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So much talk about LIDAR and other sensors. Why nobody talks about obvious idea of Road Object Message Bus? ROMB is a protocol where each road object (a traffic

by dgregd 9y ago

So much talk about LIDAR and other sensors. Why nobody talks about obvious idea of Road Object Message Bus? ROMB is a protocol where each road object (a traffic light, a sign, a car, etc.) can transmit info about itself. A car could broadcast its direction vector, intention to turn, any non ROMB moving object it sees. A traffic light could broadcast current state and when it is going to change. That additional information would greatly enhance overall security, especially during rain and snow conditions. Self-driving is such important (just after eliminating combustion engines) that we could upgrade existing cars with cheap ROMB boxes. Vehicle GPS tracking system costs about $30. ROMB box would cost about $60. Let's say a car ROMB received info about the white truck, while your car cameras and vision recognition systems see just a cloud and any truck in 50 m range, that conflicting info should cause the car to slow down.

rad_gruchalski 9y ago
And when something goes wrong with the infrastructure - chaos.
- new299 9y ago
  Are there any reports showing what happens when all the traffic lights in a city stop working? I would guess it would be similarly chaotic. The infrastructure would need to be designed such that large scale outages are unlikely I guess.
new299 9y ago
Right, and I think it's the obvious way to approach autonomous vehicles. With the correct infrastructure investment, self-driving vehicles would be vastly simpler and more reliable. The problem is who pays for it, and who authorizes its installation. It's really something that has to be done at the governmental level. And I don't think there's any will to pay for it. There are other issues of course. One is that in an Urban environment transportation issues would be better served by good public transport than self-driving vehicles. The other is that I think once the government get involved, the numerous sociological issues associated with self-driving cars (which I personally think are more significant than the technical issues) would become apparent.

by dgregd 9y ago

rad_gruchalski 9y ago

And when something goes wrong with the infrastructure - chaos.

new299 9y ago
Are there any reports showing what happens when all the traffic lights in a city stop working? I would guess it would be similarly chaotic. The infrastructure would need to be designed such that large scale outages are unlikely I guess.

new299 9y ago

Right, and I think it's the obvious way to approach autonomous vehicles. With the correct infrastructure investment, self-driving vehicles would be vastly simpler and more reliable. The problem is who pays for it, and who authorizes its installation. It's really something that has to be done at the governmental level. And I don't think there's any will to pay for it. There are other issues of course. One is that in an Urban environment transportation issues would be better served by good public transport than self-driving vehicles. The other is that I think once the government get involved, the numerous sociological issues associated with self-driving cars (which I personally think are more significant than the technical issues) would become apparent.