Driverless Trucks

[tomikawaTT]

Going all the way back to the original topic (Horrors!!) and adding in the intermodal aspect, there's one intermodal port where the shipside-to-storage yard transporters are unstaffed and computer controlled, as are the cranes that run up and down the storage stacks (which are up to five boxes high.)  The computer keeps track of future dispatch requirements so containers don't have to be dug out from under other containers.

However, the ship-to-shore cranes are operator controlled.  Too many variables to permit computer control.

They never did show how the boxes got out of Dodge on the land side.

As for, How many operators on an aircraft? I just saw a news clip on a Houston-Seattle flight that made an emergency landing in Boise.  The Aircraft Commander suffered a cardiac arrest.  The Copilot ran the medical emergency checklist, a deadheading pilot slipped into the right seat and two MD passengers performed CPR.  Boise had emergency responders at the aircraft as soon as it cleared the active.  Even with that, the pilot died - but the passengers were only slightly inconvenienced by their late arrival in Seattle.  Now, picture a single pilot plus automatia scenario...

June,

Conversation between the female pilot and the on-board AI of light starcraft C.P.V. Outsider.

     S.B. In upper-class Londonese, while verifying umbilical connection and securing seat harness, "Home, Jymes."

     Resident AI James Dean,  "Immidjutly, yer lydieship."

In the Confederation Universe JD is well behaved.  Sally is the rebel/outsider.  Of course Outsider spends its down time parked among several hundred other light, high-performance starcraft, so James has plenty of of his/its peers for company.

Chuck

[jeffhergert]

Paul of Covington

   And then, maybe driverless is not such a bad thing.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24295975

Unless you make your living by driving a vehicle.  Or in almost any other manner, too.

 

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/smart-machines-job-article-1.1246522

 

Jeff

[Paul of Covington]

   And then, maybe driverless is not such a bad thing.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24295975

[schlimm]

daveklepper

And may I draw the analogy to driverless trains?

Again, as far as I know, all rapid transit lines that tout automatic operation have an operator on board qualified to run the train manually in an emergency, and also close the doors at each station.

The closed-circuit trains at ORD and several airport sky-trams have no operator on board at all.  And they have run without any serious problems for years.   It is just a matter of incremental improvements in technology and economics before the concept is expanded.  The recent 3 train BNSF crash in Amarillo was with manned crews, but that didn't prevent the collision.

[Ulrich]

daveklepper

And may I draw the analogy to driverless trains?

Again, as far as I know, all rapid transit lines that tout automatic operation have an operator on board qualified to run the train manually in an emergency, and also close the doors at each station.

 

All that smart technology, and they still need a human on board. It would make more sense, then, to not waste money on the high tech stuff and let the human earn his/her keep by doing more than just opening the doors. He/she must be making at least 25K a year..at least.  

 

 

[daveklepper]

And may I draw the analogy to driverless trains?

Again, as far as I know, all rapid transit lines that tout automatic operation have an operator on board qualified to run the train manually in an emergency, and also close the doors at each station.

[Ulrich]

My first car had a very dark sense of humor. It left me stranded on ferries, bridges, and in the middle of busy  intersections. But what the heck, it ate sparingly (only 10 bucks to fill the tank), and it looked good.

[NorthWest]

Juniatha

All in all it’s a sad example of – of what ? fun ?

...Juniatha, you might want to lay off the Youtube...not exactly the best of humanity on there, at times... It's all fun and games until the heat sets the oil in the asphalt road on fire...

But that is a good point, AI cars with a sense of humor may be a bad thing...also consider the fact that these things may be quite easy to hack...with foreseeable consequences . 

[Ulrich]

Juniatha

 

Well , if that’s what men do to cars for fun – then what will cars having gained cybernetic intelligence do to men for having fun ?

Just wondering ..

= J =

 

 

cruising around town and picking up chicks. Some things won't change.

[Norm48327]

Ulrich

Very impressive. Although I'm beginning to wonder why more and more youtube vids are preceded by ads for toilet paper

Because they were the typically crappy ads?

