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Re: Telematics

>This is bad news, in my humble opinion.  I hope this technology never
>fully comes to pass - I don't mind navigational assistance, but the
>thought of my car driving itself is not a pleasant thought.
>...
>	 In the first decade of the next century, people will only
>have to drive cars in cities and obscure rural areas. Elsewhere,
>the computer will take over. The family car will be driven to
>the nearest main road, the destination will be punched into its
>computer which will lock on to the cable system under the road.
>The car will then drive itself across the highway network and
>...

On a related note, a BMW engineer gave a talk here about a year ago.
He described a system they had developed that would autonomously
drive on the autobaun without that wire in the road, just using a
camera (computer vision - my schtik).  They had very good results,
being able to drive at highway speeds for long periods of time on a
road without traffic (if I remember right).  I was impressed.  There
are also several other groups working on this idea, including one at
CMU (?) that can handle light traffic.

Personally, I don't think I'd mind having it on a long trip - so
long as I could drive whenever I wanted to.

rick