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Driving automation is a farce
Driving automation is a farce
On the way to my Defensive Driving Course yesterday I was thinking about the specials I've seen over the past couple years of driving automation where (if I remember correctly) there are magnets in the road and the vehicle is a "smart car".
But the more I thought about it the more I realized there is no 'silver bullet' to this. A marker based solution is best until we overcome some physical issues with using optics.
Markers
The current concept of electronic markers in the road needs vast improvement for mainstream use. The markers would need to be Bluetooth devices (perhaps connected to a solar panel on the side of the road). The markers would have to be on the side of the road and considering the short range of Bluetooth, would need to have at least 6 other devices within range (technically 7 but the device can't count itself) so that if 1 device fails, it's a non-issue and if a 2nd device immediately next to the other device fails, then it must be replaced before a 3rd fails, which becomes a break in the chain Then you would have a chain of devices that could pass info to each other and in turn, to the car passing by. With a chain based system, if a device goes down, the other devices can report the problem. Instead of magnets which are used to physically mark lanes and sides of the road these Bluetooth devices could publish coordinates (either GPS or more than likely, relative because of security issues with exact GPS cords) of lanes, exits and such.
Cameras
The more I think about camera based, the more I realize it's utterly useless. The issue of visual impairment alone is so great I think it's impossible to come up with a realistic solution. Between ice, mud, rain, dirt, nicks from rocks and devices breaking the cameras, an optical device is too unreliable to be mounted on a car. Encasing the device doesn't really fix any of these issues either unless somebody can invent a plastic as strong as titanium with a reliable way (little wiper blades are corny) to clean the casing.
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