[ExI] Watch a self-driving car race round a stunt course

[spike at rainier66.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of BillK via extropy-chat
Subject: [ExI] Watch a self-driving car race round a stunt course

Quote:
Engineers at Stanford’s Dynamic Design Lab have taught a self-driving DeLorean — the iconic early 80s sports car of “Back to the Future” fame — how to drift around a complex, kilometer-long track that even human drivers would struggle with....

https://futurism.com/self-driving-delorean-stunt-course

https://youtu.be/3x3SqeSdrAE

BillK

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BillK!  Think about the possibilities here.  Clearly it isn't economically viable to burn up tires like this, but I have an idea (ja I know, shocking, spike has a crazy idea (but read on please (because this is a good one.)))

We are accustomed to Macadam pavement, we know what it is: long chain hydrocarbon goo left over in the bottom of the petroleum refinery after we take off the octane and Diesel fuel, the motor oil and all that, kinda sticky black tarry stuff, so we mix it with gravel and make roads out of it, cool, but always we mix it such that the road provides maximum traction with rubber tires, ja?  OK, what if... we could make a surface that was intentionally slick, something you would never use to make a road?  Instead of gravel we could mix the tar with something else methinks, then perhaps top coat it with... verathane?  Something durable but slick, make it impervious, then spray a thin layer of water over it.

OK cool, now we have a good flat paved surface so slick you can play these car games without burning up tires.  We could do it with an ordinary snoozemobile, no expensive hotrod DeLorean necessary, no risk of it hitting 88 mph and disappearing, none of that kind of problem.  We get those clever Stanford lads to rig it up with their AI driving software and all that, get a big speaker underneath to make squeally noises simulating tires burning, smoke generator like the stunt pilots have, and now... you have a low cost non-tire-burning stunt car you can charge the proles fifty bucks for a 10 minute insane ride, camera inside to record them going yaaaaaa, sell that to them, or it might not even take that long before they cry for mercy or barf and oh we make a fortune, tons of money, cubic buttloads I tells ya!

If we don't, ya know some other crazy yahoo is going to think of the same idea and do it.  We need to act fast.

spike