2005.05.30

Automatic Automobile Navigation

Last night I had yet another one of my plane crashing into my city dreams. This time I was in a stadium and the plane was flipping end over end without any wings. Lovely image.

This got me thinking (in the dream still) that we have to get people out of the air on remaining on the ground. The trouble is that they can’t be driving cross country at one go without sleeping. There should be a way to do it, though. Automated automobiles. I know there are researchers out there doing it but in the dream I was working out a system.

At every intersection and at every mile marker and exits on the highways put a sensor that indicates where you are. The car will then drive itself at the optimal speed, using the sensors to enter and exit highways, turn at proper intersections, and deliver you, the passenger, to your destination. The research I’ve seen others doing is mostly to do hands off driving. This would complement this technology and get you where you’re going. No more need for airplanes to fall out of the sky.

Yeah, I know, a strange topic to have come up in a dream when I’ve just watched a plane go tumbling out of the sky, but there it is.

Categorized: technology

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4 Responses to “Automatic Automobile Navigation”

  1. NHK says  (May 31st, 2005 at 10:51:37 )

    The thought of eschewing air travel in favor of surface transport is truly distasteful. *Cringe*.

  2. dugh says  (June 1st, 2005 at 06:01:31 )

    ???
    I thought you hated travelling with the rifraf and dealing with airports? If this were to take off then the speed wouldn’t be too much different after a while because the efficiency of travel would increase dramatically. You could travel alone or with people you actually want to travel with and do anything you want while the car is taking you where you want to go, including getting pissed because the car is driving, not you.

    Air travel has just become a tedium.

    Of course if this country would ever get their rail lines in order, that would be an acceptable substitute, at least to the me that is having these dreams.

  3. NHK says  (June 1st, 2005 at 12:36:59 )

    Please. I *love* flying. Just not in steerage if I can help it.
    As for automated driving, yes, actually it *does* sound kind of cool. But only for short distances unless a town car or something similar is involved. Trains make my skin crawl; talk about tedium. I took one (Virgin Trains) from Manchester to Edinburgh last year and I was just *so* uncomfortable. Far, far worse than flying or even driving. Trains, like cruise ships, used to be cushy and fun, but those days are largely over with few exceptions.

    Are you developing an honest-to-gosh aversion to flying as a result of these recurrent dreams you’ve been having?

    P.S.: I’m still bummed about Concorde’s retirement.

  4. dugh says  (June 2nd, 2005 at 00:01:13 )

    No aversion
    I’ve got no aversion to flying at all. The dreams just had horrific images of them falling from the sky; mechanical failure or otherwise.

    Last night I had another airplane dream, only this one involved personal planes that were VTOL. Very nice. I was thinking on the busride in to work today that I could use one of them…

 

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