Collision Controls WORK

    This happened Monday. Cruise in our 2017 RAV4 was set at 66 mph. Ford Escape just pulls into our lane like we were even there. Dash lights up, alarms go off. I'm pretty sure the car had the brakes on before I did. You could feel and hear the anit-lock system. No screeching tires, no slewing to the side. I was just waiting for the CRUNCH!! Never happened. The car worked WITH us, not against us.

    If you don't believe in technology, watch this a couple of times. My dash cam is mounted in the upper left hand corner, so from my perspective, it looked even closer. No sound, I usually have the cam on MUTE. Feel free to add your own favorite words and phrases.


    Isn't it great when safety technology works as designed!


    Other than being a little shook up and having something cool to post about, the collision avoidance system prevented any harm from coming to you or your family, and also resulted in no damage to either vehicle, how awesome is that!

    Slingshot beginner (Nov 2020), 2019 S White/Black, Bullet Speed V-Back, with Blue Fire accents

    Glad you’re okay but that technology can also kill.


    Imagine this real life scenario that happened to me (thankfully well before collision avoidance technology)...


    On interstate in fast lane at 70 mph passing a semi rig. Another semi rig is tailgating me big time (about 2’ off my rear bumper). A coyote darts in front of me from median. I just kept my foot on the gas & took some minor front end damage.

    With the technology, the car would’ve decided to “save” me by slamming on the brakes to avoid hitting the “object” (it’s just a stupid machine with no spatial awareness) - the semi would’ve gone right up over top of me & I would be dead.


    Just something to think about...

    Slingshots: making children out of adults since 2014

    Agreed, but depends on the technology... Some don't recognize objects that don't appear to be vehicles or humans. So in the dog or coyote situation, it would have hit as well.


    In our new Hyundai Palisade, it only seems to react to certain shapes (learned from Palisade forum and some videos testing the system).


    It's come a long way. Some using cameras, others radar/lasers, and others a combination of systems...


    I would hope it works if and when it needs to, but I also agree that, at times, it's a nuisance! The vehicle is constantly reminding me how bad of a driver I am... laugh-squared

    The only action provided by collision avoidance technology is slamming on the brakes. There’s been times in my life that a quick evasive maneuver to the left or right avoided an accident. The technology cannot “think” and is not full proof...


    What if there’s some sort of fault & it decides to randomly engage & thereby CAUSE an accident?

    I just don’t trust it.

    Slingshots: making children out of adults since 2014

    Quote from Tripod

    The only action provided by collision avoidance technology is slamming on the brakes. There’s been times in my life that a quick evasive maneuver to the left or right avoided an accident. The technology cannot “think” and is not full proof...


    What if there’s some sort of fault & it decides to randomly engage & thereby CAUSE an accident?

    I just don’t trust it.

    Well, that, and let's not forget about hackers... Stories like that have been documented by MSM, must be fake though, and how a hacker could engage your brakes, kill the engine, lock the doors, etc...


    Pretty scary!


    But as long as I'm just a pee-on, eh... I'm not worried about it. artist-squared

    I am with Tripod on this one. I guess I maybe old but I don't trust this new stuff. Look how often Slingshots pop a error code when they shouldn't one maybe ones to many. I kind of subscribe to the old Cat and Duck method of navigation when they didn't have all this fancy stuff. If you hadn't heard of it let me explain. I know there are some pilots on here and you might use this as a back up system.

    Cat and Duck: Well they carried a cat and a duck when they went flying. If they were in the clouds and got vertigo they would drop a cat out of the cockpit and knew a cat always feel feet first. Then they would throw the duck out. Ducks fly South in the winter and North in the summer so they just had to follow the duck. Worked fine till the duck landed on a pond in the fog.

    Later I will tell you about Blue Card pilots maybe.

    If the music is to loud you are to old.

    This discussion exposes our individual technology biases.


    In general older folks, 70+, have a general distrust of technology, primarily because most don't understand the core science or the enormous amount of effort that went into building it. They BELIEVE that their decades of experience alone is far better than any collection of cameras and microchips. What they fail to grasp is that:


    - They only have two eyes, which have likely been getting worse over the years, and which can only see in the visible light spectrum and are easily confused by such trivial things as darkness, fog, and precipitation.

    - Their reaction time to a stimulus has also degraded, though most may strongly debate this one.

    - They also only have two motion sensors, found in the ears, which also after decades of use have degraded. Some might argue the gut as a third, but at this point does it really matter.


    We are rapidly approaching, and in some very specific cases may have already surpassed, a technology tipping point where the dozens of sensors in a car, combined with the vast computational power, millions of lines of code, and many training models for people, cars, cows, deer, etc... far exceed what even the finest race car driver is capable of on their best day.


    Last fall while I was buying a Slingshot my cousin purchased a Tesla Model 3 Performance Edition with the full-self drive. He's said that on the highway it does an amazing job, but in downtown San Francisco it's like driving with a teenager. This will of course get better over time as computational power, code, and training models improve. Add to that future wireless automotive networks where cars will be talking with each other wirelessly, and exchanging their data to best negotiate traffic patterns, and traffic accidents will be dramatically reduced. Self-driving Slingshot owners like us will eventually become the anomaly.


