[nfb-talk] A Vehicle That Would Drive It Self

Mon Oct 29 02:46:58 CDT 2007

Now I would love to help you out,
I have questions about this though.
How would the car or truck know someone was crossing the street, and if 
something went wrong,
Who jumps in and stops the rolling?
That would be a huge fear.

--Dar
www.mypowermall.com/biz/home/5779
Every Saint has a past
Every Sinner has a future

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Evans" <drevans at bellsouth.net>
To: "'NFB Talk Mailing List'" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, October 28, 2007 10:00 AM
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] A Vehicle That Would Drive It Self

>
> Dear All,
>
> The organization may have voted not to tackle this innovation in
> transportation technology, but there are those of us who clearly see the
> advantages and the future of such vehicles.
> Right here in my own city of Boca Raton Florida, I have a private company
> that already is in development of a system to drive ARMY two and half ton
> trucks without a driver on board.
> In fact, they are working on a system that will allow one soldier/driver 
> to
> manage a small fleet of such vehicles and have them link up and follow 
> each
> other over all kinds of ground using new kinds of navigation and sensor
> systems.
> The military has a mandate to have one third of all of its vehicles
> autonomist
> By 2015.
> The ARMY needs this because it is facing a growing manpower shortage and 
> the
> threat level to supply delivery troops is growing with the increasing use 
> of
> I. E. D.'s.
> There will be many benefits to this technology as the technology trickles
> down to the masses.
> We will see fundamental changes in transportation, both commercially and
> personally.
>
> After the military, the commercial sector will begin using it and then
> private individuals, which includes the Blind.
> One of the biggest factors in a blind person being employed and staying
> employed is or ability to have access to transportation.
> If in the near future it is possible for long and short haul truckers and
> taxi drivers to be replaced by robotic cars, it stands to reason that
> private individuals will want to have them for their personal use also.
> There are many in our society that can not drive or choose not to drive. 
> I
> see many people here in Florida, who come from up North where there is
> excellent Public transportation and have never learned to drive and now
> either have to learn to drive or depend upon our sad excuse for Public
> transportation.
> I know as I work for that system and it still takes me as much as 2.5 
> hours
> just to get to work at the other side of the county and the same amount to
> get back home.
> Even door-to-door service is based on the time and distance it would take
> you to get from point "A" to point "B".
> They can , by law, use this "extra" time to do multi loading of the 
> vehicle.
> I ask you, how many sighted people who are working, would put up with a
> daily commute that takes 5 plus hours out of your working day?
> They would move or get another job somewhere else.  We don't have those
> kinds of options.
> Having control over our personal transportation will open doors for us in
> many ways and place us on a more even footing with our sighted peers.
> I don't thing that the organization NFB, should get directly involved in
> this technology as yet.  There are many more things that we need to be
> spending our money on as an organization.
> I do think that we as members, should form a group to stay on top of this
> trend in technology and make sure , where ever we can, that accessibility 
> is
> thought of and incorporated into it from the get-go.
> We don't want to face the same situation we face with computer access in
> always having to play catch up.
> I would like to be part of this exciting new technology and I hope that
> others will join with me.
>
> David Evans, NFBF
>
> Nuclear/Aerospace Materials Engineer
> Builder of the Lunar Rovers and the F-117-A Stealth Fighter
>
>
> Public transportation is certainly not where it needs to be in this 
> country
> and for the most part only available in the larger cities where most of 
> the
> jobs are.  Many times a job , or at least the higher paying jobs,
> require-----Original Message-----
> From: nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Ray Foret Jr
> Sent: Sunday, October 28, 2007 9:46 AM
> To: NFB Talk Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] A Vehicle That Would Drive It Self
>
> Since the convention firmly decided not to pursue such an objective as 
> this,
>
> how is this relevant to us?  Dr. Maurer asked the national convention
> whether we wanted to have anything to do with it; and, the convention 
> firmly
>
> decided against it.
>
> Sincerely yours,
> The Constantly Barefooted,
> Ray
> Home phone and fax:
> (985)853-0139
> E-mail:
> rforetjratbellsouthdotnet
> Skype Name:
> barefootedray
> Blog:
> www.raysworld.blogs.com
> Podcast .rss Feed:
> http://feeds.feedburner.com/worldofray
>
> God bless President George W. Bush!
> God bless our troops!
> and God bless America
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Michael Bullis" <mabullis at hotmail.com>
> To: "'NFB Talk Mailing List'" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Sunday, October 28, 2007 7:06 AM
