10 ms·

Let's phase out camera based ticketing. But clearly, some drivers cannot be trusted to drive the speed limit, stop at red lights, or generally drive in a sensib

by morsch 5y ago

Let's phase out camera based ticketing. But clearly, some drivers cannot be trusted to drive the speed limit, stop at red lights, or generally drive in a sensible manner. In many cases, it may happen accidentally, even to conscientious drivers. Thankfully, we're living in modern times, and while autonomous driving is not there yet, we can use similar technology to prevent traffic violations. When you are on a public road with a speed limit, your car will simply not accelerate beyond the speed limit. When you are missing a red light, the car will not let you run it. Of course, there are emergencies where you need to do these things: your pregnant wife is giving birth, you are Jack Bauer and preventing nuclear war. Activating the hazards disables the traffic assist. It also keeps a log of all violations and forwards it to the authorities, but since it's a medical or national security issue, nothing will come of it. This cannot be done overnight, which is why there will be a generous period while the old system is phased out and the new system is debugged.

gus_massa 5y ago
> your pregnant wife is giving birth Nitpicking: This is very common in movies, but it's not how real life work. The first delivery takes a long time, probably two days with random isolated contractions that make sleeping very difficult. And after the 10 minutes interval between contractions, there is still plenty of time. Ask your medical doctors for recommendations and good time estimations. You don't want to have an unnecessary accident that day. Third and fourth delivery may be faster. Don't get too complacent because the first one took so much. Also, ask your doctor about this. PS: If you want to read another rant, I can write one about the "first word of the baby".
- nautilius 5y ago
  Here's a counter-rant ;-) : in many countries, you should actually talk to your midwife rather than the doctor. In France, this is a 5 year medical degree, and they will have the hands-on experience in thousands of births, rather than some doctor who read about it at college 20 years ago and has never actually seen one through, but for historical reasons is now in a hierarchical position to impose his 'knowledge'.
- morsch 5y ago
  Well, it was intentional hyperbole. National security emergencies that warrant speeding are also exceedingly rare. I suspect most emergencies are of the I'm-late-for-work or I'm-missing-my-flight kind. Those are tragic, but sadly not actionable. Obviously, a nitpicking PSA is nevertheless appreciated.
- Sohcahtoa82 5y ago
  I'll nitpick this right back. Of course, when it comes to human biology, YMMV...a LOT. When my brother-in-law was born, his mom had her first contraction, and he came out 45 minutes later. Her friends envy how damn quick her labor was.
devmor 5y ago
In a world where the government is a perfect, un-corruptable bastion of public service, this sounds nice! It's too bad we do not live in that word, and such technology would be used as a wedge to track your vehicle in whole.
- morsch 5y ago
  The system described is entirely autonomous (no data leaves your vehicle) unless and until you declare an emergency. On the other hand, people already leave ample trails that let them be tracked. Still, I agree that mandating the use of technology that makes you trackable would bad.
  - devmor 5y ago
    The problem with that is who enforces the autonomous system? Who keeps it from sending data until you interact? Who stops it from being changed later on in newer models to do more? Our cellphones once did not track us either.
josephcsible 5y ago
I really hope this is satire or sarcasm.
- morsch 5y ago
  Oh, I'm sure most people would agree with you, and the idea is kind of out there, but I'm sort of serious. In fact, it seems kind of insane to me that this isn't the status quo already, the technology has been there for a decade or more. I think that's when I first drove a car that had a warning light go off when I exceeded the limit, and I remember thinking "why is it even letting me drive this fast?". I'm less sure about the red lights, which requires technology beyond static maps and GPS, the kind of technology required for true autonomous driving (which incidentally will also respect the speed limit). We have as a society decided we don't want people to drive faster than a sensibly derived speed, we already license cars to be road legal or not, and exact positioning is already utterly ubiquitous, put those things together and you have pretty much solved the problem of speeding. The only major issue is GPS accuracy -- e.g. what if on the highway your car thinks it's on a parallel slow-moving road. But you don't need perfect accuracy, you only need a reasonably accurate measure of inaccuracy and a fallback to the higher limit (or no limit). The other major issue (and the reason why this won't happen anytime soon) is current car drivers being uncomfortable with their own property limiting their capability to drive beyond the speed limit, which most of them do as a matter of course, to which I say, tough luck, you're free to drive a non-limited car on private ground. Note that none of this involves any central tracking of cars, in fact it's less invasive than the current system of monitoring using radar and cameras.

