XPost: rec.arts.sf.written, rec.arts.sf.science
From: rexjohns@nospam.com
"Robert Bannister" wrote in message
news:bkdu5dFuadqU1@mid.individual.net...
> 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
Those and the barriers that stop you going where they
don't want you to go are easy enough for a system that
has to detect stop signs and other vehicles stopped where
they want to go.
and which, all too often, just
> fizzle out leaving you lost in an unknown suburb.
That is trivial to handle. GPSs handle that fine just
like they do the driver choosing to ignore the routing
instructions for whatever reason. They just recalculate
the route from their current location.
The also need to be able to handle the situation where
you have an ape standing beside the road with a sign
that says STOP and SLOW on the other side that are
seen at times and the automated ones that do it
with a computer and a temporary set of lights
usually mounted on a trailer.
The self driving cars will also need to be able to
handle lane changes used by the automatic
freeway systems and tunnels when there has
been a traffic accident etc. And the cops standing
on the road redirecting traffic around an accident.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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