life for the evolution of technology. Hating the process isn't going to change anything, and only causes stress.

[P-hack]

I think you are waaaay too ideological, like the "free market" is the only thing in play here. And kind of missing the point, perhaps deliberately.

[user removed]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

Anybody use the original Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I microcomputer and read the book "TRS-80 Assembly Language Made Easy"?

Oldest brother has his TRS80 he bought new and it still works, lasted longer than Radio Shack.

regards
mech

[P-hack]

google says they aren't making cars. It seems they just want their cameras everywhere and gobs of data collection when someone does build one.

I imagine apple is in the game for similiar reasonsh.

But the automotive world is hardly a "free market". craptons of safety regs and other regs, unions, trade issues, media BS (including social media), there is no room for just anyone to start making cars seriously. Plus too big companies that tell you what you want. "free market" is a nonsense term in that sense.

[Xist]

Originally Posted by Hersbird

Or Hey y'all ver este!

Gringos say the darndest things.

They just might have used a Spanish word instead of "Hey." "Oye" serves the purpose. I do not know about "y'all," and "ver" means "to see," while "to watch would have made more sense, but you need to conjugate it, and then it includes "you (plural)." Finally, éste refers to a specific thing, while ésto would be more general. They might have said something more like "Oyen, miren ésto."