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Robot cars
Oct. 31st, 2007 01:29 pmThe DARPA Urban Challenge is well underway this week, with robot vehicles competing on a faux-urban test track complete with traffic. Wired has a good event blog right here and it's only going to get more fun as the challenges get stiffer during the week.
It's all very 0.1alpha, with vehicles going bonkers and hitting walls (or a chase car because it was blue, which sounds like a big can of steamed fail right there). But you know, I like the idea of robot cars. Take all the military notions away: these could be vehicles which pass at a safe distance and speed, don't cut you up, stop at the scene of a collision, and stick to the speed limit.
I forsee a future when human-driven cars will have to have a flashing safety light on top, to warn us cyclists that some numpty is liable to be impatient, angry, and not take responsiblity for his actions. And yeah, I just love the idea of traffic-jamming eight lanes of robot cars knowing they'll try not to hit me ;)
It's all very 0.1alpha, with vehicles going bonkers and hitting walls (or a chase car because it was blue, which sounds like a big can of steamed fail right there). But you know, I like the idea of robot cars. Take all the military notions away: these could be vehicles which pass at a safe distance and speed, don't cut you up, stop at the scene of a collision, and stick to the speed limit.
I forsee a future when human-driven cars will have to have a flashing safety light on top, to warn us cyclists that some numpty is liable to be impatient, angry, and not take responsiblity for his actions. And yeah, I just love the idea of traffic-jamming eight lanes of robot cars knowing they'll try not to hit me ;)
