[Nfb-cars] Gaining experience with driving

Tue Jul 14 03:33:01 UTC 2009

Dear Brian,

Sorry, but you missed it completely.
The vehicles I am talking about will be able to function, without a human at 
the wheel in all kinds of weather and in all traffic conditions and can 
react quicker than any human that ever lived.
I was also a licensed driver of over 20 years and I was legally blind two 
years before I ever got behind the wheel.
I got my first license in Jan. of 1965 and drove until October 16, 1985.  I 
got licenses twice in Florida and once in California in that time period.
So I know, first hand, what it takes to drive on the street and even cars on 
the track.  I raced my 1959 VW Sedan with a turbo-charged Corvair engine in 
it for some two years.  It was street legal and could turn the 1/4 mile in 9 
seconds flat at 154 MPH and I still drove it to college each day.
Cars were my hobby for years and at one time I owned some 8 cars, mostly 
classic and muscle cars which included a '56 T-Bird and a '69 Hemi Coda with 
a 426 Hemi.
As for the reference to the military vehicles, there is a company right here 
in Boca Raton that has developed a sensor system for Army two and a half ton 
trucks, once featured on CNN, that one soldier/driver can program to 
navigate over paved and un-paved roads and even across open country or an 
urban setting, with other vehicles.
The sensors will let the truck drive , without lights, in total darkness and 
in all weather conditions.
The sensors can even detect the edges of a un-paved road covered under 3 
feet of snow or hidden from view by smoke, fog, rain or blowing snow.
The sensor can detect vehicles approaching and keep the truck on its side of 
the road for passing.  It can even detect vehicles coming in from the side 
and adjust its actions to avoid or stop the truck as needed by the 
situation.
The driver/programmer can ride along and monitor the vehicle or up to 30 
other so equipped vehicles in a convoy.  The driver/programmer can guide any 
and all of the vehicles from any vehicle in the convoy and make changes to 
them or their routing as he wishes.
This will make them, the driver/programmer, safer from attacks.  He can even 
have a plan , in case of an attack, that would send all of the vehicles off 
in different directions, by different routes, to save them and make it 
harder for an enemy to knock them out of action and ensure that most of the 
convoy would get through on its re-supply mission, which is one of the most 
dangerous missions the Army now has in IRAQ.
A computer can make the decisions faster and react quicker than any human 
being.  They do just what they are programmed to do, without fear, without 
emotions, hesitation and based on the facts.
Do I think that blind people will one day drive themselves?  Yes and NO.  I 
do not personally see blind people driving  cars as we do today, but I do 
see blind people managing and programming their own cars to drive them where 
they want to go in the future.  I see the human being taken more out of the 
loop as time goes by because they are the most dangerous element in the 
situation.
People like to take risk and break rules and computers don't.
The insurance companies will likely be very much in favor of this as it will 
reduce claims and lawsuits.
There will always be accidents, but reducing the human factor will be the 
driving force so to speak.
It will take time to work out the kinks, but it will happen and sooner than 
you think.
GM and Ford and Mercedes-Bends are already testing proto-types of "street 
Ready" vehicles that are autonomist.
It will take an adjustment, by the Public, to get used to these new vehicles 
just as it did when people used to use a horse and wagon had to get used to 
the "horseless carriages in the beginning of the last century.  It will take 
a mental adjustment.
Heck, most large airliners today are able to taxi, take-off, fly to a 
destination, land and taxi in without a pilot at the controls.  The Public 
just is not ready for that to happen yet just as they are not ready to give 
up control of their cars yet, but it will happen.
I likely have not changed your mind, but I am stating facts, you and I will 
just have to wait and see as time passes to see what shakes out.

