Autonomous Cars

[Tommy Cookers]

flying 'cars' needing no roads ?
the Senior Scientist at NASA Langley advocated exactly that (eg for regions underdeveloped due to difficult terrain)

[henry]

Think fish shoals or large bird flocks. The rules that govern their coordinated behaviour have been found to be relatively simple. Or at least simulations based on simple rules appear to have comparable behaviour.

Someone in the aero industry told me that when 2 aircraft are too close at the same altitude a rule based on their serial numbers suffices. I can’t remember whether it is the higher or lower seisl number that must climb. Fortunately they know.

[Big Tea]

flying cars needing no roads ?
the Senior Scientist at NASA Langley advocated exactly that

But it must use far more fuel to keep a car in the air than on the ground rolling.
They would have to land and 'taxi' to get anywhere people are anyway.

I really do not see the benefit of 'flying cars' until we are all living in Arcologies and the cars need to get to different levels. Even then I doubt it would be efficient.

The advantage could be multi level roads, but as driverless there could be tubes above the roadway for through traffic and long distance anyway.

[roon]

flying 'cars' needing no roads ?
the Senior Scientist at NASA Langley advocated exactly that (eg for regions underdeveloped due to difficult terrain)

A long sought dream, but what I'm saying is: briefly flying cars with STOL for traffic avoidance. 'Jumping cars' may be a more accurate term. Ideally a low-g jump for comfort. Only one half of the traffic streams at an intersection would use it.

Could also eliminate the need for highway on-ramps and off-ramps, if the car could sustain flight for half-mile bursts. Cars would exit and merge vertically.

[AJI]

flying 'cars' needing no roads ?
the Senior Scientist at NASA Langley advocated exactly that (eg for regions underdeveloped due to difficult terrain)

A long sought dream, but what I'm saying is: briefly flying cars with STOL for traffic avoidance. 'Jumping cars' may be a more accurate term. Ideally a low-g jump for comfort. Only one half of the traffic streams at an intersection would use it.

Could also eliminate the need for highway on-ramps and off-ramps, if the car could sustain flight for half-mile bursts. Cars would exit and merge vertically.

I like where you're going roon, but surely the existing infrastructure would easily cope with the current traffic demand if all the vehicles were perfectly synchronized? I dare say that the current road systems in most major cities may very well be able to cope with double the amount of vehicles if 100% synchronization was implemented?
Next problem. What do we do with motorcycles and bicycles.
Bicycles is simpler, a separate road system. Motorcycles... they may not make the cut in a fully autonomous world?

[Big Tea]

flying 'cars' needing no roads ?
the Senior Scientist at NASA Langley advocated exactly that (eg for regions underdeveloped due to difficult terrain)

A long sought dream, but what I'm saying is: briefly flying cars with STOL for traffic avoidance. 'Jumping cars' may be a more accurate term. Ideally a low-g jump for comfort. Only one half of the traffic streams at an intersection would use it.

Could also eliminate the need for highway on-ramps and off-ramps, if the car could sustain flight for half-mile bursts. Cars would exit and merge vertically.

I like where you're going roon, but surely the existing infrastructure would easily cope with the current traffic demand if all the vehicles were perfectly synchronized? I dare say that the current road systems in most major cities may very well be able to cope with double the amount of vehicles if 100% synchronization was implemented?
Next problem. What do we do with motorcycles and bicycles.
Bicycles is simpler, a separate road system. Motorcycles... they may not make the cut in a fully autonomous world?

For many many year in our future there will have to be a network of un restricted roads to handle things like motorcycles horse drawn and just plain old vehicles.

Uk has a motorway system and learner drivers (until last month) and vehicles under 50cc, farm and construction traffic etc not allowed. everything is still able to get from one place to another, so I assume it will be some vehicles are restricted to a 'type' of road, possibly with only advanced automated allowed to mix.

Edit on above
I also notice far more 'mobility scooter' type vehicles now. Perhaps a full rethink is needed with maybe wide cycle lanes and use extended to other vehicles.

[AJI]

....Next problem. What do we do with motorcycles and bicycles.
Bicycles is simpler, a separate road system. Motorcycles... they may not make the cut in a fully autonomous world?

For many many year in our future there will have to be a network of un restricted roads to handle things like motorcycles horse drawn and just plain old vehicles.

Uk has a motorway system and learner drivers (until last month) and vehicles under 50cc, farm and construction traffic etc not allowed. everything is still able to get from one place to another, so I assume it will be some vehicles are restricted to a 'type' of road, possibly with only advanced automated allowed to mix.

Edit on above
I also notice far more 'mobility scooter' type vehicles now. Perhaps a full rethink is needed with maybe wide cycle lanes and use extended to other vehicles.

Re: The current road system.
Full autonomous integration could be pre-planned and implemented in a single day, with the decommissioning of the current traffic control infrastructure over a longer period of time.

Re: Alternate travel routes for non autonomous.
Absolutely. The idea of bicycles and other forms of transport sharing the current non-autonomous is just plain idiotic, but we do it.

[strad]

No comments about the Mustang wandering all over and almost running off the road and or almost hitting the hay bales???
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NsrijKBbK8

[Greg Locock]

That's a very amateurish effort. Using GPS as the primary control input is not state of the art. Frankly universities were doing better than that in the DARPA challenges, rather more than ten years ago. Why Siemens put their name on the Mustang is beyond me.

[jz11]

wait, that is a university project, and backed by siemens? I mean - are unies THAT bad nowdays?!

[AJI]

No comments about the Mustang wandering all over and almost running off the road and or almost hitting the hay bales???
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NsrijKBbK8

There were heaps of comments, mainly along the lines of 'this is NOT how to do it'.
The irony of picking an ancient Ford to demonstrate 'the future of automotive excellence' wasn't lost on me.

[Greg Locock]

wait, that is a university project, and backed by siemens? I mean - are unies THAT bad nowdays?!

Cranfield University. Wow. (late edit)

[strad]

There were heaps of comments

I can only assume you mean on Youtube... I didn't see any here was what I meant.

[roon]

There were heaps of comments

I can only assume you mean on Youtube... I didn't see any here was what I meant.

1. Place finger over scroll wheel.
2. Scroll.

[jz11]

No comments about the Mustang wandering all over and almost running off the road and or almost hitting the hay bales???
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NsrijKBbK8

There were heaps of comments, mainly along the lines of 'this is NOT how to do it'.
The irony of picking an ancient Ford to demonstrate 'the future of automotive excellence' wasn't lost on me.

maybe the technical side of the project was minimal - just to get it going on it's own, and the main research was marketing related - how to develop an advertising bomb aka dealing with negative publicity!
makes a whole lot more sense that way...