by "JohnH3ASP" (jh3-21)
Published 01/10/2017 at 17:25
by "JohnH3ASP" (jh3-21)
Published 01/10/2017 at 17:25
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Autonomous car makers are deciding to make the cars smarter and finally read road signs. Now, I think there is a major flaw in this system: recognition is extremely difficult if the sign is damaged. So I am proposing an electronic speed limiter on all self-driving cars.
How It Will Work
The car will obviously have a speedometer for a manual driving mode. A few tweaks, and you can make it perfect.
Let’s say the speed limit is 100 KPH (62 MPH) and the car is at a stop. The car will accelerate at a preset 0-100 (Change it from the touchscreen in the car, like a Tesla) until it reaches the speed limit. Then it activates a radar cruise control, and speeds along at the exact speed limit until the speed limit changes.
How Will It Know The Speed Limit?
Speed Regions are the solution to this. Somewhere, in a database, speed limits are entered into the cars remotely. The speed limit will change depending on weather conditions, curvature of road, and so on.
The cars wouldn’t allow you to speed, construction crews could tap into this info so they can temporarily change the limit, and the car could tell you the fastest route. It will be difficult to do this for every road in America, though, but a team of ~100 people could do it rather quick. Besides, if the system fails, just go back to reading the signs.
"For Sweden" (rallybeetle)
01/10/2017 at 17:26, STARS: 0
Rano St.
"bwp240" (bwp240)
01/10/2017 at 17:41, STARS: 3
If only we had a thing where a bunch of cars were linked together and traveled the same route and speed...
"TheRealBicycleBuck" (therealbicyclebuck)
01/10/2017 at 17:45, STARS: 0
The Google/Waze database is pretty good. It visually notifies me when I’m going above the speed limit and seems accurate in the areas where I drive. I don’t know where Subaru got their data, but the nag system in the loaner Outback also had this information and it seemed accurate. I got tired of the kids pointing out that I was speeding, so I switched the display back to the radio.
"Amoore100" (amoore100)
01/10/2017 at 17:59, STARS: 0
That’s brilliant. We should have car trains like the one for the Chunnel to get all the lazy and whiny people off the interstates. The only problem I can foresee is the American railroad system.
"bwp240" (bwp240)
01/10/2017 at 18:00, STARS: 1
yeah, if you thought the highway infrastructure was bad...
"JohnH3ASP" (jh3-21)
01/10/2017 at 18:52, STARS: 0
What about it?
"JohnH3ASP" (jh3-21)
01/10/2017 at 18:53, STARS: 0
Even better, we can make them have special roads that cross the public roads! Waiting for such a vehicle to pass would convince drivers to take it!
"For Sweden" (rallybeetle)
01/10/2017 at 18:54, STARS: 0
It’s a neat street name
"Orange Exige" (OrangeExige)
01/10/2017 at 19:43, STARS: 0
I wonder if a default fallback - or more accurate, fallbacks - would be an easier solution.
Autonomous cars are going to be significantly better at recognizing and reacting to hazards so even if they were going slightly above the speed limit, they’d still be pretty safe - arguably safer than a human driving at the speed limit. If it passed a 55mph sign back before the two-lane road merged into one with lots of traffic lights*, it could probably make a safe assumption that the speed limit dropped to (at least) 45mph. Maybe it actually dropped to 35 - but taking into consideration that speed limits were designed for human action/reaction, it’s probably not a big deal that it overestimated that assumption. (technically, yes, a legal gray area.) Plus, like you mentioned, it can read conditions like lane width, traffic level, pedestrian count, etc. and make further assumptions/deductions about the speed limit.
*it could also determine speed limits based on the g>y>r traffic light timings
I think halfway decent artificial intelligence could handle most speed limit changes without major challenges - I don’t think it’s worth the effort of manually mapping individual streets and blocks - especially because highways are already mapped. The bigger challenge would be more unique and less predictable circumstances like school zones and such. Other than those, most non-highway speed limits are 35-55, not a huge difference in the grand scheme of things for a computer. Throw in a 20 mph school zone or a 5 mph construction zone and suddenly it’s a different ball games. Somethings like that should be manually mapped like highways today I think.
"JohnH3ASP" (jh3-21)
01/10/2017 at 20:44, STARS: 0
Yes, and I wonder why the hell this was posted right after this post:
http://jalopnik.com/we-cant-have-the-city-of-tomorrow-or-autonomous-cars-un-1791037657