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 From:  af (CAER)    10 May 2011 16:07 
 To:  Peter (BOUGHTONP)      53 of 80 
38461.53 In reply to 38461.43 
That's got me thinking - since most satnavs these days seem to come with 3G built in, I wonder if there'd be some way to have them automatically show a Street View image when approaching complex junctions?
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 From:  Peter (BOUGHTONP)   10 May 2011 16:20 
 To:  ANT_THOMAS      54 of 80 
38461.54 In reply to 38461.52 
On my most recent journey, I went the wrong way twice.

First time, I followed the sat nav's "take the third exit" and went back the same way I came (because it was counting a bit of pavement as an exit), which I obviously wouldn't have done if I was paying attention to road signs.
Realised the mistake before I made it, but wasn't thinking straight (my car was doing stupid things) and I still trusted the satnav. Fortunately it wasn't too far back to a previous roundabout, and I turned around and came back and went the right way.


Second time, following road signs for a "simple" route, I missed the bit where the M25 splits off to the left, and not being in lane 1/2 results in finding yourself on an A/B road going towards Hastings. :S
That time, I pulled over once it was safe, turned my Satnav on, and was guided back on course - probably could have managed it with road signs, but much nicer having someone talking to you, reassuring you that you're not going to get shot in the eye by a Norman.
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 From:  ANT_THOMAS   10 May 2011 16:35 
 To:  Peter (BOUGHTONP)      55 of 80 
38461.55 In reply to 38461.54 
But in both cases paying attention to the roads and signs would've stopped both things happening?
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 From:  Peter (BOUGHTONP)   10 May 2011 16:37 
 To:  af (CAER)       56 of 80 
38461.56 In reply to 38461.53 
I suspect there's Google and copyright nonsense that might prevent that, except on Androids, which is probably a rather low percentage.

For roundabouts, it's generally satellite view which is more useful. Street View road overlays always seem to be pointing in the wrong direction, and too awkward to actually get to a useful position with.


I've also been pondering recently how long we get arrows drawn on the road to point the way - possibly not far off with Augmented Reality starting to gather momentum.
Also wondered if there might be a networked thing, so you can see where other cars are trying to go, and avoid getting cut up (or cutting someone up)... though there's obviously bad sides to having inter-car communications which might prevent that from being implemented.
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 From:  milko   10 May 2011 16:44 
 To:  Peter (BOUGHTONP)      57 of 80 
38461.57 In reply to 38461.56 
Have you seen this one?
http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/09/pioneers-avic-zh09-gps-navigation-systems-take-augmented-realit/

I think cars avoiding each other is more likely to come from proximity sensors before networking them together and knowing where they're aiming. I don't see that arriving until we're not actually driving the things at all.

milko
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 From:  Peter (BOUGHTONP)   10 May 2011 16:48 
 To:  ANT_THOMAS      58 of 80 
38461.58 In reply to 38461.55 
No, because what I forgot to write in the second bit is that I had no idea the road was going to split in two (and that I would have wanted the left part of it), and the reason I didn't see the sign was that I was distracted by an idiot driver.

A Sat Nav would have said "keep left" and "in #distance#, take the exit" and stuff that would have better prepared me.


Having a (working) satnav AND paying attention to road signs is sensible - relying on just one of the two means mistakes are more likely when you don't know where you are/going.
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 From:  Peter (BOUGHTONP)   10 May 2011 17:00 
 To:  milko      59 of 80 
38461.59 In reply to 38461.57 
Nope, although I was thinking more of a windscreen HUD thing.


Do you think self-driving cars will actually become a reality?

I think I'd expect too many people opposed to them, so unless the government forced a law through, I'm not sure how likely it is.


...hmm, is this dragging Caer's thread completely off topic, or has he found something he's happy with now? :S
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 From:  ANT_THOMAS   10 May 2011 17:05 
 To:  Peter (BOUGHTONP)      60 of 80 
38461.60 In reply to 38461.58 

But surely there would've been multiple signs showing the split for a short distance before hand.

 

Either way, yes using both properly is definitely better than one or the other. I tend to know/expect what the sat nav is going to say before it happens anyway based on earlier signs. Though knowing how many miles till the junction you need is nice since it stops me junction counting.
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 From:  af (CAER)    10 May 2011 17:18 
 To:  Peter (BOUGHTONP)      61 of 80 
38461.61 In reply to 38461.59 
No no, I have gleaned what I wished to know, and have vented cathartically, and this new thread direction is most interesting.

