[ExI] self-driving cars again

[BillK]

On Mon, Jul 16, 2012 at 7:25 PM, spike  wrote:
<snip>
> I am contacting some local businesses with the notion to see if any of them
> want to sponsor a car.  Google might be interested, and Intel's products
> would surely be used, as well as tire companies and such as that.
> Eventually, just as in NASCAR, the competition eventually comes down to tire
> and suspension technology, but there are a lot of controls problems to work
> until that happens.
>
> This is really exciting, a whole nuther area of racing is opening.  This is
> one that has a magic combination: it is something that amateurs can
> participate in, doesn't cost all that much, it doesn't involve any actual
> danger (which will cause a few to lose interest) but is wide open to new
> ideas and new inventions, with lots of practical real world applications.
>
> When a sport is mature, such as NASCAR, all the entries look and even
> perform almost identically.  This one is so new, everyone will have their
> own ideas on how to do this game.  This is so exciting.  BillK, I know it is
> pretty flat over there in Jolly Olde.  Have you convenient access to any
> local hills?  Nothing will get this going like a little intercontinental
> rivalry, and OH NO the limeys are going to whoop our asses, etc.  When I
> write the proposals, I can suggest there is a British guy all over this, and
> we don't want to be buying robo-racer tech from them, now do we, and so
> forth.
>
>

Really, what you're talking about is robot Soapbox cart racing.
(Gravity Racers is the all-inclusive term these days).

Soapbox derbies happen all over, even in the UK.
See:
<http://www.soapboxracing.co.uk/>
<http://www.belchford.org.uk/Belchford%20Downhill%20Challenge%20Soapbox%20Cart%20Race%20Page.html>

It might be useful to link the Google people with the Soapbox Derby people.
But I don't know if the robot car tech is being made available to
amateur enthusiasts yet.

BillK