Thanks for the link, interesting to see it in action.
But this is actually the complete opposite of what I want. This system reduces road capacity by almost half. Look at the gap it's leaving. Look at how slow it is to start up from a stop. I think I'd be on the horn if this guy was in front of me.
When you leave that much space in front of you ("to be nice" or to "smooth it out") the empty road where 2 or 3 cars could have been is actually reducing road capacity causing significantly worse traffic behind you.
Most of this video is shot below 25mph. Average follow distance of a competent computer "super cruiser" should be < 10ft, which would make the car essentially "free" from a capacity standpoint. When the speed finally gets up to 50mph, the follow distance is practically too long to count, something like 5 seconds back.
The driver even comments just after t=5:00, "See how big the gap is? I have it set at 75, it's doing about 50." That car has a 300hp engine, why is the computer driving like it's drunk?
"I'll just sit back and relax and get to work when I get to work." No! You probably impose a several thousand dollar "productivity tax" on SoCal commuters by driving like that over the course of a year.
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Volvo has had adaptive cruise control for a while which sounds a lot better than that BMW system you quoted.
Here's a terribly boring, real-world demo from 2011: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCevarh5j5g
Thanks for the link, interesting to see it in action.
But this is actually the complete opposite of what I want. This system reduces road capacity by almost half. Look at the gap it's leaving. Look at how slow it is to start up from a stop. I think I'd be on the horn if this guy was in front of me.
When you leave that much space in front of you ("to be nice" or to "smooth it out") the empty road where 2 or 3 cars could have been is actually reducing road capacity causing significantly worse traffic behind you.
Most of this video is shot below 25mph. Average follow distance of a competent computer "super cruiser" should be < 10ft, which would make the car essentially "free" from a capacity standpoint. When the speed finally gets up to 50mph, the follow distance is practically too long to count, something like 5 seconds back.
The driver even comments just after t=5:00, "See how big the gap is? I have it set at 75, it's doing about 50." That car has a 300hp engine, why is the computer driving like it's drunk?
"I'll just sit back and relax and get to work when I get to work." No! You probably impose a several thousand dollar "productivity tax" on SoCal commuters by driving like that over the course of a year.