Smart cars are all well and good until you start to think of the horrible consequences if something should go wrong. Honestly, we're willing to take that risk just for the rewards of cruising along in a robotic car "platoon": saving gas, skipping traffic and perhaps
getting in a bit of Gears of War while we're at it. Luckily, more judicious minds than ours are hard at work at the problem, and just might've discovered a way to keep smart car-filled roads from becoming riddled with the bodies of overly-optimistic bloggers. Alasdair Renfrew of Manchester University, UK, along with a couple of colleagues, has devised an extendable fender that can keep you safe and humming along the freeway, even when traditional wireless communications fail. The smart cars will traditionally be communicating with each other and roadside beacons wirelessly, and if one of those elements breaks down, the cars bust out powered bumpers to feel the car in front and navigate accordingly. That way, as long as the front car of a pack keeps to the speed limit and in its lane, the group should be fine -- and your Xbox session needn't be interrupted.
posted February 20th 2007 12:08PM
umm.......what?
Does this mean motorcycles would get their own lane?
so bumper to bumper... odd
I've always despised the caterpillar effect, where someone a quarter of a mile ahead closes a gap in traffic, and everyone accelerates behind them, but then has to slow down. (If viewed from above, and if you consider each car a "segment," it looks like a caterpillar moving)
This would change all that, as the delay between car1_accelerate and car2_accelerate (and so on) shaves down to milliseconds. You're SOL if the car ahead of you can accelerate much better than you (and same idea, but more dangerously if they brake harder)
Can't we just automate cars like in Minority Report?
According to the helpful diagram, it seems that new technology has enabled the blue car to teleport in front of the red and gray cars. Awesome.
Wouldn't every car that uses this technology not have a smart cruise control system that can sense the distance to the car in front of them? Why would they need to have an extended bumper which sounds like a mechanical nightmare that will surely still require $$$ to fix every time it actually does its job.
So it like a blind guy's cane?
We have all this technology and this is the best we could come up with? Ive seen solutions from George W.
All I can say is Blue Screen of Death.
Soo..... a train?
...what? Am I the only one who thinks this is absolutely insane?
I wont pay less attention, i'll pay no attention at all while i'm jerking off watching porno..
it's strangely reminiscent of a long-forgotten technology called a "train," which we once used.
I'll take two of those to go with that giant vid screen.
Will I still have to steer and stuff?
I am so tired of that.
wouldn't simple proximity sensors be more reliable and cheaper?
Hey geniuses, this is for when SOMETHING GOES WRONG WITH THE SENSORS. You're not going to be shooting down I-70 with this stinking out like a battering ram all day. The more interesting problem is a lemming situation. I decide to drive off the bridge, and now everyone is going with me.