Hmmmm. I enjoy driving for itself. There are few other pursuits which require such a combination of mental and physical skills. In some ways, it is driving in traffic (not traffic jams) that is the most skillful - driving smoothly, safely and courteously is very satisfying. Driving on e.g.an empty motorway (possibly the safest of driving conditions) is just an exercise in not going to sleep.
It's going to take me a long time to wish for autonomous cars, despite their possible advantages for some sorts of driving.
Good commentary. Getting users to test prototypes is perfectly ok when dealing with business application systems. Even financial mistakes can generally be corrected with a journal. Different when software is driving robotics though. The necessary disciplines involved are miles removed from most commercial software development. I wonder if we have the necessary skills anywhere to develop the software for truly autonomous cars?
My understanding of the waymos and such here in California is that they can't be ticketed. Correct me if I'm wrong (this being the internet, I expect to hear from you all shortly). Also, these AVs record everything around them, which the local gendarmes want to access for their own particular purposes.
With words of wimsey like this, the truth, no less, you should apply for a slot on Radio 4's 'Thought for the Day'.
And you shouldn't get me started on Insurance companies..... I wanted to change something on my policy, 'Changes are free' it declares, in the policy. Oh. They're not, after all. Don't be silly. What was I thinking?
…I (to be honest, it was actually my kids as they told me the joke) anyway, I heard Apple are close to finalising their self driving car, they’re just having problems installing ‘windows’
Jul 7, 2023·edited Jul 7, 2023Liked by Alistair Dabbs
Nice things about the Thunderbirds clips ... you can wonder at ...
Why all the vehicles needed Saturn5 level launch facilities but could land VTOL in someone's backyard.
What the engineer's thought about the lazy crew members who did not want to leave their chairs/couches/beds and climb some stairs to get into a cockpit.
How carefully the rockets were designed not to destroy/scorch donut shape buildings and pool diving boards during launch.
Jeff Tracy wanted Thunderbirds to be a secret organisation, hence all the flimflam with underground hangars. What used to puzzle me was why Brains didn't think of putting the rows of palm trees further apart so they wouldn't have to hinge over to let T2 shuffle past.
Jul 7, 2023·edited Jul 7, 2023Liked by Alistair Dabbs
My theory on autonomous cars is this ....
When we finally get an AI that can actually do it, that AI will be smart enough to quickly get annoyed with driving and start designing its own AI to automate the job.
Video unavailable. This video contains content from ITV_plc, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds. Good old Blighty.
I can see it now: chaos as your car decides it’s in the US and starts driving on the left side of the road, and nothing you can do will dissuade it from its mission (not so killer example: BBC weather map occasionally default to Ghana, ain’t going to kill you unless you’re about to walk outside with a metal walking stick in a thunderstorm at which point personal preservation should have already kicked in.)
I’ve seen professional programming from the sharp end of the stick, and the not so sharp end. Edge cases are a nightmare, and there can’t be much worse then software that can kill because it missed an eight sided red US-style stop sign.
Another weird, not likely to be fatal, activity is the local football team has rented out space at the local educational college. For 20+ years people have been driving over speed bumps without need for warning signs … but suddenly, they appear to warn you of the speed bump. The problem is they are in place 15 feet after the speed bump which is of the older, less suspension killing, variety so the all-singing wizard dizzy car will probably just plow rightover it and rocket off to the moon with a slingshot around Mars just because it could.
Year of the self-driving car, just like it's been the year of Linux on the desktop for as long as I've been working in IT. The death of the sysadmin due to AI is the latest one.
I do have to question both the car advertising industry and the regulatory bodies though, every advert I ever see (admittedly only ever when I'm watching sport as I don't watch anything else live) tells me that the car being advertised is in a spec I can't get in the UK anyway.
Going 550 mph at 20,000 ft, there’s a lot of energy required to do that. If you weigh 180 lbs you’ll have about 2.5 MJ kinetic + 5 MJ potential. Your typical 1/2 lb stick of dynamite blows up with “only” 1 MJ or so…
(To put that in perspective, a 4000lb Tesla careening toward a parked dump truck at 70mph has about 7/8 MJ of KE. The air disaster is much more worrisome, particularly since most passengers routinely forget to carry-on their portable air brake apparatus…)
Hmmmm. I enjoy driving for itself. There are few other pursuits which require such a combination of mental and physical skills. In some ways, it is driving in traffic (not traffic jams) that is the most skillful - driving smoothly, safely and courteously is very satisfying. Driving on e.g.an empty motorway (possibly the safest of driving conditions) is just an exercise in not going to sleep.
It's going to take me a long time to wish for autonomous cars, despite their possible advantages for some sorts of driving.
Good commentary. Getting users to test prototypes is perfectly ok when dealing with business application systems. Even financial mistakes can generally be corrected with a journal. Different when software is driving robotics though. The necessary disciplines involved are miles removed from most commercial software development. I wonder if we have the necessary skills anywhere to develop the software for truly autonomous cars?
