Driverless cars.

I was pondering this yesterday after hitting the main road, getting up to 50, prodding the CC and putting both feet "off duty" and it occured to me that, although they've been doing fully automated testing, by the time it percolates down to consumer level it'll be no more than another driving aid.

So although the car can be doing the driving you'll still effectively be sat there in case taking over becomes necessary. Rather like adaptive cruise control where it'll deal with decelarating if you come up behind something but only up to a certain level - if the speed differential is too big they want the user to stamp on the brake pedal.

I reckon it'll be big in China - round here there's a modest Chinese population and they absolutely cannot drive for toffee. The best was a chap reversing sort sort of tiny, tiny Dihatsu into a Tesco parking space. He had the hazard lights going and the effort he was expending checking mirrors and looking about would have put the Master of a

100,000 tonne cruise liner to shame while berthing in a particularly tight port.

I'd agree with that - you'd find various levels of engagement. I could see myself using it on the A14. No joy in that run of road.

Something of a generalisation, perchance? :-)

God no - YouTub is jammed full of vids of Chinese at home driving in a disastrous fashion. And every single one I've seen round here looks either terrified or tranquilized at the wheel and drives accordingly!

I wonder if driverless mode could be a 'getting out of jail' method for all kinds of traffic violations?

It would be a severe punishment for me.

You are approaching a level crossing in your Google equipped car. A fox runs along the tracks, the car comes to a rapid automatic halt narrowly avoiding hitting the fox. The crossing lights flash, the klaxon sounds and the barriers start to come down. The Google control and guidance software, honed, crafted and triple checked by a few thousand geeks thinks there is another hazard in front, there is, the barrier that has just started lowering. You try to take over. Google says Dave I can't do that. You try to open the door. Google says Dave, you must park in a designated parking place, stopping in the middle of the road is very anti-social. You hear a sound, almost the last sound you'll ever hear. Dave, Would you like to pass on details of your experience today via Google + ?

Then another sound. Bang, the train hits.

200 yards down the track a sound comes from a black box in the wreckage of what was once a car. It's that Google voice again. Please visit Google Play to update to our latest version. Dave... Dave...Dave...can you hear me Dave?

Unfortunately Dave is missing his ears, and his head which are found later impaled on the undercarriage of the train.

But humans can't cope with level crossings. That's why train companies are spending enormous sums of money to grub them up.

Anyway, just an example of how we get terribly emotional about machine failure but not about routine human failure. The test is not about the fate of one individual but whether machines can improve the statistics.

We let 17 year olds loose on the roads after a few hours of instruction; they have been taught to drive at up to 30mph, look before pulling out of junctions, to park and, hopefully, not run over pedestrians. Embedding that level of expertise into a machine is hardly going to be difficult. OTOH, reproducing the skills of a man in his 50's is obviously a much harder job.

But then, machines might introduce skills that humans don't have. Humans drive purely by the information that comes in through their eyes, which is the limiting factor, no matter how much power is available for processing. If you fit more/better sensors to something, the potential always increases.

But the computer knows the timetable and train schedule and will have stopped before the crossing.

Or it understands that you don't swerve or brake to avoid the road kill. You just mow it down, if it's unlucky it goes between the wheels and gets to run off and die in a hedge. Going to need a bit more sturdy or cheaply replaced air dam.

I've seen a loose dog run right under a cars wheels, get rolled as wheel went over its belly and then sprint off. Must have been well mashed up internally.

Excellent. Any chance the computer could pass that knowledge on to the train companies, then?

I can live update itself as it's driving, easy enough to find out what time the trains are running to.

Any chance it could pass that on to station announcers?

I never bother listening to the announcements, the most accurate information up this way comes from the national rail app :-)

And you can guarantee that will work at a level crossing in the middle of nowhere?

Presumably that scenario will be avoided by whatever method they use to avoid ending up stuck in the middle of a junction when the lights change which will include detecting the yellow cross hatch or junctions in general.

This is a good site shows everything everywhere moving on the network:)..

In the UK there are two types of crossing with barriers:

1. Manual: the signaller has to verify that the barriers have closed and the crossing is clear for trains before setting the signal that allows trains to use the crossing.
2. Automatic: these have half barriers. There is never a barrier that drops

*in front* of a vehicle that is on the crossing.

Why not have the information for all possible crossings updated regularly during the journey?

And as for losing signal - if data connectivity is important to a driverless car, they've got a lot more space and power to fit much more sensitive antenna then go in a mobile phone.

Hey, I've got an idea.

Have a system whereby, as the train approaches, it triggers devices that produce roughly 2Hz pulses of electromagnetic radiation at about 700nm. The car is fitted with a set of suitable sensors and stops and waits until the radiation ceases after the train has gone past. Though I realise this might be a bit complicated and revolutionary, compared to the ease and reliability of propagating information through the mobile phone system.

And when someone drops an emitter of similar EMR in the middle of a motorway at rush hour?