Cars that Can't Crash? 921
johnsee writes "Microsoft is working with Ford Motor Co towards car that can't crash. The future of cars according to Gates will involve high-definition screens, speech recognition technology, cameras, digital calendars and navigation equipment with directions and road conditions." From the article: "Also on Friday, Microsoft unveiled its Performance Peak Initiative -- a line of computer systems to help the auto industry better coordinate supply chains, streamline design, production and sales and fill vehicles with computer gadgets."
Insurance Rates (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Old Joke (Score:5, Informative)
The 2005 BMW 760i has a 'Start' button you must press (along with a transponder you insert into a slot) to start and stop the car [theautochannel.com]. So does the Lexus Gs 430 [msn.com] as do some Mercedes and Toyotas.
Microsoft jokes aside.... (Score:5, Informative)
google IVHS (intelligent vehicle highway system) for starters.
Not the Microsoft would be my first choice to design mass-produced life-threatening embedded systems.
Re:Slashdot Feature request (Score:3, Informative)
Then make those accounts friends of your main account, and set your "Foes of friends" modifier appropriately.
Re:"Merge onto I-5 HAL" "Sorry Dave, I can't do th (Score:2, Informative)
If your ABS came on, you were skidding, and you would not have stopped as fast if you didn't have ABS.
If ABS came on before you lost traction, your ABS sensor is broken.
The computer control stuff is what allows cars to be as good as they are today. If you prefer to not have that, restoring an old car to better than new condition can be done for less money than a new car today.
Re:Simple, low tech ways to prevent car crashes. (Score:1, Informative)
Don't believe me? You don't have to. Click here and read a few of the reports they cite:
Click click [erowid.org]
Re:"Merge onto I-5 HAL" "Sorry Dave, I can't do th (Score:1, Informative)
The irony is that it can be done today. (Score:3, Informative)
http://faculty.washington.edu/~jbs/itrans/PRT/ [washington.edu]
Re:Everyone stop (Score:1, Informative)
I fail to see how a car with a computer built into it, is simpler than a computer.
A car with a computer built into it is a fixed platform. For the most part, parts are predetermined by the manufacturer. A computer (such as a home PC) is much more flexible and provides a great deal of surface area for change. Many of these components interwork and the potential for incompatibilities is large, not to mention the lackluster quality of most device driver software. Microsoft and other general-purpose OS manufacturers cannot generally rely on any particular set of hardware components being present.
Um, you do realize that to run software, you need an OS?
False. You don't need an OS to have an execution environment if your software talks directly to the hardware. Many embedded systems (industrial controllers for example) run without an OS.
Re:Everyone stop (Score:3, Informative)
I think you're thinking of a computer as "PC with any one of a few hundred motherboards, a few hundred videocards, a few hundred soundcards, a few hundred CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drives, a few thousand hard disks and Heaven only knows what other crazy peripherals".
In this context, a computer will be built out of few, well-tested, reasonably reliable parts and these parts won't vary from vehicle to vehicle. They probably won't vary much from year to year. Helluva lot easier to write a stable OS when you only have to support a couple of hardware combinations.
Re:"Merge onto I-5 HAL" "Sorry Dave, I can't do th (Score:3, Informative)
There is reportedly at least one exception: loose gravel. On a gravel road, locking up the wheels will stop the car faster than ABS. One of the earliest cars with ABS (a Mercedes) had an override switch to disable ABS, for this exact reason.
However, there's a trade-off: you lose steering if the front wheels are locked. Depending on the situation, an longer stopping distance on a gravel would be preferable to no directional control.
Re:Can you explain that to my wife? (Score:3, Informative)
time--->
brakes: catch..slip..catch..slip..catch..slip..catch..sli
ABS BRAKING
time--->
brake on catch...........slip..catch............slip..catc
DOING IT MYSELF
Maybe the cars I've used just had bad implementations of ABS, but it didn't do a better job overall because it keeps crossing the threshold back and forth and spending 50% of the time on the "slip" side of that threshold.
Re:And the winner is... (Score:3, Informative)
I doubt the court will be impressed with what is written on page 87 of a EULA that the driver supposedly agreed to by turning the ignition key.
Are we both talking about the same Microsoft that bought off the DOJ? The same Microsoft that was convicted of monopolistic abuses but was still allowed to compete, and was even preferred, for federal contracts because of a presidential order rescinding a previous Executive Order? The Microsoft that has way more pull with the government and courts than Ford or Firestone? The Microsoft that has paid the gang of 500+ to believe that DRM is good for the country? That Microsoft?
Re:Can you explain that to my wife? (Score:3, Informative)
Crappy ABS will allow you to keep steering authority no matter how much you hammer the brake pedal, and that's the main point of it. However, it is reasonable to believe that any given ABS implementation is not going to give you the best possible stopping distance.
I've had the opportunity to drive a wide variety of vehicles, and I have a habit of testing the ABS just for kicks. Some are too quick to release brake pressure, well before you'd lose steering authority due to skidding. Some leave the brake pressure off too much of the time, affecting stopping distance. But there are good ABS implementations.
Most of the better ABS implementations are extremely difficult to outperform. I've had the opportunity to drive several different vehicles with the ABS activated and disabled. The Ford Econoline Van's ABS is a joke as far as stopping distance performance, and I've come to prefer the ABS deactivated in that vehicle even lacking the panic stop safety net. The BMW 3 Series on the other hand has a superb ABS implementation. You can just stand on the brakes in nearly any situation and it yanks you down to zero with little fuss or muss. With the ABS off I may have been able to improve upon it, but not repeatably and certainly not when it might matter most.
And then there are more modern systems which modulate brake pressure to individual wheels. That is, they'll release pressure on ONLY the wheel(s) that slip. That's a trick a human with only one pedal simply can't accomplish. It's not a terribly common feature yet though.
That's my $0.02.
~Lake
New Ford Motto - "Remember the Yorktown!" (Score:4, Informative)
(For the ignorant, the NT-based US Navy ship that had to be towed back to port when NT crashed.)
Second new Ford motto: "Quality is Job - er, where's the Task Manager?"
"End Task"
"The program is not responding. Do you want to end the task?"
"Yes - that's why I clicked 'End Task' - you stupid fucking piece of shit...!"
Cringely's Last Piece Was On New Jets (Score:3, Informative)
which are supposed to be the safest and most fuel efficient ever made.
Then he said the jet's systems were Microsoft-based.
So I sent him an email asking: "What's wrong with this picture?" and referencing the Yorktown.
He replied that he was going to research that part some more, but he got the point.