    Demolition Man, while not entirely accurate, is a pretty close approximation of where we're headed with regard to self-driving cars. iRobot is also pretty close. Can these cars be hacked, sure, anything mankind makes, mankind can corrupt, but with each passing year, it's becoming increasingly harder and harder as vulnerabilities are being exposed and dealt with. The car industry had been resistant to change, but in recent years, even that has changed. I was there when the team that hacked the Jeep Grand Cherokee presented their findings at DefCon, and then the following year when they returned to cover even more exploits they'd discovered. Detroit was embarrassed and has acknowledged that they've had their head in the sand for far too long. Things appear to be changing for the better, but only time will tell.



    https://technologyevangelist.c…erformance-vs-perception/

    Slingshot beginner (Nov 2020), 2019 S White/Black, Bullet Speed V-Back, with Blue Fire accents

    I have nothing against this new high tech stuff. I have been in the electronics field for over 50 years 21.5 of that in the US Navy 12 of those years in a calibration lab the rest on aircraft and aircraft computers. Even the best go bad now and then. I have trusted my life to that equipment and many others lives to the equipment I worked on. Why because it was my job now it is not. Yes I am in my 70s and maybe it would be safer if a computer drove my car. I will say I would love to have your cousin's car. My son has rode in one and really liked it.

    If the music is to loud you are to old.

    I thought about going into the left lane to pass her, but then what if SHE would have changed to the left lane? Screwed either way. Better a straight ahead hit than a hit at an angle. Every time I watch the video, I realize how lucky we got. No contact, no damage, no injuries.

    This time, the technology worked. I hope there is no NEXT TIME.

    I am not averse to technology. I’m all for it. Too often though, they put stuff out there when it’s not ready for prime time...

    Slingshots: making children out of adults since 2014

    Quote from MiM

    Especially Musk!


    But I do appreciate his work and push... Mad genius type stuff where he doesn't really care about lives, just his goals and technology.

    On average 102 Americans lose their lives EVERYDAY in a car accident, 38,800 people in 2019. This is what Tesla is looking to address.


    Agreed, Tesla has taken some bold risks moving forward with autopilot and full self-driving. Their massive volume of real-world data gives them at least an 18 month lead over others in the industry, and late to the game companies like Ford are years behind.


    To date, Tesla's Autopilot has had 15 accidents worldwide, with six deaths linked to these accidents over the past five or so years, roughly one death per year. This data can be found here: https://www.tesladeaths.com I'm sure some will find this surprising.


    Some would say that one death, per year, as a result of an autopilot accident is actually extremely good, given the alternative, unless of course, it was your relative in the accident.

    Slingshot beginner (Nov 2020), 2019 S White/Black, Bullet Speed V-Back, with Blue Fire accents

    Quote from DJohnson

    I am with Tripod on this one. I guess I maybe old but I don't trust this new stuff. Look how often Slingshots pop a error code when they shouldn't one maybe ones to many. I kind of subscribe to the old Cat and Duck method of navigation when they didn't have all this fancy stuff. If you hadn't heard of it let me explain. I know there are some pilots on here and you might use this as a back up system.

    Cat and Duck: Well they carried a cat and a duck when they went flying. If they were in the clouds and got vertigo they would drop a cat out of the cockpit and knew a cat always feel feet first. Then they would throw the duck out. Ducks fly South in the winter and North in the summer so they just had to follow the duck. Worked fine till the duck landed on a pond in the fog.

    Later I will tell you about Blue Card pilots maybe.

    Don I thought you were Navy!

    EjFord That I am. Retired here in 86 and just stayed here. Worked for a computer repair company out of San Antonio, Tx working out of a office in Jacksonville till they laid me off after 7 years then went bankrupt. Then went to work for 14 years with the county school system doing repairs and networking all the schools. Now I shoot and fish and drive Sally. You got to love a Slingshot.

    If the music is to loud you are to old.

    Quote from DJohnson

    EjFord That I am. Retired here in 86 and just stayed here. Worked for a computer repair company out of San Antonio, Tx working out of a office in Jacksonville till they laid me off after 7 years then went bankrupt. Then went to work for 14 years with the county school system doing repairs and networking all the schools. Now I shoot and fish and drive Sally. You got to love a Slingshot.

    The Navy was one of my 2 services. I’m sure you know we always said that the word “Navy” is an acronym:


    Never again volunteer yourself... :D


    Thank you for your service, Sir!

    Slingshots: making children out of adults since 2014

    @ Tripod Your welcome thank you. When I was a kid working part time at the local utilities the old guys at the power plant was always saying they wish they had stayed in they would be retired by now. So when I joined I said I would stay 20 years , retirement time, to see if I liked it. Well I didn't and at 19.5 years I got transfered to NAS Jax and that required two more years if I wanted to retire.

    If the music is to loud you are to old.

    Tripod and DJohnson thank you both and all the others who read this and have served for your service.


    While I've not written code for self-driving systems, I've built, written code, and been intimately involved in high-performance computing, mostly on the networking side, for the past two decades (IBM, NEC, Myricom, Solarflare, and Xilinx soon AMD). For the decade and a half before that, I was at IBM Research, focused on making PCs available and easier to use.


    I've pondered retrofitting an existing four-node Raspberry Pi4 cluster into my SS, each with its own camera, as well as additional third-party sensors, to initially provide a security system and eventually collision warning. Recently I assisted my son in building a motion tracking system using Pi3s to study the movements of snakes in response to a stimulus for his wife's Ph.D. Also, now with access to affordable FPGAs (PYNQ-Z1) and some new open-source systems enabling Python programming on them their also a viable option.


    My point is this technology is evolving very rapidly. NASA sent a new rover roughly the size of a SS to Mars last May and Xilinx provided the fully autonomous self-driving technology. Xilinx has been providing the FPGA logic controlling the Mars rovers since the first one touched down decades ago. This new rover makes all the driving decisions, NASA just provides the destination, the rover decides how best to get there.


    https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/rover/


    What an exciting time to be alive.

    Slingshot beginner (Nov 2020), 2019 S White/Black, Bullet Speed V-Back, with Blue Fire accents