Stanford Robot Car Capable of Slide Parking 265
kkleiner writes "Stanford's Junior, the robot car that took second place at DARPA's Grand Challenge in 2007, has learned how to perform a tire-squealing 180-degree spin into a skin-tight parking space. Similar to a James Bond action scene, the maneuver is impressive and would be extremely difficult for a human to pull off. We won't be handing the keys over to robot cars anytime soon, but Stanford shows us that at least for some driving tasks robot cars can already meet or even exceed human ability."
Robots still suck (Score:1, Interesting)
This guy [youtube.com] does that like 50 times in a minute twelve.
Re:Three Points (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Just a few points... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Just a few points... (Score:3, Interesting)
Driving in circles on a track is also no fun at all if you want to, you know, eventually end up someplace else.
But I think I have a good compromise:
You keep riding the subway in $bigcity, and I'll keep driving my cars in rural Ohio for fun. These are not mutually-exclusive things.
Re:Well, except for the part... (Score:3, Interesting)
Oh shut up you crab in a bucket!
People also were extremely lucky to get to the moon, as previously 99 times out of 100, everyone would have died a firey accident.
If you only think about what could happen, you have to lock yourself down in a sterile environment below ground and everything.
Take a fucking risk will ya?
I’m not saying go crazy. I’m saying learn to know what you can do and what not, and get to your own limits. Because that’s literally the difference between a genius an someone complaining all day long about everything he “can’t” do.
There is a difference between Russian Roulette and this. Since you vastly improve your chances with skill in doing slides with a car. Look at professional Rally drivers. That’s how skill can change things.
And considering he did stuff like this very often, he definitely got some training and skills.
It was not the wisest thing, as it was a bit over his skills. But far from a 99% chance of death as you paint it.
Also, 180 degree turns look far worse as they are. Actually the dynamics of such a rotating forward motion make it the wisest choice to stop the rotation when you are forward facing. If you are on gravel, you can do it after a couple of tries. On ice (with spikes) it’s even pretty easy.
Take the five inches of padding of yourself, pull of the warning labels, and learn to handle situations. Get some skill and live, will ya?
Re:Just a few points... (Score:3, Interesting)
Agreed.
Also - if cars drove themselves we wouldn't need so many of them. My car could drop me off at work, and then drive home to take care of my wife all day until I need it again.
If I needed a car unexpectedly I'd just punch something into my smartphone and in 2 mins a rental/taxi would drive up to pick me up.
Public transit would make a whole lot more sense if a car dropped me off on the train platform, and another was sitting there ready to pick me up for the last mile when I got off at the other end.
For a big family vacation I could have a second car just shuttle my luggage. Maybe it would drive at 45mph for maximum economy and leave early or arrive late.
No need to own a big truck, but I could have one with two minutes notice if I need to haul something. If I need to drop something off at a neighbor's there would be no need for me to even ride along for the trip as long as they're to unload at the destination.
Stores wouldn't need parking lots. Each town would have big parking garages strategically located, and cars would drop people off and go find something to do with themselves until needed. Just think about how much less asphault we'd need, and how much that would be better for the enviornment/etc.
Oh, no cars idling anywhere either, no red lights, etc. That has to be great for improving gas mileage.
Lots of options if you get rid of the human drivers. For far less than we spend on all the problems caused by our current transportation system we could probably fix it...