[ale] [TOTALLY OT] road trains - what I've been squawking we need for years - fewer drivers!

[Jim Kinney]

On Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 11:34 AM, Lightner, Jeff <jlightner at water.com>wrote:

> Given that presumably we all have seen systems go belly up the idea that
> we would all embrace this as a be all and end all solution is scary.
> Typically the moron that causes an accident in his own car at worst
> takes out 1 or 2 others at the same time (and often enough not even
> that).
>
> Imagine instead a "train" on the Oakland Bay Bridge at the time of the
> last earthquake where one poor drive slid into a large gap caused by one
> of the sections falling - would that train continue to push car after
> car into such a gap?   This is only one screwup I can imagine - there
> are dozens of others.
>
> You guys might want to read Robert A. Heinlein's "Blowups Happen" to see
> his story about government mass movement system and issues with same.
>

As well as "The Roads Must Roll" .

>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of
> Preston Boyington
> Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2011 11:19 AM
> To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
> Subject: Re: [ale] [TOTALLY OT] road trains - what I've been squawking
> we need for years - fewer drivers!
>
> Jim Kinney wrote:
> <snipped>
>
> > The fewer idiots we have piloting cars, the few wrecks so we can make
> > them lighter. The lighter the car, the less fuel is needed to move it.
> >
> > I welcome our robotic overlords (as long as it's not running a variant
>
> > of windows :-)
>
>
> "Another story in our continuing series, the 16 deaths today in a 50 mph
>
> construction zone along Interstate 285 were apparently the result of a
> passenger plugging in an iPod after the vehicle wirelessly updated the
> motion control system.  It is thought that the user was trying the
> latest kernel version in an attempt to get the audio to play correctly
> while the communication system was in operation..."
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-- 
-- 
James P. Kinney III
I would rather stumble along in freedom than walk effortlessly in chains.
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