Autonomous vehicles

[CanaBull]

Personally I think it’s less of a technology question than it is a people question.  The level of control needed for autonomy would mean the human being completely removed from the equation and having no control.  Whilst still a long way off, the technology will be available long before people are willing to implement it, if ever.

Tight control of airspace is understood and expected, will groundspace ever be treated similarly?

[tim2]

1 hour ago, JonM said:

 Planes use decades old technology and for good reason.

The software in the 737 Max wasn't decades old. Not the bits that failed recently.

[graveyard johnny]

was it really such an effort to wind up the car windows with the winder or open the car by twisting the key in the lock? technology is fine when its new 6 or 7 years down the line new cars will just be one expensive problem after another

[JohnM]

Graveyard Johnny earlier today......

 

 

[JonM]

2 hours ago, tim2 said:

The software in the 737 Max wasn't decades old. Not the bits that failed recently.

The hardware it was running on probably was though. They tend to stick to things that have been shown to work elsewhere for 10+ years.

[Steve May]

4 hours ago, CanaBull said:

Personally I think it’s less of a technology question than it is a people question.  The level of control needed for autonomy would mean the human being completely removed from the equation and having no control.  Whilst still a long way off, the technology will be available long before people are willing to implement it, if ever.

Tight control of airspace is understood and expected, will groundspace ever be treated similarly?

This is absolutely right and the automotive industry is working with governments around the world to create legislative frameworks that allow AVs on the roads

[Padge]

9 hours ago, DavidM said:

Why do pilots wear seatbelts ? 

Because the sky has holes in it that planes fall through.

[Padge]

5 hours ago, tim2 said:

Just black out all the windows. You can't fear what you can't see.

What you need is a pair of peril sensitive sunglasses.

 

[Padge]

5 hours ago, GUBRATS said:

More chance of us having flying cars by then 

Hover boots, they're the future.

[CanaBull]

9 hours ago, DavidM said:

Why do pilots wear seatbelts ? 

Because they only have half a steering wheel to hold onto

[tim2]

1 hour ago, JonM said:

The hardware it was running on probably was though. They tend to stick to things that have been shown to work elsewhere for 10+ years.

Interestingly they did go for carbon fibre wings and body a lot earlier than I expected them to.

[graveyard johnny]

14 hours ago, JohnM said:

Graveyard Johnny earlier today......

 

 

the turn ups on the jeans are spot on but wheres my quiff?

[Shadow]

1 hour ago, graveyard johnny said:

the turn ups on the jeans are spot on but wheres my quiff?

The wind in your hair flattened it

[MattSantos]

On 05/04/2019 at 20:44, Steve May said:

Motorway driving is a lot easier so I think you're probably right.

You could also hugely increase the capacity of motorways by allowing the vehicles to communicate with each other.    The maths of this is really interesting, and covered in a chapter of the book Critical Mass by Philip Ball.     

Basically, most of a busy motorway is empty, taken up by the space between cars that you have to leave because your reactions are very slow. 

If your reactions were hundreds of thousands of times faster or you had the ability to communicate with the vehicles in front and behind you, then you could drive quite safely a few cm away from them at very high speed.  You would triple or quadruple the capacity of the motorway quite easily.

Like in Singapore 

[tonyXIII]

On 05/04/2019 at 20:24, JohnM said:

Graveyard Johnny earlier today......

 

 

Is that driving instructor you, John?

 

[tonyXIII]

I read something a while ago about modern planes and their computer control systems. It was actually about the latest fighter planes and may have been related to the 'stealth' properties. Basically, it said that a human being could not fly the planes without computer assistance. Apparently, the planes are so critically balanced that a human pilot cannot react quickly enough to even the slightest change in that balance. Perhaps planes are so 'frisky' nowadays that we can't allow pilots to completely override the computer systems. Anyone know more about this?

 

[CanaBull]

29 minutes ago, tonyXIII said:

I read something a while ago about modern planes and their computer control systems. It was actually about the latest fighter planes and may have been related to the 'stealth' properties. Basically, it said that a human being could not fly the planes without computer assistance. Apparently, the planes are so critically balanced that a human pilot cannot react quickly enough to even the slightest change in that balance. Perhaps planes are so 'frisky' nowadays that we can't allow pilots to completely override the computer systems. Anyone know more about this?

 

It’s not balance per se, though that is a component, it’s about the designed static and dynamic aerodynamic stability of the aircraft or aircraft type.

https://www.boldmethod.com/learn-to-fly/aerodynamics/3-types-of-static-and-dynamic-stability-in-aircraft/

[JohnM]

3 hours ago, tonyXIII said:

Is that driving instructor you, John?

 

Close.....

In fact, in the late 1940s, my father rebuilt a de Dion Bouton similar to the one in the image  and drove it from the Hazel Grove factory of his employer William Arnold  to the Cat and Fiddle. It was still running 20 years ago, but I don't know where it is now. I'll ry and find the press cutting.

[tonyXIII]

13 hours ago, CanaBull said:

It’s not balance per se, though that is a component, it’s about the designed static and dynamic aerodynamic stability of the aircraft or aircraft type.

https://www.boldmethod.com/learn-to-fly/aerodynamics/3-types-of-static-and-dynamic-stability-in-aircraft/

Thanks for that. I kind of knew that 'balance' was not the right word, but I couldn't think of 'stability' at the time.