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So Big Brother is coming, in new technology.

Joined
May 10, 2011
Messages
1,360
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550
Location
Clear Lake
First Name
Mike
How about your car auto regulating it's speed?

It's true, no april fools tricks, lets introduce cars that will only go the posted speed limit in the posted area.
'This will save lives' etc etc, blah blah blah. But the technology already exists to do this, and folks in Europe are advancing legislation for it.
Of course it means that there will be need to be 'black box GPS recorders' of everything you do and everywhere you go and how fast.
Maybe auto ticketing for speeding?
Maybe no insurance if your device is tampered with?
Built in breathalizer for any/all substances?

How long do you give it before someone suggests it here?
How long before it is hacked and your data stolen/used against you?
 
Most new cars already have that information available to the OEM. They can generally get the GPS location of it any time they want. Until the outlaw old vehicles or I can't keep them running any longer I don't have much to worry about. Besides, we will be in flying cars soon anyways.
 
No thanks, but I know the tech is already out there.
A part of me can see that as a "good thing", but then the logical part of my brain kicks that thought in the rear and I shake my head at it.

I actually am looking forward to auto driving cars. I can keep driving my vehicle the way I want, and others "automated" cars have to watch out for me. :)

But really by the time they become commonplace (I say within the next 30 years) I will be 80 (if I live that long) and could probably benefit from that.
 
The EU is much more aggressive when it comes to managing the driving habits of their constituents. Many, if not all, countries have no trouble administering justice remotely with technology, such as speed cameras. They even have AVERAGE speed cameras. The first camera records your entry, second one 30 miles later, compares to the average speed limit and if you are over it, you're busted. It's fun to watch someone speed by you, then pass them 20 miles down the road while they wait for their average to decline.

So Technology? It seemed to me that many of the cameras I saw were either not working or completely missing. Just an empty box to fake you out. Keeping technology working is expensive. Also, most seemed to be designed to read the front plate of the vehicle. Which, most of you already know, doesn't really work that well for motorcycles. This is just another European effort to control their population by the politicians. It is very much more Big Brother over there.

Now, as far as self driving cars. I see your estimate of 30 years Blupupher. I will take the under on that! :) Public testing is already happening in Washington state, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Kalifornia. A quote from a recent article. The House of Representatives, in a rare moment of bipartisanship, passed its version of the SELF DRIVE Act, which could result in as many as 100,000 self-driving cars taking to the road by 2021 or 2022, depending on how soon the Senate moves on its version of the bill. It's gonna happen, and I believe it a LOT less than 30 years.

And once self driving vehicles become the standard, speed limits for them will become moot. Your car will only go the speed limit, unless you are driving it. Self driving cars will become more like trains, each able to follow extremely close, to conserve fuel. The speed limits will rise, for self driving vehicles. There will be traffic laws passed that only allow self driving vehicles in certain lanes. Vehicle density on highways will grow dramatically and reduce the need to build even bigger roads. Convenience will trump concern. It will be as if everyone has their own personal chauffeur. Leave home, reading the newspaper, drop you off at your office door, then go find a parking spot and wait to pick you up when you're done. Heck, there may not even be a need to own a car. Have a self driving vehicle pick you up at your home, drop you off where you are going and only pay for the use.

Once this happens it will be adopted quickly. I give it 10 years before the majority of vehicles you see on the road are self driving.
 
Sadly Joe is on the mark. Read that by end of the year there will be 18 wheelers running on Interstate 10 fromArizona to Houston with an observer and they said hopefully next year unmanned, 18 wheelers!!!!
 
Anything I have to say about that will let off the censor.
 
The EU is much more aggressive when it comes to managing the driving habits of their constituents. Many, if not all, countries have no trouble administering justice remotely with technology, such as speed cameras. They even have AVERAGE speed cameras. The first camera records your entry, second one 30 miles later, compares to the average speed limit and if you are over it, you're busted. It's fun to watch someone speed by you, then pass them 20 miles down the road while they wait for their average to decline.

So Technology? It seemed to me that many of the cameras I saw were either not working or completely missing. Just an empty box to fake you out. Keeping technology working is expensive. Also, most seemed to be designed to read the front plate of the vehicle. Which, most of you already know, doesn't really work that well for motorcycles. This is just another European effort to control their population by the politicians. It is very much more Big Brother over there.

Now, as far as self driving cars. I see your estimate of 30 years Blupupher. I will take the under on that! :) Public testing is already happening in Washington state, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Kalifornia. A quote from a recent article. The House of Representatives, in a rare moment of bipartisanship, passed its version of the SELF DRIVE Act, which could result in as many as 100,000 self-driving cars taking to the road by 2021 or 2022, depending on how soon the Senate moves on its version of the bill. It's gonna happen, and I believe it a LOT less than 30 years.

