XPost: rec.arts.sf.written, rec.arts.sf.science   
   From: robban@clubtelco.com   
      
   On 24/01/2014 4:31 am, rex wrote:   
   >   
   >   
   > "Your Name"  wrote in message   
   > news:240120140855359808%YourName@YourISP.com...   
   >> J. Clarke wrote:   
   >>> In article <52e0c728$0$52806$742ec2ed@news.sonic.net>, dtravel@sonic.net   
   >>> says...   
   >>> > On 1/21/2014 9:49 PM, Your Name wrote:   
   >>> > > In article <52df5822$0$52798$742ec2ed@news.sonic.net>, Dimensional   
   >>> > > Traveler  wrote:   
   >>> > >> On 1/21/2014 7:46 PM, Greg Goss wrote:   
   >>> > >>> "John F. Eldredge"  wrote:   
   >>> > >>>>   
   >>> > >>>> Several years back, something got royally screwed up in the   
   >>> Google > >>>> Maps   
   >>> > >>>> database.  If I recall correctly, going from one particular   
   >>> town > >>>> to   
   >>> > >>>> another in Scotland showed, correctly, a land trip of about 20   
   >>> > >>>> miles.   
   >>> > >>>> Going in the reverse direction showed a trip of several   
   >>> hundred > >>>> miles,   
   >>> > >>>> passing through three different countries and involving two trips   
   >>> > >>>> across   
   >>> > >>>> the North Sea.   
   >>> > >>>   
   >>> > >>> I forget whether it was Google Maps, or some predecessor mapping   
   >>> > >>> internet program, but I was once told to turn left from one car   
   >>> > >>> ferry   
   >>> > >>> onto another near Nanaimo.   
   >>> > >>>   
   >>> > >> I once had map software on my laptop while I was entering St.   
   >>> Louis > >> via   
   >>> > >> a bridge across the Mississippi try to tell me to take a left   
   >>> turn > >> from   
   >>> > >> the divided interstate highway bridge a hundred feet up in the   
   >>> air > >> onto   
   >>> > >> the riverside jogging/bike path below.   
   >>> > >   
   >>> > > One example of NUMEROUS that prove self-driving cars simply aren't   
   >>> > > going to happen any time soon.   
   >>>   
   >>> If a self-driving car took its _only_ navigational information from a   
   >>> GPS this would be an issue.  But the Google cars take their information   
   >>> from a variety of sources and should not drive off of the road simply   
   >>> because a GPS tells them to.   
   >>   
   >> Without massive amount of expensive changes to the roading system and /   
   >> or a sudden, and currently immpssible, increase in the functionality of   
   >> "artificial intelligence", there's no way to stop the cars going the   
   >> wrong way down a one-way street (as one example) simply because Google   
   >> Maps told them to.   
   >   
   > It wouldn't be hard to ensure that google maps is always up to date   
   > with any road change like that, and to even have the self driving car   
   > check the signs on the road that the human drivers use too.   
      
   It will be interesting to see how they cope with those "Detour" signs   
   that spring up around major road works and which, all too often, just   
   fizzle out leaving you lost in an unknown suburb.   
      
   --   
   Robert Bannister - 1940-71 SE England   
                       1972-now W Australia   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)