David Evans, NFBF
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bryan Schulz" <b.schulz at sbcglobal.net>
To: "Classics,antiques and rods division mailing list" <nfb-cars at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, July 12, 2009 3:37 PM
Subject: Re: [Nfb-cars] Gaining experience with driving

> hi,
>
> there's a huge difference between a military vehicle going on patrol
> compared to bumper to bumper traffic.
> ok, i would love to see a computer guess at the last nano second that a
> human changed their mind and see if the computer controlled car could 
> avoid
> the accident.
> there's fighting for equality/opportunity then there's a lack of commin
> sense.
> i would love to know how many people drove before being bllind and if they
> would be in favor of being a passenger dependant on computer chips against
> human controlled cars and i would not be one of them.
>
> Bryan Schulz
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "David Evans" <drevans at bellsouth.net>
> To: "Classics,antiques and rods division mailing list" 
> <nfb-cars at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Sunday, July 12, 2009 1:41 PM
> Subject: Re: [Nfb-cars] Gaining experience with driving
>
>
>>
>> Dear Brian,
>>
>> I beg to differ.  The day is close at hand , and proto-types already
>> exist, of vehicles that can drive themselves.  The U.S.Military already
>> has a mandate to make 33% of all of its vehicles autonomist by the year
>> 2015.
>> They have been in the testing phase for over 10 years.
>> It will not be far away that cars will be fully able to drive themselves,
>> independent of human interaction.  When this comes, the Blind will be 
>> able
>> to "drive" their own cars.
>> The most dangerous thing in a car are the human beings that drive them.
>> Computers follow rules and people don't.  People get tired, careless, 
>> take
>> risks and make mistakes or bad decisions.
>> Cars in the future will be able to navigate, safely, in any environment
>> and will communicate constantly with all of the other cars around it, so
>> that each computer will know where every other car is going and what they
>> plan to do.
>> The cars will be able to react much faster to situation than humans and
>> even handle emergency situations that crop up, mostly because of the
>> actions of humans.
>> The insurance companies will be all for this as it should reduce traffic
>> accidents and as all actions will be recorded automatically by an 
>> on-board
>> "Black Box" recorder, as many cars already have, there should be less
>> lawsuits and damage claims.
>> The military has the deep pockets for the research, but the spin offs 
>> will
>> follow as the technology goes into use by the commercial sector, mostly 
>> in
>> long and short haul trucking, delivery services and finally the private
>> owners; us.
>>
>> David Evans, NFBF
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Bryan Schulz" <b.schulz at sbcglobal.net>
>> To: "Classics,antiques and rods division mailing list"
>> <nfb-cars at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Saturday, July 11, 2009 1:53 AM
>> Subject: Re: [Nfb-cars] Gaining experience with driving
>>
>>
>>> hi,
>>>
>>> speaking of something like this, i think blind people should know how a
>>> car
>>> works in case the person they are with has a heart attack or something.
>>> the person should pretend they are physically unable to operate the car
>>> and
>>> the blind person could practice pulling the foot off of the gas
>>> pedal/pushing the shifter to neutral and getting down to a slower speed
>>> and
>>> moving onto the shoulder.
>>>
>>> on the other hand, dr. mauer went overboard in believing the
>>> public/insurance companies would allow blind people to drive or a car
>>> will
>>> be built that will allow a blind person to drive.
>>> half or more of the time, a driver has to react to the unexpected and a
>>> system that depends on timing or sensors wouldn't avoid a potential
>>> wreck.
>>> Bryan Schulz
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>>> From: "Reinhard Stebner" <reinhard.stebner at gmail.com>
>>> To: "'Classics, antiques and rods division mailing list'"
>>> <nfb-cars at nfbnet.org>
>>> Sent: Saturday, July 11, 2009 12:34 AM
>>> Subject: [Nfb-cars] Gaining experience with driving
>>>
>>>
>>>>I have heard of totally blind people obtain quality driving lessons from
>>>>the
>>>> following website:
>>>>
>>>> http://www.blindcooltech.com/
>>>> Look for the article entitled:
>>>> "CCB And Master Drive"
>>>>
>>>> I would like to do this, but am unsure how I could even go about doing
>>>> it.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>
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>>
>>
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