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

Tue Oct 30 22:50:11 CDT 2007

Yes it truly is.
I would love to travel more, but not at the cost of transportation these 
days.
It has been a dream of mine for years.
Then just think,
Get out of the car with a guide dog.
People would stop to think twice.
Smile,

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

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Peter Donahue" <pdonahue1 at sbcglobal.net>
To: "NFB Talk Mailing List" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, October 29, 2007 2:13 PM
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] A Vehicle That Would Drive It Self

> Hello Dar and listers,
>
> The military will need to figure this one out as well. Further more 
> they'll
> need to design the vehicle so it knows who is a friend and who is a foe so
> it can protect itself from  being damaged by an I.E.D. or other device.  I
> have heard that when such vehicles become available to consumers they 
> could
> be developed to the point that all one needs to do is to enter their
> destination and leave the driving to the vehicle. It excites me to know 
> that
> the things I, and others imagined years ago have been developed or are in
> the process of becoming a reality. Perhaps some of the technology 
> developed
> for the Kurzweil_NFB Reader will find its way in to a car for the blind. 
> How
> awesome!
>
> Peter Donahue
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "dmgina" <dmgina at qwest.net>
> To: "NFB Talk Mailing List" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Monday, October 29, 2007 1:46 AM
> Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] A Vehicle That Would Drive It Self
>
>
> 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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>> ----
>>
>>
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