12-04-2013, 04:49 PM
Yeah that's why I think driverless air is a lot easier than driverless ground (or intelligent driverless vacuum).
Dealing with air is conceptually easy enough. Don't fly into things. Stay in the 1000 foot altitude lane. Land in areas that are flat and clear. If a meatbag gets within 20 feet, fly straight up.
Cars are a lot harder because there are a ton more rules and variations on obstacles and if you do it wrong you've just smashed a 4000 pound vehicle into someone's car, living room or kneecap. Or maybe just gotten stuck because there's no lines and the computer doesn't know what to do. (i.e., I bet interstate driving is super easy but that last 200 feet of figuring out how to pull into a parking lot and find a space to park in is at least a thousand times more complex.)
So Roombas can be pretty dumb and get away with it because "Rules of Vacuuming" can be made really basic and still work.
I think air is much the same thing. It doesn't need a lot of complexity. Collision detection from a safe distance is going to be the bulk of it.
Cars are probably the hardest thing to automate.
Dealing with air is conceptually easy enough. Don't fly into things. Stay in the 1000 foot altitude lane. Land in areas that are flat and clear. If a meatbag gets within 20 feet, fly straight up.
Cars are a lot harder because there are a ton more rules and variations on obstacles and if you do it wrong you've just smashed a 4000 pound vehicle into someone's car, living room or kneecap. Or maybe just gotten stuck because there's no lines and the computer doesn't know what to do. (i.e., I bet interstate driving is super easy but that last 200 feet of figuring out how to pull into a parking lot and find a space to park in is at least a thousand times more complex.)
So Roombas can be pretty dumb and get away with it because "Rules of Vacuuming" can be made really basic and still work.
I think air is much the same thing. It doesn't need a lot of complexity. Collision detection from a safe distance is going to be the bulk of it.
Cars are probably the hardest thing to automate.