And once self driving vehicles become the standard, speed limits for them will become moot. Your car will only go the speed limit, unless you are driving it. Self driving cars will become more like trains, each able to follow extremely close, to conserve fuel. The speed limits will rise, for self driving vehicles. There will be traffic laws passed that only allow self driving vehicles in certain lanes. Vehicle density on highways will grow dramatically and reduce the need to build even bigger roads. Convenience will trump concern. It will be as if everyone has their own personal chauffeur. Leave home, reading the newspaper, drop you off at your office door, then go find a parking spot and wait to pick you up when you're done. Heck, there may not even be a need to own a car. Have a self driving vehicle pick you up at your home, drop you off where you are going and only pay for the use.

Once this happens it will be adopted quickly. I give it 10 years before the majority of vehicles you see on the road are self driving.
and they say all electric too by mid century .
 
Sadly Joe is on the mark. Read that by end of the year there will be 18 wheelers running on Interstate 10 fromArizona to Houston with an observer and they said hopefully next year unmanned, 18 wheelers!!!!
I heard they are already running in one of the northern states this year and several are being used inside of secure facilities too.
They have been using fully autonomous trucks in the mines of Australia for a couple of years now too, but they had to introduce some 'variance' into the programming to even out the wear patterns on the road. The trucks were running too accurately! lol
I'm very disappointed but I don't think we will live to see the flying car thing, we will just go straight to driverless transport and if it flies at all it will be a bus or something!
No private flying vehicle for you sir, you can't be trusted with that kind of technology, let the machine handle it.
 
I'll just leave this here
87c82327c31deb2172175212784cb5a1.jpg
 
...

Now, as far as self driving cars. I see your estimate of 30 years Blupupher. I will take the under on that! :) Public testing is already happening in Washington state, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Kalifornia. A quote from a recent article. The House of Representatives, in a rare moment of bipartisanship, passed its version of the SELF DRIVE Act, which could result in as many as 100,000 self-driving cars taking to the road by 2021 or 2022, depending on how soon the Senate moves on its version of the bill. It's gonna happen, and I believe it a LOT less than 30 years.

And once self driving vehicles become the standard, speed limits for them will become moot. Your car will only go the speed limit, unless you are driving it. Self driving cars will become more like trains, each able to follow extremely close, to conserve fuel. The speed limits will rise, for self driving vehicles. There will be traffic laws passed that only allow self driving vehicles in certain lanes. Vehicle density on highways will grow dramatically and reduce the need to build even bigger roads. Convenience will trump concern. It will be as if everyone has their own personal chauffeur. Leave home, reading the newspaper, drop you off at your office door, then go find a parking spot and wait to pick you up when you're done. Heck, there may not even be a need to own a car. Have a self driving vehicle pick you up at your home, drop you off where you are going and only pay for the use.

Once this happens it will be adopted quickly. I give it 10 years before the majority of vehicles you see on the road are self driving.
10 years is too soon for them to be a majority on the road.
Maybe the majority being sold (if you even need to buy a car with ride sharing capabilities of driver-less vehicles) and pretty common place, but think of how many 15+ year old vehicles are still on the road right now. We have another 5 years at least till they are being sold to the general public (and at a high price that most can't afford), and 10 years till the "commoner" can afford one. So that is another 10 years of "regular" vehicles being sold, with a 20 year lifespan.
Plus the whole group of those that want nothing to do with a self driving vehicle. I don't now, but I know there can be huge benefits to automated vehicles in the long run. I can see my needs changing in the future to accept them.
 
10 years is too soon for them to be a majority on the road.
Maybe the majority being sold (if you even need to buy a car with ride sharing capabilities of driver-less vehicles) and pretty common place, but think of how many 15+ year old vehicles are still on the road right now. We have another 5 years at least till they are being sold to the general public (and at a high price that most can't afford), and 10 years till the "commoner" can afford one. So that is another 10 years of "regular" vehicles being sold, with a 20 year lifespan.
Plus the whole group of those that want nothing to do with a self driving vehicle. I don't now, but I know there can be huge benefits to automated vehicles in the long run. I can see my needs changing in the future to accept them.

I'm sensing a long term bet for a beer! ;)
 
Technology marches on? The good news: self driving cars could be a boon to those of us aging and keep us more mobile? Economics will drive a lot of this technology deployment: if it is too expensive, it won't happen quickly. Electric cars, I think, will become dominant in about 20 years, powered by electricity from much improved battery systems, and that electricity mainly from natural gas plants. Time will tell. My dad grew up riding a horse.
 
Meh. How many people have the location service on the cellular phone turned on? How many people understand that even with it turned off, the technology still allows your location to be tracked, just not as accurately? All of those cool google maps that reflect the traffic speed on the highway are using this service. How many people have told Facebook their name, birthplace, education, birthday, CC information, everything but their social security number and maybe that too? For every inch that big brother supposedly takes, people willingly give a foot to save a buck or a minute. I don't listen to talk radio or have cable TV so please forgive me if I'm not up on the most current conspiracy theories. Cheez is right, we won't vote to make it mandatory. We'll volunteer for it to save money.