[schlimm]

Ulrich

Very impressive. Although I'm beginning to wonder why more and more youtube vids are preceded by ads for toilet paper and other toilet related things. Charmain is really pushing their brand..it is becoming annoying. As if bears use it.

Beats the old, old, Mr. Whipple ads.

[Juniatha]

Well , there is this video , allegedly best burn-out ever

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unwujSVpZwA

Uoahm - >> best << ? baddest

>> burn out << ? rubber run down

On the intriguing secret behind this thrilling kind of 'sport'  :

Once you hold a vehicle by bake on non-driven wheels on which there is loaded more mass than on driven wheels and you get the thing in gear , then if the torque put up at drive axle is above what adhesion of tires can take , they will turn .  When turning they rub on street which produces heat and wears tires .  

In a nutshell : when they turn they burn .

That’s all .

This remains so as long as these conditions are being upheld , there is nothing special in holding up this condition for any intended time , the condition is sutainable to an extent ,notably :

Since tires if anything rather loose grip when there is more than a layer of rubber on this point of street where they rub , this can go on as long as there is rubber to rub off or oil in the engine circuit or gas in the tank or as long as the transmission will hold up or what have you .  

Since of all these , amount of rubber on tires very predictably is the first to run out , result after shorter or longer time of keeping up this rather silly condition will be that tires with rubber consumed have to blow up and then the rest of them will provide much less adhesion so there is no question an engine that has turned these wheels before will also do so when the tires are deflated and torn to pieces .  

Again blatantly obvious , next sequence will be the tires are torn to pieces and there are only rings around the rim left which will now be heat consumed very quickly – all of which is pretty predictable and thus quite a boring procession to wait for eventually to see it happen – there is nothing going to happen that is not fully to be expected in all its pretty limited scope of events .  

Now when the rest of tires is completely off , the rim will rest against the street’s tarmac and – sorry , again this is 100 % predictable – will provide a yet lower factor of adhesion and thus there is absolutely no question of what will happen : the engine having turned tires will also turn smaller diameter rims and will do so to at about any arbitrarily chosen rpm speed until with heating up the rims inevitably start to get red hot , or yellow hot , or white hot – absolutely predictable in its fixed relation between energy put in and color of glowing rims by still continuing turning of wheel on tarmac at certain fast or faster rpm speed .

All in all it’s a sad example of – of what ? fun ?

Well , if that’s what men do to cars for fun – then what will cars having gained cybernetic intelligence do to men for having fun ?

Just wondering ..

= J =

[Juniatha]

here's the link to that scene

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bzg1mzwZDko

Well , I'm not too impressed , the same crappy old canned story film makers heat up again and again to 'make a thriller'  :  a bit of 50ct ghetto , a bit of war game , a bit of ghastly train robbery Western story transmuddled into 2Xth century , isn’t it ?     If so , at least it would prove robots were no better than any old 1980s moothafooca hiphopster gangstas and next to nothing would be changed .

Desirable perspective ?  ( if perspective at all ?)

Regular guards 

= J =

addenda

however , there's hope:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHp58Ss5GvM

 The Beast – with WW II  RollingRosie's  Merlin 27 ltr engine - with some rimaaak'bl British talking

http://www.topgear.com/uk/videos/207-v-parkour?VideoBrowserMode=categories&VideoCategory=Challenges

May in Peugeot vs parkour in Liverpool - hand and foot made wins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NnmkeyraRc

Michelle Mouton wins pikes peak 1985

( and yes , Overmod , two years later Walter Röhrl in what an equally flawless and admirable performance was again nearly a second faster - however in a vastly improved 600 hp Quattro )

[Ulrich]

No TP ad attached to that one...wow... maybe someone is listening.

[vsmith]

Just to cheer you up, here is a test of a computer controlled automatic braking system by Volvo where the car does the thinking and braking for you...

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNi17YLnZpg

[Ulrich]

Very impressive. Although I'm beginning to wonder why more and more youtube vids are preceded by ads for toilet paper and other toilet related things. Charmain is really pushing their brand..it is becoming annoying. As if bears use it.