My understanding of the waymos and such here in California is that they can't be ticketed. Correct me if I'm wrong (this being the internet, I expect to hear from you all shortly). Also, these AVs record everything around them, which the local gendarmes want to access for their own particular purposes.
After zero research I see no problem with this post other than the fact that in California they call gendarmes "The Fuzz".
We do?
Would Starsky and Hutch ever lie?
Consider me suitably chastened.
(We always loved referring to them as Spassky and Crotch)
Alistair (autocorrect preferred Alas...tair).
With words of wimsey like this, the truth, no less, you should apply for a slot on Radio 4's 'Thought for the Day'.
And you shouldn't get me started on Insurance companies..... I wanted to change something on my policy, 'Changes are free' it declares, in the policy. Oh. They're not, after all. Don't be silly. What was I thinking?
Why is there a "K" on the end of magic? - see Power Panties.
Scroll down far enough and you’ll see the perfect present for people who keep their intuition up their derrière.
It was added generations ago to distinguish the likes of Aleister Crowley from the likes of Paul Daniels.
If Microsoft made self-driving .... it would feature a steering wheel from the 1990s with a new covering you would be forced to buy every three years.
…I (to be honest, it was actually my kids as they told me the joke) anyway, I heard Apple are close to finalising their self driving car, they’re just having problems installing ‘windows’
Love the William Shatner clip! Kudos to those maintaining that collection! But the Thunderbirds clip is alas not available to us in Brexitland.
Nice things about the Thunderbirds clips ... you can wonder at ...
Why all the vehicles needed Saturn5 level launch facilities but could land VTOL in someone's backyard.
What the engineer's thought about the lazy crew members who did not want to leave their chairs/couches/beds and climb some stairs to get into a cockpit.
How carefully the rockets were designed not to destroy/scorch donut shape buildings and pool diving boards during launch.
Jeff Tracy wanted Thunderbirds to be a secret organisation, hence all the flimflam with underground hangars. What used to puzzle me was why Brains didn't think of putting the rows of palm trees further apart so they wouldn't have to hinge over to let T2 shuffle past.
So I guess you're really happy about gouv.fr's regional flying ban then, Mr Dabbs?
No more short-hop flights for you. TGV via Paris every time now!
I live far enough from Paris not to fall into that category. I could catch a flight to Paris no problem. I just don't want to.
…as the old joke goes: why do autonomous cars keep crashing? …they have trouble installing the drivers!
That's it I'm suing Tesla for causing this joke to happen :-)
My theory on autonomous cars is this ....
When we finally get an AI that can actually do it, that AI will be smart enough to quickly get annoyed with driving and start designing its own AI to automate the job.
Video unavailable. This video contains content from ITV_plc, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds. Good old Blighty.
I can see it now: chaos as your car decides it’s in the US and starts driving on the left side of the road, and nothing you can do will dissuade it from its mission (not so killer example: BBC weather map occasionally default to Ghana, ain’t going to kill you unless you’re about to walk outside with a metal walking stick in a thunderstorm at which point personal preservation should have already kicked in.)
I’ve seen professional programming from the sharp end of the stick, and the not so sharp end. Edge cases are a nightmare, and there can’t be much worse then software that can kill because it missed an eight sided red US-style stop sign.
Another weird, not likely to be fatal, activity is the local football team has rented out space at the local educational college. For 20+ years people have been driving over speed bumps without need for warning signs … but suddenly, they appear to warn you of the speed bump. The problem is they are in place 15 feet after the speed bump which is of the older, less suspension killing, variety so the all-singing wizard dizzy car will probably just plow rightover it and rocket off to the moon with a slingshot around Mars just because it could.
Year of the self-driving car, just like it's been the year of Linux on the desktop for as long as I've been working in IT. The death of the sysadmin due to AI is the latest one.
I do have to question both the car advertising industry and the regulatory bodies though, every advert I ever see (admittedly only ever when I'm watching sport as I don't watch anything else live) tells me that the car being advertised is in a spec I can't get in the UK anyway.
The more I read about Mrs D. the more I like her. Was it she who told you about Air Crash Investigation too ;)
Going 550 mph at 20,000 ft, there’s a lot of energy required to do that. If you weigh 180 lbs you’ll have about 2.5 MJ kinetic + 5 MJ potential. Your typical 1/2 lb stick of dynamite blows up with “only” 1 MJ or so…
(To put that in perspective, a 4000lb Tesla careening toward a parked dump truck at 70mph has about 7/8 MJ of KE. The air disaster is much more worrisome, particularly since most passengers routinely forget to carry-on their portable air brake apparatus…)
Here's an article worthy of AIFW, but in the NYT:
Soft paywall: some free articles per month.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/11/travel/smart-tech-hotel-room.html