Is this REALLY what people want?

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

 

Oh Boll0x !
Well we all know its coming but i dont want to be reminded.

Do bikes even fit into this strategy ?

The bit i dont understand is where does the marketing of a £50k BMW , merc or audi with oodles of power fit into a world that takes all of your ability to actually use it away.
I cant imagine someone wanting to spend big money on a car that is no longer a "drivers" car, can no longer be driven fast and wont respond in any way that warrants the expense. Have i missed the point somewhere ?

 

Do we also get a robotic voice chanting "Sorry, mate. My visual input sub-module neglected to register your presence"?

 

It'll never happen.

 

It will happen and it will be an insurance nightmare. There'll be one rate for the safe automatic vehicle and another extortionate rate if you insist on driving yourself. Motorbikes can only be self driven (driven by shifting weight/rider input) so all accidents will be considered our fault and rates will rise accordingly. We will die out. Mind you, it could be some way off.

The irony is that it will be road death as usual in the developing world.

 

I remember '1984' being a distinct possibility many years ago, but in reality nothing changed. In order for automated driving to be reality there would have to be major reconstruction of much of Britain's road network (to avoid law suits if nothing else), and that ain't never gonna happen. If I were you I'd concentrate on more realistic and current issues, like the proposed super MOT that the eurocrats want to enforce across Europe.

 

I am with Fig on this one, only I think it probably wont happen on a widespread scale in the foreseeable future. I can see it being introduced on a limited number high end vehicles, Mercedes has adaptive cruise control and Citroen has lane warning systems, integrate the two and you have hands free autopilot that would work on motorways but extending that to normal roads would be a major hurdle.

I think continuity of energy supply will be much more significant to our transport systems.

 

I think any requirement to build infrastructure across the whole of europe, not just here dont forget will ensure it doesn't happen.
Funny thing is the automation of driving is already creeping in.

This has reminded me of a conversation i had recently with a colleague that has a new car, a golf or vauxhall hatch of some flavour. Anyway, he told me that he notied from new and reported to the dealer that it kept seeming to lose power and not respond to the throttle in certain circumstances that he could not pin down.
The dealer could find nothing wrong , not the manufacturer and finally neither could the A.A man.

It turns out the car uses its GPS and will not go above 30 in built up areas no matter what you do with the throttle or gears.

There is a button on the dash that he eventually found by accident that turns this option off. How long before you cant turn it off and the speed range it operates on comes down and down ?
This is dead easy to fit to a bike and requires no road side furniture for the government to pay for so it is coming to us all soon i think.

 

Mechanical speed restriction I can understand, and it will come sooner than we'd hope if the European member states continue to allow a bunch of unelected goons make the rules. But automated driving? No. Even if it were restricted to motorways only, there'd be chaos once you got to the end of, say, the M1 in London and the car suddenly handed back control to you...

 

Never underestimate the power of the microprocessor and the engineer's willingness to use it.

 

Consequently we have the Event Data Recorder (EDR) coming to all new car in the EU from this year. It is a multi channel device, similar to a flight data recorder, recording a host of information on a continuous loop.

And we know what flight data recorders are used for.

 

The point is that it won't be a simple record of speed it will be multiple inputs such as speed, throttle position, rpm, brakes, gear, abs and who knows what else for the last 20-30 mins or so. It is trivial really, just dump all of the electronic signals and parameters that the ECU uses into a memory module.

But you are right about all of the other things it won't record.

I believe Kawasaki have been using such devices for the last year or more.

 

I feel sure it won't happen anytime soon but I agree that solo usage will probably become beyond the reach of the average motorist and it may not be that far away. I guess Japan will be the first re: full automation as they have been trial testing and demonstrating various systems for over a decade now. For any body that might try and push any of above schemes through, us motorcyclists will be seen as a 'thorn in their side' as total removal would be the only choice..

 

If it is going to be anything like this, well.............Self-Driving Cars Head Down Spanish Motorway : Discovery News

Tell me......what is the use of this system?.......Might as well have railroads every where on the roads instead of cars.......

AL

 

Don't get in a tizzy chaps, it'll never happen. Not all the time you can buy a motorbike or classic car, cos half an automated transport system ain't never gonna work. What we really need is automated lorries, so the bastards can't overtake anything unless the system detects a decent speed advantage

 

I have one thing to say bollox ...
not in my lifetime....