And yes, I do think self-driving cars will become a reality, but the biggest obstacles will be political and social, not technological. There was an interesting series of articles on Ars Technica about this not so long ago.
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 From:  JonCooper   10 May 2011 17:25 
 To:  af (CAER)       62 of 80 
38461.62 In reply to 38461.61 
I would be sad to have to ride in self-driving cars and would resist such a change
Jon
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 From:  af (CAER)    10 May 2011 17:31 
 To:  JonCooper      63 of 80 
38461.63 In reply to 38461.62 
Why?
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 From:  ANT_THOMAS   10 May 2011 17:46 
 To:  af (CAER)       64 of 80 
38461.64 In reply to 38461.63 
Well I know I certainly enjoy driving.
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 From:  JonCooper   10 May 2011 17:49 
 To:  af (CAER)       65 of 80 
38461.65 In reply to 38461.63 
same, I enjoy driving and would want to do it myself
Jon
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 From:  Peter (BOUGHTONP)   10 May 2011 17:57 
 To:  ANT_THOMAS      66 of 80 
38461.66 In reply to 38461.60 
There may well have been multiple signs, but if so I missed them all.

What I actually saw was the sign saying "haha, you went the wrong way and it's too late now!"
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 From:  ANT_THOMAS   10 May 2011 18:03 
 To:  Peter (BOUGHTONP)      67 of 80 
38461.67 In reply to 38461.66 
Not too late there at all :$
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 From:  Peter (BOUGHTONP)   10 May 2011 18:15 
 To:  ANT_THOMAS      68 of 80 
38461.68 In reply to 38461.67 
The thought did go through my mind, but there was assorted crap covering the stripes, and a car in that lane, so it was too risky.

Was going to say it turned out not to be too far until I could stop and turn around, but seems it was over 8 miles. Heh.
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 From:  milko   10 May 2011 22:03 
 To:  Peter (BOUGHTONP)      69 of 80 
38461.69 In reply to 38461.59 
I think self-driving cars are an inevitability but won't be with us for a long time. Mainly because the vast majority don't want them, but once fuel shortages really bite I suspect there will be a bit more pressure on it. You'll certainly soon struggle to buy a car that doesn't change gear for you if you don't change soon enough (bit like Smart cars do, or at least ones I've been in), more conservative rev limiting, and various other measures that take some control away. You've already got auto-parking and auto-braking becoming more widespread. It'll be little by little.

I reckon there'll still be scope for off-roading and things like that manually. And I dunno if this will happen in my lifetime necessarily.

milko
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 From:  af (CAER)    11 May 2011 09:19 
 To:  milko      70 of 80 
38461.70 In reply to 38461.69 
You say "vast majority don't want them" - is this actually the case? I really would like to see a proper survey done on this.

And sure, motorsports I think will be around for a long time, and possibly even roads marked as 'recreational' where people can do all the driving they like.

One of the issues raised in the Ars article was safety - who's responsible if a self-driving car causes an accident? What happens if a self-drive is involved in a crash with a normal car?

It also mentioned how even though there are tons of crashes every day, the second a self-drive car is involved in an accident (not even necessarily causes it) the media will go hysterical.
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 From:  milko   11 May 2011 10:00 
 To:  af (CAER)       71 of 80 
38461.71 In reply to 38461.70 
I don't have figures no, but come on. For the same reason that it's obvious the media would go nuts at the first accident involving one.

milko
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 From:  cynicoid   11 May 2011 15:22 
 To:  af (CAER)       72 of 80 
38461.72 In reply to 38461.53 
That's got me thinking - since most satnavs these days seem to come with 3G built in, I wonder if there'd be some way to have them automatically show a Street View image when approaching complex junctions?

My TomTom kinda does that already.
On certain motorway junctions (the tricky ones I guess) it displays an image of the junction with guidance arrows showing which lane to be in. Works well and is very handy when you hear 'at the next junction keep in the middle lane then turn right' !? When it's a four lane multiple junction.

There's also an option to 'show images' which I'm not sure what it does as enabling/disabling doesnt' make any difference, but I guess it will show an image of a landmark or suchlike as you get close to it. Doesn't work round here but maybe in a major city ?
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