Are we on the way to "black box" driving?

[99dndd]

I can see the "electric autonomous pod" being the way forward as the preferred method of transport but I think the internal combustion engine will be around for a long time yet, in a hobbyist form. People still ride horses nearly 100 years after the car superseded them.

[Starfighter]

So Walts are the future?

Old vehicles bedecked with hi-vis and Polite stickers driven by eccentrics shouting about everyone else being on camera.

[Halmyre]

andy_s said:

Yes, along with the side tech of the driverless car advances and better GPS accuracy; 'hive' routing, speed limitation and collision avoidance.

In 30-40 years everyone on here will be regarded by the youth as quaint eccentrics that pine for the day they controlled a combustion engined car by their own hands and, ha - feet! - all by themselves. 'Silly old farts' they'll think as they are whisked away at 120mph on the new ultraways, doing the crossword as they go.

Crossword? You're not too hip to the modern scene are you, daddy-o!

[Actual]

RayPike said:

I can see issues in the "change over" period though where there is a mixture of old non-computer cars and new "smart" cars. There will have to be a fairly rapid phasing out of "dumb cars" I'd have thought as otherwise there would be chaos with driver-controlled cars bullying the computer-controlled ones!

The adoption of smart computer cars will be used to change to driving on the right and if that is successful after 1 year then all conventional driver-controlled cars will change to driving on the right.

[egomeister]

2gins said:

My God. I'm not having a dig at you fellows but I thought I was cynical!

It's not cynicism - the EU and other entities have been funding research in this direction for years.

For example: http://www.transport-research.info/project/road-ch...

[alangla]

2gins said:

I've always thought the best way to charge by the mile without the civil liberties issues is to just use the MOT system. OK there are gaps for new cars and changes of ownership but these should be very simple to overcome.

The big issue is that allegedly (allegedly) road pricing would be aimed at smoothing out demand, so there would need to be some form of both time & location based congestion charging, i.e. you pay more per-mile for driving into Manchester at 8:00 on a Tuesday morning than you do for driving into Ullapool at 2:30am on a Sunday. If it was just mileage based you'd have all the usual whinges about disproportionately affecting people in the country who don't drive congested roads etc etc.
Personally I'd rather implement a form of consumption based road pricing that encourages drivers to drive more efficiently and penalises those who are polluting busy urban areas more heavily - just remove the Road Fund Licence & stick a couple of pence on fuel! That does, of course, mean EV drivers would get a free ride at the moment, how you'd charge them fairly for congestion without tracking them, I'm not sure.

[RayPike]

The only fair way would be a usage based system but that's a very good point ^^^ about congested areas attracting a premium. Driving 10 miles along a country lane in Wales shouldn't be the same cost as 10 miles in Greater London. Quite how the categorisation would get done is beyond me!

[Rude-boy]

RayPike said:

The only fair way would be a usage based system but that's a very good point ^^^ about congested areas attracting a premium. Driving 10 miles along a country lane in Wales shouldn't be the same cost as 10 miles in Greater London. Quite how the categorisation would get done is beyond me!

To be honest unless it is a delivery truck, bus or taxi a struggle to see why anyone would want to drive 10 miles in London.

I used to do it all the time in the late 90's and early 00's but now come up in hives if i drive inside the M25... Not that i can't or that it scares me or anything silly but it is just so utterly sole destroying that I'd rather find a nice side street to park up on and get the underground into town. That's if i haven't arrive by train in the first place!

[mac96]

Halmyre said:

andy_s said:

Yes, along with the side tech of the driverless car advances and better GPS accuracy; 'hive' routing, speed limitation and collision avoidance.

In 30-40 years everyone on here will be regarded by the youth as quaint eccentrics that pine for the day they controlled a combustion engined car by their own hands and, ha - feet! - all by themselves. 'Silly old farts' they'll think as they are whisked away at 120mph on the new ultraways, doing the crossword as they go.

Crossword? You're not too hip to the modern scene are you, daddy-o!

Guarantee me that I will be allowed to set my driverless car to cruise at 120mph and I might actually want to use one. Please don't make crosswords compulsory though.

[Engineer792]

I would think that any form of congestion premium would provide incentive for councils to create more congestion

Or perhaps I'm just being cynical

ETA: Perhaps councils should be made to pay for congestion

Edited by Engineer792 on Friday 28th April 13:42

[KarlMac]

andy_s said:

In 30-40 years everyone on here will be regarded by the youth as quaint eccentrics that pine for the day they controlled a combustion engined car by their own hands and, ha - feet! - all by themselves. 'Silly old farts' they'll think as they are whisked away at 120mph on the new ultraways, doing the crossword as they go.

Jay Leno said over a decade ago that the ICE cars of today are the horses of tomorrow. I can see a reality where I set in my euro box being driven to work and then take my GTR out for the weekend.

I look forward to this as it will mean people can enjoy ICE cars as a hobby, the same way horse-ists do now.
I imagine in 30 years time there will be a Motor heads forum with users complaining about being stuck behind a rusty old datsun spitting fuel everywhere.

[WJNB]

Of course we are just as per security vehicles.
7 years ago just as I was taking early retirement my employer started fitting trackers to all the salesman's nice new Audi A3 cars. This really spoilt their joy of having something nicer than the Ford or Vauxhall they were expecting. It meant that 'management' could tell if a salesman was skiving off to the golf club Friday afternoons or not bothering to get to appointments till mid-morning or using up too much fuel by accelerating too quickly Of course the story was that it was all about cutting costs to get cheaper insurance & encouraging smoother more economical driving.
I got out just in time as I had been taking the mick for years & skiving off myself to learn to fly. .

[V8 Fettler]

There will be a few halcyon years for drivers who can map-read and wish to drive on obscure backroads when all the sheep are automatically shepherded along the council-preferred routes. Eventually, the interesting roads will fall to rack and ruin, passable only by Land Rover.

[speedking31]

Rude-boy said:

... but it is just so utterly sole destroying ...

That's walking

[captainaverage]

Well black boxes can be modded or ever heard of piggy back ECUs? In a similar operation just send a constant signal of the speed limit

[eccles]

WJNB said:

Of course we are just as per security vehicles.
7 years ago just as I was taking early retirement my employer started fitting trackers to all the salesman's nice new Audi A3 cars. This really spoilt their joy of having something nicer than the Ford or Vauxhall they were expecting. It meant that 'management' could tell if a salesman was skiving off to the golf club Friday afternoons or not bothering to get to appointments till mid-morning or using up too much fuel by accelerating too quickly Of course the story was that it was all about cutting costs to get cheaper insurance & encouraging smoother more economical driving.
I got out just in time as I had been taking the mick for years & skiving off myself to learn to fly. .

Our 'company' vehicles have trackers in them and drivers who book them out get warning letters automatically if they speed (whether or not if they're nicked for it). It knows you're doing 40 in a 30 and the letter gets sent!

[BoRED S2upid]

10 years? Try a generation before electric is more popular than fossil fuels cost has to come down massively to persuade people to change it's not going to happen in our lifetime.

[SVTRick]

eccles said:

Our 'company' vehicles have trackers in them and drivers who book them out get warning letters automatically if they speed (whether or not if they're nicked for it). It knows you're doing 40 in a 30 and the letter gets sent!

Got a deal on A4 printers and bulk buy reams of A4 plain then......
Oh and a bulk Franking Machine.