by morsch 5y ago

gus_massa 5y ago

> your pregnant wife is giving birth Nitpicking: This is very common in movies, but it's not how real life work. The first delivery takes a long time, probably two days with random isolated contractions that make sleeping very difficult. And after the 10 minutes interval between contractions, there is still plenty of time. Ask your medical doctors for recommendations and good time estimations. You don't want to have an unnecessary accident that day. Third and fourth delivery may be faster. Don't get too complacent because the first one took so much. Also, ask your doctor about this. PS: If you want to read another rant, I can write one about the "first word of the baby".

nautilius 5y ago
Here's a counter-rant ;-) : in many countries, you should actually talk to your midwife rather than the doctor. In France, this is a 5 year medical degree, and they will have the hands-on experience in thousands of births, rather than some doctor who read about it at college 20 years ago and has never actually seen one through, but for historical reasons is now in a hierarchical position to impose his 'knowledge'.
morsch 5y ago
Well, it was intentional hyperbole. National security emergencies that warrant speeding are also exceedingly rare. I suspect most emergencies are of the I'm-late-for-work or I'm-missing-my-flight kind. Those are tragic, but sadly not actionable. Obviously, a nitpicking PSA is nevertheless appreciated.
Sohcahtoa82 5y ago
I'll nitpick this right back. Of course, when it comes to human biology, YMMV...a LOT. When my brother-in-law was born, his mom had her first contraction, and he came out 45 minutes later. Her friends envy how damn quick her labor was.

devmor 5y ago

In a world where the government is a perfect, un-corruptable bastion of public service, this sounds nice! It's too bad we do not live in that word, and such technology would be used as a wedge to track your vehicle in whole.

morsch 5y ago
The system described is entirely autonomous (no data leaves your vehicle) unless and until you declare an emergency. On the other hand, people already leave ample trails that let them be tracked. Still, I agree that mandating the use of technology that makes you trackable would bad.
- devmor 5y ago
  The problem with that is who enforces the autonomous system? Who keeps it from sending data until you interact? Who stops it from being changed later on in newer models to do more? Our cellphones once did not track us either.

josephcsible 5y ago

I really hope this is satire or sarcasm.

morsch 5y ago
Oh, I'm sure most people would agree with you, and the idea is kind of out there, but I'm sort of serious. In fact, it seems kind of insane to me that this isn't the status quo already, the technology has been there for a decade or more. I think that's when I first drove a car that had a warning light go off when I exceeded the limit, and I remember thinking "why is it even letting me drive this fast?". I'm less sure about the red lights, which requires technology beyond static maps and GPS, the kind of technology required for true autonomous driving (which incidentally will also respect the speed limit). We have as a society decided we don't want people to drive faster than a sensibly derived speed, we already license cars to be road legal or not, and exact positioning is already utterly ubiquitous, put those things together and you have pretty much solved the problem of speeding. The only major issue is GPS accuracy -- e.g. what if on the highway your car thinks it's on a parallel slow-moving road. But you don't need perfect accuracy, you only need a reasonably accurate measure of inaccuracy and a fallback to the higher limit (or no limit). The other major issue (and the reason why this won't happen anytime soon) is current car drivers being uncomfortable with their own property limiting their capability to drive beyond the speed limit, which most of them do as a matter of course, to which I say, tough luck, you're free to drive a non-limited car on private ground. Note that none of this involves any central tracking of cars, in fact it's less invasive than the current system of monitoring using radar and cameras.