[Paul of Covington]

   How about this?

http://msnvideo.msn.com/?channelindex=8&from=en-us_msnhpvidmod#/video/77d8d312-4e36-3efa-b45a-b8080d784814

[NorthWest]

Overmod

Be careful.  Be very, very careful.  Autonomous intelligence may be built into these things.

I hope not...especially if the AI I've seen is included, I'm not impressed. (Note, above was a play on the Smart ForTwo. But, maybe I shouldn't say these things, the computers might be watching. )

Although, Juniatha, I probably would want to take the subway anyway. Why pass up a good train ride?

(In New York, a while back: "But the bus will get us there sooner..." "We have to take the subway! The Brightliners might drop dead at any moment!") 

[tree68]

Overmod

tree68

Have you seen "I, Robot?"

Do you mean this scene?

That, and pretty much everything after it.

[Overmod]

tree68

Have you seen "I, Robot?"

Do you mean this scene?

[chad s thomas]

I used to think 'heck no' to automated drivers!!!! Then came cell phones and texting and now I'm not so sure the computers are worse then the 'drivers'

[vsmith]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pl_Pont_Zk

Closer than you think

[Ulrich]

Haven't seen it, but read the book..Isaac Asimov if memory serves me correct.

[tree68]

Ulrich

What if these smart driverless thingys aren't friendly? or even downright argumentative and hostile?

Have you seen "I, Robot?"

[Ulrich]

What if these smart driverless thingys aren't friendly? or even downright argumentative and hostile?

[oltmannd]

Juniatha

Well , the trouble about cars 'driving themselves' as the thread started with ( myself I would doubt they would very much 'drive' themselves - although , well , yes , now that I come to think about it : some *do* have a certain tendency for definitely putting a *drive* to everything ) - uhm , the trouble could be like that :

My car to me :  " Oh , June , I'll just go to the gas station , ok ?"   Me :  " What ? again? you've been there only yesterday !?"   Car :  " Uhm , well , yes .. but it's more for the social side of it .. you see .."   " Why , whom are you going to meet with ? not this loose FIAT again , no ?"   "Erh , no , I .. I think she's now down in South town , most of the time .."   "So , when do you come back , you know perfectly well , I have an appointment with my hair-stylist 5:00h ! you hear ?"   "No problem - btw , why do human women always fuss around with their hair ?  it's ridiculous , why , cars don't care so much if they have a vinyl hardtop , paint job or other - tires are more ...!"   " Jeezzus ! that reminds me , I *got* to go downtown to pick up those gorgeous shoes I saw in that boutique yesterday evening - sorry you'll have to take me .."   " Byeeee - 'm leaving !"   " Now wait a minute , stop !  - how am I supposed to get to the shop?"   " Guess you'll have to take the subway , I really can't , you know ."

O-M-G - now you just tell me : why on earth did I buy this car !?

= J =

Thanks for "milk out the nose" laughter for the day!

[blownout cylinder]

Google has some driverless cars already....

[Ulrich]

When robots are smart enough to drive our cars and trains for us and to clean our houses they're also going to be smart enough to want to get paid for it.

[BroadwayLion]

We were using the Garmin on our ambulance, it directed us onto a road that was closed with a four foot snowdrift.

GRRR

[Overmod]

NorthWest

Juniatha

My car to me :  " Oh , June , I'll just go to the gas station , ok ?"   Me :  " What ? again? you've been there only yesterday !?"   Car :  " Uhm , well , yes .. but it's more for the social side of it .. you see .."   " Why , whom are you going to meet with ? not this loose FIAT again , no ?"   "Erh , no , I .. I think she's now down in South town , most of the time .."   "So , when do you come back , you know perfectly well , I have an appointment with my hair-stylist 5:00h ! you hear ?"   "No problem - btw , why do human women always fuss around with their hair ?  it's ridiculous , why , cars don't care so much if they have a vinyl hardtop , paint job or other - tires are more ...!"   " Jeezzus ! that reminds me , I *got* to go downtown to pick up those gorgeous shoes I saw in that boutique yesterday evening - sorry you'll have to take me .."   " Byeeee - 'm leaving !"   " Now wait a minute , stop !  - how am I supposed to get to the shop?"   " Guess you'll have to take the subway , I really can't , you know ."

