Re:Uber Self-Driving Car That Struck Pedestrian Wasn’t Set t...
by carapace on Thursday May 24, 2018 @05:38PM
(#17148679)
I actually feel sick...
> 1.3 seconds before impact ... emergency braking maneuver was needed ... not enabled ... to reduce the potential for erratic vehicle behavior
This wind-up toy killed a person.
Transport is a waking nightmare anyway. Every time you get in your car, every mile you drive, you're buying a ticket in a horrifying lottery. If you lose the lottery you reach your destination. If you win... blood, pain, death.
Into this we're setting loose these badly-programmed projections of our science-fiction.
- - - -
A sane "greenfield" transportation network would begin with three separate networks, one each for pedestrians, cyclists, and motor vehicles. (As long as I'm dreaming of sane urban infrastructure, let me sing the praises of C. Alexander's "Pattern Language" et. al., and specifically the "Alternating Fingers of City and Country" pattern!)
My mom has dementia and is losing her mind. We don't trust her to take the bus across town anymore, and she hasn't driven in years. If I wanted an auto-auto[1] to take her places safely I could build that today. It would be limited to about three miles an hour with a big ol' smiley sign on the back saying "Go Around Asshole" in nicer language. Obviously, you would restrict it to routes that didn't gum up major roads. It would be approximately an electric scooter wrapped in safety mechanisms and encased in a carbon fiber monocoque hull. I can't recall the name now but there's a way to set up impact dampers so that if the hull is hit most of the kinetic energy is absorbed into flywheels (as opposed to bouncing the occupant around like a rag doll or hitting them with explosive pillows.) This machine would pick its way across the city like "an old man crossing a river in winter." Its maximum speed would at all times be set by the braking distance to any possible obstacle.
[1] I maintain that "auto-auto" is the obviously cromulent name for self-driving automobiles, and will henceforth use the term unabashedly.
> 1.3 seconds before impact ... emergency braking maneuver was needed ... not enabled ... to reduce the potential for erratic vehicle behavior
This wind-up toy killed a person.
Transport is a waking nightmare anyway. Every time you get in your car, every mile you drive, you're buying a ticket in a horrifying lottery. If you lose the lottery you reach your destination. If you win... blood, pain, death.
Into this we're setting loose these badly-programmed projections of our science-fiction.
- - - -
A sane "greenfield" transportation network would begin with three separate networks, one each for pedestrians, cyclists, and motor vehicles. (As long as I'm dreaming of sane urban infrastructure, let me sing the praises of C. Alexander's "Pattern Language" et. al., and specifically the "Alternating Fingers of City and Country" pattern!)
My mom has dementia and is losing her mind. We don't trust her to take the bus across town anymore, and she hasn't driven in years. If I wanted an auto-auto[1] to take her places safely I could build that today. It would be limited to about three miles an hour with a big ol' smiley sign on the back saying "Go Around Asshole" in nicer language. Obviously, you would restrict it to routes that didn't gum up major roads. It would be approximately an electric scooter wrapped in safety mechanisms and encased in a carbon fiber monocoque hull. I can't recall the name now but there's a way to set up impact dampers so that if the hull is hit most of the kinetic energy is absorbed into flywheels (as opposed to bouncing the occupant around like a rag doll or hitting them with explosive pillows.) This machine would pick its way across the city like "an old man crossing a river in winter." Its maximum speed would at all times be set by the braking distance to any possible obstacle.
[1] I maintain that "auto-auto" is the obviously cromulent name for self-driving automobiles, and will henceforth use the term unabashedly.