I guess the idea is to make it easier to build fully autonomous vehicles.
I think it's pointless, though. It will take decades to equip the entire US auto fleet with these transmitters, and by that point, the vision and scene analysis problems that currently give autonomous vehicles trouble will have long since been solved anyway.
ETA: the PDF linked from the article [0] supplies a rationale. But it also says that under the proposal, only new light vehicles would be required to have the transmitter. I think my argument stands: by the time even 50% of the cars have this, autonomous driving will be a solved problem.
I think you've got your causation backwards; this is what will allow for widespread autonomous adoption. This proposal is making sure that all cars are speaking the same language and are talking to each other. I look at this as the Federal Government standardizing the width of rail roads so that we could get on with our business. But autonomous cars without intra-car communication seems hampered. As to the vision and scene analysis, the proposal specifically mentions that vision is limited by line of sight. This allows for cars to communicate around corners and through other cars. This seems like a net boon for all drivers that won't be rendered moot by a few cameras on cars.
The median age of cars and light trucks in the US is around 9 years. That means it will take 9 years for this system to reach 50% penetration, once it becomes available at all, which is probably 3 years away at least. At the rate things are progressing, do you really think autonomy won't be a solved problem, or nearly so, in a dozen years?
I can see the attraction of this system from a strictly engineering point of view -- it would be nice not to be limited by line of sight. But how many collisions between vehicles have you ever heard of where the drivers literally couldn't see each other until too late? I think these are pretty rare. Seems like occlusion is more of a problem when pedestrians or cyclists are involved, as they sometimes pop out unwisely from behind parked vehicles; but they're not going to be wearing transmitters. Also, radar provides some ability to see occluded vehicles; transmitters are not even the only solution to that problem.
So, given the threat to privacy this system would represent, I don't see that the benefits approach the costs.
Comments
I guess the idea is to make it easier to build fully autonomous vehicles.
I think it's pointless, though. It will take decades to equip the entire US auto fleet with these transmitters, and by that point, the vision and scene analysis problems that currently give autonomous vehicles trouble will have long since been solved anyway.
ETA: the PDF linked from the article [0] supplies a rationale. But it also says that under the proposal, only new light vehicles would be required to have the transmitter. I think my argument stands: by the time even 50% of the cars have this, autonomous driving will be a solved problem.
[0] https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2017-01-12/pdf/2016-31059.p...
I think you've got your causation backwards; this is what will allow for widespread autonomous adoption. This proposal is making sure that all cars are speaking the same language and are talking to each other. I look at this as the Federal Government standardizing the width of rail roads so that we could get on with our business. But autonomous cars without intra-car communication seems hampered. As to the vision and scene analysis, the proposal specifically mentions that vision is limited by line of sight. This allows for cars to communicate around corners and through other cars. This seems like a net boon for all drivers that won't be rendered moot by a few cameras on cars.
The median age of cars and light trucks in the US is around 9 years. That means it will take 9 years for this system to reach 50% penetration, once it becomes available at all, which is probably 3 years away at least. At the rate things are progressing, do you really think autonomy won't be a solved problem, or nearly so, in a dozen years?
I can see the attraction of this system from a strictly engineering point of view -- it would be nice not to be limited by line of sight. But how many collisions between vehicles have you ever heard of where the drivers literally couldn't see each other until too late? I think these are pretty rare. Seems like occlusion is more of a problem when pedestrians or cyclists are involved, as they sometimes pop out unwisely from behind parked vehicles; but they're not going to be wearing transmitters. Also, radar provides some ability to see occluded vehicles; transmitters are not even the only solution to that problem.
So, given the threat to privacy this system would represent, I don't see that the benefits approach the costs.
Doesn't radar already do that? Without all the impracticalities of this approach?
This reminds me of steve jobs - he drove his car without license plate :)
There are many cars in California that are driving around without license plates, some legally, and others through the lack of enforcement.