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Auto Pilot issue recognizing Motorcycles?

Interesting......I still fail to see the real value of a self driving car other than wizz-bang technology in operation.


:evil
om
 
Heard about this a few days ago, from a friend.

It's timely for me, as I am about to buy a new car with Adaptive Cruise Control. I sure don't wish to hurt a fellow rider, so somehow will find a way to test to see if the vehicle can detect a bike.
 
You really have to wonder how engaged drivers are these days that they want cars to do everything for them. How boring!
 
I do not disagree that it would be boring and is somewhat senseless, however I do believe in the next 30 years we will see entire zones in and around major metropolitan areas designated as automated cars only. I believe this will be the American answer to public transportation. After having lived in the Mid-Atlantic region for 4 years, and living the traffic around the Washington-DC beltway and what chaos that can ensue from one inattentive driver. The development of technology allowing vehicles to be networked together to form a continuous uninterrupted and interactive stream seems rather appealing.
 
Although the necessarily lengthy and informative article I am referencing is not 'motorcycle' autopilot, rather aviation, one would hope that lessons learned would be heeded before networking fully automated cars. The nugget found when investigating aviation incidents that occur 'while flying the plane' is trending to be that skill level of pilots tends to deteriorate over time without exercise. This is a normal human problem. When autopilots do almost all the 'in air' flying with only take off and landing performed by people the pilots become less and less capable of reacting to an emergency - especially since it is a confusing mix of unusual events and autopilot functionality.

There is an ongoing thread based on aviation outcomes that perhaps once engaged the autopilot function should move away from currently totally flying the plane with the human pilot only adjusting parameters (not hands on the com/stick controls). This would mean the human pilot would always be in command demanding that focus would be on flying the plane and so also know how to do so. The autopilot would act more like a recommendation engine (aka a GPS that gives advice that can be assessed but does not take control) than the primary controller of the plane.

Bottom line only an expert pilot (or motorcycle pilot) who has kept their skills sharp and current can react positively to previously unanticipated (either by the autopilot programmer or mother nature) events.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/oct/11/crash-how-computers-are-setting-us-up-disaster
 
...what chaos that can ensue from one inattentive driver.

That would be most drivers on the road.

They put ABS on cars and motorcycles and there aren't any less accidents or fatalities now. You can't fix "stupid" with technology unless you totally remove the "stupid".

I don't know why the average person should have a driver's licence. Would you want your average person to be your airline pilot?
 
They put ABS on cars and motorcycles and there aren't any less accidents or fatalities now.

I will take issue with that observation, because it is false: http://www.iihs.org/iihs/brochures/motorcycle-abs-why-you-want-to-ride-with-it

From the article:

"Fewer deaths
The rate of fatal crashes is 31 percent lower for motorcycles equipped with optional ABS than for those same models without ABS.
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, 2013

Fewer crashes
Collision insurance claims for motorcycles with ABS are filed 20 percent less frequently than for motorcycles without it — 31 percent when the ABS bikes have combined controls."

Harry
 
Believe what you want. I purposely did not want ABS on my 2003 and 2004 and if I did have it, I would have cut someone in half during a real world incident.

Took a skill refresher course in Sept. Instructor felt the same as you. He had 5 bikes and practiced braking often. This was part of his introduction to emergency braking.

He asked us to do our normal braking exercise on a straight line course he set up with cones. I was one of the first to try it, on my 2015 RT with my buddy on an older sport model (R1000S?). We both amazed the instructor. He was apoplectic. Told all the others their goal was to get to be as good as the BMW guys. Nobody came close.

That's good enough for me.
 
Although the necessarily lengthy and informative article I am referencing is not 'motorcycle' autopilot, rather aviation, one would hope that lessons learned would be heeded before networking fully automated cars. The nugget found when investigating aviation incidents that occur 'while flying the plane' is trending to be that skill level of pilots tends to deteriorate over time without exercise. This is a normal human problem. When autopilots do almost all the 'in air' flying with only take off and landing performed by people the pilots become less and less capable of reacting to an emergency - especially since it is a confusing mix of unusual events and autopilot functionality.

There is an ongoing thread based on aviation outcomes that perhaps once engaged the autopilot function should move away from currently totally flying the plane with the human pilot only adjusting parameters (not hands on the com/stick controls). This would mean the human pilot would always be in command demanding that focus would be on flying the plane and so also know how to do so. The autopilot would act more like a recommendation engine (aka a GPS that gives advice that can be assessed but does not take control) than the primary controller of the plane.

Bottom line only an expert pilot (or motorcycle pilot) who has kept their skills sharp and current can react positively to previously unanticipated (either by the autopilot programmer or mother nature) events.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/oct/11/crash-how-computers-are-setting-us-up-disaster

I'm 71 and I know I am not as capable in my car or on the bike as I used to be. I work at riding skills and love my 2015 RT. It helps me do as well as I do.

Am buying a 2017 Subaru Outback with a superb Adaptive Cruise Control which I have thoroughly tested out on the highway and in town in heavy stop and go traffic. I love it and will use it extensively.

On a recent trip on the slab to Ottawa using conventional cruise control I had to continually adjust it due to trucks passing and blocking both lanes and roadwork and ... .

So, to each his own.
 
Took a skill refresher course in Sept. Instructor felt the same as you.

Years ago I was invited on an advanced rider training course (they were looking for instructors).

I was on my 1990 R100 GS with Metzeler Sahara 3 tires and I was out-braking a Honda Blackbird with linked brakes. Sure my back tire was coming off the ground which the instructor did not like, but I told him "don't worry about it, I'll ease off if the rear starts coming around". But that was under "expected" conditions, the following was not.

An inbred bicyclist makes a snap 90 degree turn without looking on a county road I was on. Talk about zero time. Brakes, rear wheel lifted a tad, eased off to get the back wheel back on the ground to steer to the right and missed cutting that middle aged idiot in half. The front tire left a long faint black line on the road (maximum braking without lock-up). Got home, cleaned the bugs off my GS and found a black rubber strip on my left engine protection bar from his back tire. That is how close it was. Lucky for him I didn't have ABS.

Far too many riders are afraid of their front brakes and do not know how to use them to the limit. They can have their ABS.
Don't want it on my daily driver or Porsche. Unfortunately my 2016 R1200 GS Adventure comes with them.
 
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