TooSmart Car?

Be careful.  Be very, very careful.  Autonomous intelligence may be built into these things.

See the Keith Laumer story "Mechanical Advantage".  (Or perhaps, more technologically likely, the thermostellar device controller in "Dark Star"...)

Or consider this from Woody Allen (I'd have posted the YouTube link with his ineffable delivery, but it was edited wrong):

""Someone asked me if I would tell this...story. A long time ago... It's a weird story. 'Twas out in Los Angeles and I was at a party with a very big Hollywood producer, and at that time he wanted to make an elaborate cinemascope musical comedy out of the Dewey Decimal System. And they wanted me to work on it, and I go out to the producers building in downtown Los Angeles,and I walk into his elevator, and there are no people in the elevator, no buttons on the wall or anything. And I hear a voice say "Kindly call out your floors, please." And I look around, and I'm alone. And I panic, and I read on the wall, that is a new elevator and it works on a sonic principle and it all sound. All I have to do is say what floor I wanna got to, and it takes me there. So I say "Three, please", and the doors close and the elevator starts going up to three. And on the way up I began to feel very selfconscious, 'cause I talk, I think, with a slight New York accent, and the elevator spoke quite well. I get out of it, and I'm walking down the hall, and I look back, and I thought I heard the elevator make a remark. I turned quickly and the doors closed and the elevator goes down, y'know, and I...didn't wanna get involved at the time with an...elevator in Hollywood, but - this is the strange part of the story, the other was the normal part - I have never in my life had good relationships with mechanical objects of any sort. Anything that I can't reason with or kiss or fondle, I get into trouble with. I have a clock that runs counter-clockwise for some reason. My toaster pops up my toast and shakes it, burns it. I hate my shower. I'm taking a shower, and somebody in America uses his water. That's it for me, y'know, I leap from the tub scolded. I have a tape recorder, I payed a hundred and fifty dollars for, and as I talk into it, it goes "I know, I know."

"About three years ago I couldn't stand it anymore. I was home one night. I called a meeting with my posessions. I got everything I owned into the living room. My toaster, my clock, my blender. They never been in the living room before. And I spoke to them. I opened with a joke. And then I said "I know what's going on, and cut it out!" I have a sun lamp, but as I sit under it, it rains on me. And I spoke to each appliance, I was really articulate. Then I put them back, and I felt good. Two nights later I'm watching my portable television set, and the set begins to jump up and down, and I go up to it. And I always talk before I hit, and I said "I thought we had discussed this, what's the problem?" And the set kept going up and down, so I hit it, and it felt good hitting it, and I beat the hell out of it. I was really great, I tore off the antenna, and I felt very virile. And two days later I go to my dentist in New York. I had gone to my dentist, but I had a deep cavity, and he'd sent me to a chiropodist. I'm going into a building in mid-town New York, and they have those elevators, and I hear a voice say "Kindly call out your floors, please", and I say "sixteen" and the doors close and the elevator starts going up to sixteen. And on the way up the ellevator says to me "Are you the guy that hit the televison set?" I felt like an ass, y'know, and it took me up and down fast between floors, and it threw me off in the basement. It yelled out something that was anti-semitic.

"The upshot of the story is, that day I called my parents, my father was fired. He was technologically unemployed. My father had worked for the same firm for twelve years. They fired him. They replaced him with a tiny gadget, this big, that does everything my father does, only it does it much better. The depressiong thing is, my mother ran out and bought one."

.

Imagine the fun if you're heading to the salon, you tell the car to exit early because of anticipated traffic, and it swivels its dashcam and says "Sorry, Dave, I can't do that"...

... or what happens if the AI in your car decides to compete with the AI in that train approaching the crossing...?

Not good.  Sooooooooo not good...