Posted on 05/18/2019 5:24:59 AM PDT by NOBO2012
It’s worth noting that even in the Jetson’s future world of flying cars a driver was still required.
That’s because the Jetsons lived in a world where technology may have advanced but the fundamental elements of human nature remained the same. Which is to say most humans like to be in control. Driving gives us that sense, we can’t control the other idiots on the road but we can control how we maneuver around their stupidity. And that may be why we may actually be closer to the flying car
than the driverless car.
Warning: the images in your rearview mirror are likely not your biggest concern
This despite Elon Musk’s dream car doing its best to get you to leave the driving to Tesla. Which strikes me as even more insane than turning control of your house over to Alexa. While I sort of get why you’d like a computerized assistant to restock the toilet paper and coffee supply I cannot in a thousand years imagine why you’d turn your car controls over to a computer whose guts were built in China and will be, like your laptop, prone to failure at the most inopportune moment…
leaving you completely vulnerable.
Autopilot was active when a Tesla crashed into a truck, killing driver.
The National Transportation Safety Board said a 2018 Tesla Model 3, driven by 50-year-old Jeremy Banner, was in autopilot mode when it collided with a semi truck.
NTSB investigators said Banner turned on the autopilot feature about 10 seconds before the crash, and the autopilot did not execute any evasive maneuvers to avoid the collision.
The Tesla was traveling 68 miles per hour at the time of the crash, according to the NTSB.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said the tractor trailer pulled into the path of the Tesla, and the Tesla's roof was sheared off as it passed underneath the semi. Banner died at the scene.
But then, I’ve written about this before: Driverless Cars: The Pinnacle of Soul-Sucking Anti-American Wussification
Could there be anything less American than driverless cars? I suppose sexbots might quality but certainly driverless cars are right up there.
Why would you NOT want to drive this?
Seriously, driverless cars have no place in the land that practically invented the open road, hit-the-road-Jack-never-come-back motif.
Read the whole thing. It’s still fun. And that’s what cars once were: fun, fun, fun. Now you can take a 3 day cross country road trip and count on one hand the number of cars that are any color other than black, white, sliver or gray. Sad I tell you, just sad.
Posted from: MOTUS A.D.
I’d be quite happy to drive that 58 Impala anywhere.
They just ended the Cruz production I’m Lordstown Ohio and are still making them in Mexico, so I’m Kipling’s this as seeing more Mexico I’m my Chevrolet, and much less USA in my Chevrolet.
The driverless car REVOLUTION, is less dependent on the automakers, and MORE DEPENDENT upon the adoption of universal standards for SMART ROADS. Until your road, can communicate with the vehicle, this technology will remain stalled. Imagine an information superhighway, the internet, with no http protocols. You can’t- because defining the parameters of the network is 95% of the job.
The national network of paved roads, began in Detroit, and all traffic rules, and protocols emanated from there.
I ended my decades long “relationship” and loyalty to Chevrolet in 2013 and have not been happier.
As a transportation professional, I’ve been pondering this for the last 20 years, that is how to make smart roads.
Here in Washington state we have approximately 88,000 lane miles. Thats a heck of a lot of sensors needed to emit signals to a computer traveling up to 80mph. You can place some in the road but then anytime you had to repave, the sensors would need to be replaced. Also, they could put them on power poles. Maybe 5G will be part of the answer since those arrays need to be closer. As for the speed of the car, the computer in the car could adjust the speed based on the road sensors. But then how do you program variables to account for weather conditions.
Interesting problem to say the least...
It is merely another way of getting the all-important data stream on you. Goodbye Freedom!
It is merely another way of getting the all-important data stream on you. Goodbye Freedom!
Smart roads? = government
Lawsuits, accidents = who cannot be sued, government
People won't buy driverless, outlaw everything else = government.
When I was a kid the 58 Impala with the 348 was the thing to have. I had to settle for a red 58 Bel Air with the 283 and three on the tree. Sure wish I had it today. A friend had a 57 Ford with 4 on the floor and a 5th under the seat.
Nothing better on the road than good Ol’ Classic Detroit Iron made back before Detroit became a craphole.
I’m old enough to remember when cars looked different from one another. Even cars in the same family, i.e. Ford, Chrysler, GM, had distinctive looks.
To be fair there were other times cars all looked alike. Take 1930. There's is not dimes difference between a dodge, chevy, de soto or ford coupe looks wise.
I wonder what happens when the 5G or smart road system itself crashes and you are sitting in your car without capability to be driven manually?
Or we get to the point that operating a steering wheel becomes like operating standard transmissions?
Me too. Just get rid of the Continental kit....
All well and good till a swath of thunder-bumpers come through.
CAFE standards and wind tunnels. Curiously, the wind tunnel at Toyota R&D generates very similar results to the wind tunnels at Ford R&D, Chevy R&D, Honda R&D, BMW R&D etc.
About 10 years ago, I looked out at the parking lot at work. There was a Nissan, Toyota and BMW sedan all parked next to one another. Other than the badging, they were all virtually identical in exterior shape and size.
As ubiquitous as Jeeps may be, they still tend to have more individual character than most other vehicles on the road.
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