> Subject: [nfb-talk] A Vehicle That Would Drive It Self
>
>
>>From today's Washington Post.
>
>
> A Vehicle That Would Drive Itself By:Warren Brown The U.S. military,
> bedeviled by improvised explosive devices and other deadly ordnance 
> deployed
> against
> troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, has been looking for ways to move supplies
> in urban combat zones without unnecessarily exposing soldiers to harm.
>
> In pursuit of that goal, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, 
> the
> government group responsible for bringing forth new military tools, has
> launched
> a national campaign to develop autonomous driving technology --  
> essentially
> trucks and other wheeled carriers that can move supplies from one point to
> another sans human drivers . . . and without humans operating remote 
> control
> devices. The vehicles under development must also be able to identify and
> maneuver around obstacles, safely go around curves and corners, stop and 
> go
> when appropriate, and self-park. It seems an impossible order to fill. But
> 36 advanced automotive technology teams, drawn from industry and higher
> education and combinations thereof, are hoping to prove to DARPA that they
> have
> the right stuff to carry out the autonomous driving mission. The teams,
> including one involving General Motors and Carnegie Mellon University, are
> participants
> in the DARPA Urban Challenge, a robotic vehicle race that will be held
> Saturday at the former George Air Force Base in Victorville, Calif. 
> National
> qualification
> trials for the race are being held at the same place this weekend.
> Competitive vehicles will have to navigate safely through a 60-mile urban
> area course,
> replete with merging traffic, stop signs and busy intersections, in six
> hours or less. But it is not a contest in which the fastest team 
> necessarily
> wins,
> said DARPA Director Tony Tether. He said the winner, assuming there is 
> one,
> will be the team with the best overall performance. Put another way, the
> winning
> vehicle will have to behave as well as a driver-education student trying 
> to
> ace the driver's test, said Larry Burns, GM's vice president for research
> and
> development and strategic planning. That means it will have to obey 
> traffic
> signs, follow the rules of the road," all without a human driver or
> human-operated
> remote control, Burns said. I'm excited about this project, more excited
> about it than almost anything we've done," said Burns, who acknowledged 
> the
> potential
> benefits autonomous driving technology has for the military. But if the
> technology proves out and becomes widely used, it could have enormous
> environmental
> and safety benefits in civilian applications, Burns said. For example,
> elements of autonomous driving technology can be employed to improve urban
> traffic
> flow, thereby reducing traffic congestion and eliminating much of the fuel
> waste and air pollution that go along with it. Radar-equipped cars that
> automatically
> adjust their speeds and space themselves -- allowing a relatively free 
> flow
> of traffic through intersections, even without stoplights -- could also
> reduce
> traffic collisions and all of the pain, suffering and monetary losses 
> caused
> by those crashes, Burns said. But he and other proponents of the 
> technology
> concede that the military probably is more willing to put autonomously
> driven vehicles into use. The dangers in theaters of war are extreme. If
> there is
> a viable technology that can keep soldiers out of harm's way on supply
> missions, the military wants it. Civilian driver psychology is different.
> Most people
> who love driving love it because they feel in control. Even with the
> proliferation of electronic systems designed to make driving safer and
> easier, most
> drivers loathe the idea of turning their vehicle over to computer chips,
> sensors and algorithms. All of those things are involved in the operation 
> of
> autonomously
> driven vehicles such as GM's Urban Challenge entry, an experimental
> Chevrolet Tahoe SUV called the "Boss," in honor of Charles F. "Boss"
> Kettering, the
> founder of GM's research and development division. The "Boss" features a
> compendium of computer controls for driving, radars, lasers and cameras 
> for
> situation
> assessment. Special computer software has been developed to enable the
> vehicle to drive itself. We are actively developing cars that can drive
> themselves,
> and the DARPA Urban Challenges gives us an excellent opportunity to
> demonstrate our progress," Burns said. Even if GM loses in the contest, 
> "we
> win," said
> Burns, who said GM's autonomous driving technology research so far proves
> that newer, more sensibly applied computer technology can lead to a world
> "where
> there are no crashes and very little traffic congestion." Besides, said
> Burns, "I truly believe that somebody will win this contest. Someone will
> come
> out ahead." And that's good because it will push automotive companies to 
> do
> more research, work out the bugs and perfect the technology, Burns said.
>
>
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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