Date:         Tue, 11 Oct 2005 13:28:05 +1300
Reply-To:     Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
Subject:      Re: Touareg wins Grand Challenge (NVC)
In-Reply-To:  <434A60AE.7050304@rcn.com>
Content-type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=us-ascii

>It's unclear how the Pentagon plans to harness the technology used in
>the race for military applications. But Thrun said he wanted to design
>automated systems to make next-generation cars safer for everyone, not
>just the military.

This is frightening, despite having been common in science-fiction
for decades. no driver control? Well, that would take the car out of
the hands of incompetents... and into the hands og computers. So what
happens when the computer(s) crash (and they WILL)? Thousands of cars
running along the LA freeways, almost bumper-to-bumper at 100kmh...
and suddenly the guidance disappears. Oh SHIT here we go............

On top of that, if there is no manual override for side roads (you
wanna go up a 4WD track? Sorry buddy, no private vehicles can leave
the controlled roads), sorry, vehicle access is restricted to guided
routes only.
--
Andrew Grebneff
Dunedin
New Zealand
Fossil preparator
<andrew.grebneff@stonebow.otago.ac.nz>
Seashell, Macintosh, VW/Toyota van nut

HUMANITY: THE ULTIMATE VON NEUMANN MACHINE

DEMOCRACY: RULE BY THE LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR