Jim Logajan wrote:
Gig 601Xl Builder wrote:
Jim Logajan wrote:
wrote:
Automatic cars don't exist and there is little likelyhood the will
exist anytime in the near future.
Um, you may want to start doing a bit of catch-up reading before
making any further categorical statements like the above since you
appear to be making claims outside your realm of knowledge or
expertise. It appears you are probably unaware of current development
in this area. Autonomous vehicles are probably in the near future;
this is what DARPA's Grand Challenge was intended to accomplish:

http://www.darpa.mil/GRANDCHALLENGE/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darpa_grand_challenge
Those aren't for road use.

I'm at a loss as to how to respond to something so fundamentally at odds
with what has already been demonstrated (and prize money awarded). Or
perhaps you meant to suggest something else....



I didn't realize that the 2007 was done in a "Mock-Urbane Environment."
Did they have other cars on the road with real and automated drivers?



Remember what the D in DARPA stands for.

Um, it started out as ARPA in 1958, changed to DARPA in 1972, then back to
ARPA in 1993, then changed back to DARPA in 1996. This is the same agency
that funded the ARPANET project in 1968, which lead to today's global
spanning Internet.

So IMHO, your objection or argument doesn't seem to hold any real substance
that I can see.

There's really no objection at all. It's that the D stands for Defense.
And what ever they are spending they are spending to create things that
will enhance a combat or combat support mission. Not that there is
anything wrong with that.

If you get something that is usable in the non-military out of it great
but that isn't the aim of the program.


I do not claim expertise in the technologies that the Grand Challenge
participants employ. But I have been following it practically since it was
first announced because a friend asked me back in 2002 to do a technical
review of a proposal to generate funding for non-profit organization whose
goal was to jump-start autonomous vehicle research project. Turns out he
was unaware of the DARPA GC program, which had just been announced that
same year.