Horizon - car technology and crashing

[summerdays]

If these cars are going to become super intelligent - can they be programmed so that they inform the police and insurance company if being driven badly or literally shut down the engine. Imagine if the one where it was looking where you were gazing should also be able to detect a phone anywhere near your head - in which case bring the car to a halt beside the road.

 

[snailracer]

If a pedestrian - or any other 'uncontrolled' road user - walks out into the road within 20 feet of a car approaching at 70mph, there's no technology on Earth can save them. It's "violating the laws of physics, Cap'n". Or is it? Increase the coefficient of friction between tyre and road, so that the car can decelerate at 8g, perhaps?…

In the scenario you describe, I would bet on the car outperforming a human driver every time.


A Tornado or F-111 bomber can fly 30m above the ground at 400mph because their onboard terrain-following guidance systems have millisecond reflexes and unbroken concentration, and those systems were developed in the 1970’s. In fact, the limiting factor to how low and fast they can fly is the g-tolerance of the pilots on board.

Electronic Brake Assist is already out there – if a driver brakes quickly and fast enough (or a sensor sees an imminent collision), the car recognizes it’s an emergency and boosts the brakes to the max – apparently, most drivers simply don’t press the brake pedal hard/fast enough. It saved my bacon once . It was quite creepy feeling the brake pedal drop to the firewall by itself...and then slowly rise back up after I had put my foot back on the accelerator

 

[downfader]

Another comment on that programme (now having watched it on iPlayer). One volunteer driver was set the task of driving along the motorway, then she was set some task designed to sap her concentration, remembering numbers sort of thing. I don't thing they followed-up that test sufficiently: they didn't show how her driving was affected by this exercise, how many more near-misses or errors of judgement she had whilst the test was under way. Instead they merely concentrated on her bio measurements - heart rate, sweating and the like.

Which is a pity, and a missed opportunity. Because it seems to me most important to know how nearly a distracted driver turns into a killer. That way lives are lost - or saved.

I think they were focussing on that as a precursor to more research, such is the way this stuff tend to be done, dribs and drabs - one little hypothesis at a time. Only then can it add up to the bigger picture.

 

[downfader]

Setting things up and then crashing them must be a really good job. I saw an interview with someone who worked on destruction testing of train carriages and nuclear freight wagons and it looked like great fun!

I used to know a guy who worked for the government blowing things up. No word of a lie. He said he had the greatest job in the world.

 

[ColinJ]

The possibilities are very exciting. They could build headwear detection into them - the engine would not start if the driver was wearing any kind of hat. Or the engine could cut out if you tried to play a Susan Boyle CD.

Could be a bit tricky if you put the CD in just as you tried overtaking towards oncoming traffic though ...!

 

[tyred]

The possibilities are very exciting. They could build headwear detection into them - the engine would not start if the driver was wearing any kind of hat. Or ithe engine could cut out if you tried to play a Susan Boyle CD.

ANyone who does that should be charged with inappropriate use of a CD player

 

[661-Pete]

The possibilities are very exciting. They could build headwear detection into them - the engine would not start if the driver was wearing any kind of hat. Or ithe engine could cut out if you tried to play a Susan Boyle CD.

I think this will happen already. The unwelcome harmonics will almost certainly resonate with the natural frequency of vibration of the cylinder block, causing it to fly apart.

 

[downfader]

I think this will happen already. The unwelcome harmonics will almost certainly resonate with the natural frequency of vibration of the cylinder block, causing it to fly apart.

I hear she's going to cover Queen's "who wants to live forever!"