As for the technology. I can see it in Europe where the population density is about 3 times what it is here. And while I welcome the convenience of subscription based general transportation like driverless Uber, it isn't coming to the hinterland for a very long time. There is just too much distance between Ozona and Fort Stockton to be practical there, or even in Camp Wood or La Grange. Even with changes the core of what we love about motorsport will remain. To paraphrase Sandra Button, the horse is obsolete but it didn't go away. There are lots of people enjoying equestrian events today, they just don't ride horses to work.
 
I don't listen to talk radio or have cable TV so please forgive me if I'm not up on the most current conspiracy theories.

In my experience those are usually exactly the people that are up to date on conspiracy theories. I don’t mean to imply that about you personally, but the folks that isolate themselves in an echo chamber of like minded friends and viewpoint specific online resources are usually the most dug in regarding their extreme views.
 
... To paraphrase Sandra Button, the horse is obsolete but it didn't go away. There are lots of people enjoying equestrian events today, they just don't ride horses to work.

Good analogy. In 1900 there were about 4,000 cars on the road, by 1920 there were about 26 million cars. And that was a time when manufacturing efficiencies where substantially sub par and technology practically non-existent in comparison to today. They also had to deal with transition and integration issues probably way more complicated than how will smart cars work with non-smart cars drivers.
 
I believe the Nissan GTR already has that in it. It won't allow the car to go into Race mode unless the GPS shows that it is on a race track.
 
There are lots of people enjoying equestrian events today, they just don't ride horses to work.
That's true but they are also largely not allowed to ride their horses to work, I would hate to see that happen to bikes and self driven cars.
 
In my experience those are usually exactly the people that are up to date on conspiracy theories. I don’t mean to imply that about you personally, but the folks that isolate themselves in an echo chamber of like minded friends and viewpoint specific online resources are usually the most dug in regarding their extreme views.

I hear you. I use enterprise journalism... i.e. Reuters, AP, etc. Then I touch a group of foreign news sources each week like DW, BBC, NZ Herald (Go All Blacks!), etc. I also access the journals at the uni and groups policy think tanks like Rand. There are too many to list. I don't care if a person disagrees with me as long as they are thinking critically and can make a sound, well supported argument. My business colleagues too often end up in cable news talking point combat where none of them understand the issues, but they know what their new source told them to say. I'm still embarrassed for my neighbors over in Smithville who thought Jade Helm 15 was a government takeover. Geez

That's true but they are also largely not allowed to ride their horses to work, I would hate to see that happen to bikes and self driven cars.

I think we're a long way from that. People won't let self driving cars go away until there are so few left that no one really cares. The issue with riding a horse to work has more to do with your choices of places to keep it than it does to transportation code preventing riding on public streets. I'm sure there are exceptions to this, but it's probably more for the safety of the animal and rider than anything. Then again, the company may frown on it.

Hmm, makes you wonder if there will ever come a time when there will be almost no parking spaces in urban areas because cars only drop people off, not park for ten hours.
 
If we did the research, I think we might be surprised at just how many people are totally on board with self-driving cars becoming the norm. After all, most aren't disciplined enough even to resist texting while driving and already view their cars as appliances, rather than vehicles to be actively piloted. I bet a lot of folks would be keen on the idea of just being able to kick back and surf Instagram or Twitter during their commutes. People have long been willing to exchange free action for comfort, and this will likely be no exception.

That said, I don't view the technology itself as being bad. But I do see it as a tool for further oppressing individual liberty. As the technology advances, so to will the ability to use it as aggression. The world's population has more than doubled just in my lifetime. With more population density comes less freedom and more mass control of individual behavior. IMO, that's what is happening in the EU right now, and this particular issue is just a small part of it.
 
I agree Tim. There's nothing wrong with all this automated tech per se. Where it becomes an issue is when people are dependent on it but have no control over it. They are then at the mercy of those that DO have control over it. History does not give me reason to think that such control won't be used/abused for advantage by those that have it. Nonetheless, people WILL readily and eagerly adopt it because of the convenience.

Let's face it. If I lived in a big metro area, I would use automated cars because I HATE driving in places like that, but I would never take a bus either. I like the privacy of a car (not that the automated cars won't have cameras to spy on occupants... for their own safety of course :-P). Or, for a long road trip where I just want to get from A to B without seeing sights along the way, a self driving car might be nice. However, I am confident that they won't be available for that use because we will be herded into either self driving buses or onto trains at some point. Flying will likely get more expensive and only be available for the important people, which isn't likely to be either of us :-P On top of that is just the cost factor. Cars have become crazy expensive! Throw in maintenance, insurance, gas, etc,... and losing the need to own a car would make a BIG difference in the monthly budget of many people!

There is no shortage of SciFi that paints various pictures of how this will all play out and what impact it will have on society.

I am still holding out for the Star Trek style teleporters. Adv riding will take on a whole new level of experience after that happens and all the roads are either torn up or left to decay :-P
 
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