The safety systems would work perfectly if the cars could communicate, or more robustly if they could be mechanically linked together for the “easy” (highway) portion of the drive. Imagine a lane with nose to tail cars all doing exactly the same thing. At exits (predefined stops) you could get off to change or stay on the same one. Put a little station there with bathrooms and food.
Maybe we could even replace that highway lane with steel tracks and the tires with steel wheels for lower friction.
Simply linking the cars wouldn’t be enough to address an issue like this though. They still need to individually recognize something like the debris this car ran over and deal with it appropriately.
If cars are linked to share data like this then I can easily see a scenario where one model of car with really good sensors sends a warning saying “hey, there’s road debris here”. But subsequent cars still need to be able to see it and avoid it as well. If the sensors in a following car aren’t as good as the sensors in the first car then that second car could still strike it.
Debris doesn’t remain stationary. Each vehicle that hits it will move it, possibly break it into multiple pieces, etc. And eventually, either through that process or by a person moving it, it will cease being a hazard.
The safety systems would work perfectly if the cars could communicate, or more robustly if they could be mechanically linked together for the “easy” (highway) portion of the drive. Imagine a lane with nose to tail cars all doing exactly the same thing. At exits (predefined stops) you could get off to change or stay on the same one. Put a little station there with bathrooms and food.
Maybe we could even replace that highway lane with steel tracks and the tires with steel wheels for lower friction.
Damn you just always re-derive the train
Simply linking the cars wouldn’t be enough to address an issue like this though. They still need to individually recognize something like the debris this car ran over and deal with it appropriately.
If cars are linked to share data like this then I can easily see a scenario where one model of car with really good sensors sends a warning saying “hey, there’s road debris here”. But subsequent cars still need to be able to see it and avoid it as well. If the sensors in a following car aren’t as good as the sensors in the first car then that second car could still strike it.
Debris doesn’t remain stationary. Each vehicle that hits it will move it, possibly break it into multiple pieces, etc. And eventually, either through that process or by a person moving it, it will cease being a hazard.
I was just jokingly rederiving a train instead. I think automated cars is mostly really silly