<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:large;color:#000000">Robocars would be great for demolition derby - no danger to the drivers. bill w</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Fri, May 7, 2021 at 3:38 PM spike jones via extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><br>
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-----Original Message-----<br>
From: extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org" target="_blank">extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org</a>> On Behalf Of<br>
BillK via extropy-chat<br>
Sent: Friday, May 7, 2021 12:29 PM<br>
To: ExI chat list <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org" target="_blank">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>><br>
Cc: BillK <<a href="mailto:pharos@gmail.com" target="_blank">pharos@gmail.com</a>><br>
Subject: Re: [ExI] where's the robocar races?<br>
<br>
On Fri, 7 May 2021 at 20:09, Sherry Knepper via extropy-chat<br>
<<a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org" target="_blank">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>> wrote:<br>
><br>
> I read about an upcoming autonomous car race involving school students.<br>
Is there another?<br>
><br>
<br>
Yes. Roborace.<br>
<<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roborace" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roborace</a>><br>
Quote:<br>
Roborace is a competition with autonomously driving, electrically powered<br>
vehicles. Founded in 2015, it aims to be the first global championship for<br>
autonomous cars.<br>
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<br>
<br>
<br>
>...Formula E is electrically powered cars with human drivers.<br>
<br>
BillK<br>
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<br>
Ja, I am looking to get away from human drivers, regardless of the format.<br>
I do think the whole notion of electric car racing is cool and want to see<br>
that too.<br>
<br>
In 2005 they set up a Grand Prix course in downtown San Jose. There was a<br>
young female driver who was attracting a lot of attention to the sport,<br>
Danica Patrick, perhaps because she was (and still is) drop dead gorgeous,<br>
so that series brought in a lotta consumers even though the track was a long<br>
ways from optimal: too many railroad tracks and such.<br>
<br>
It was a fun race however: the roar of the engines, oh my. I knew what it<br>
was going to be like and brought ear protection, but a prole could have made<br>
a cool fortune by going around selling those foamy ear plugs for a coupla<br>
bucks a pair. I try to not ponder how tragic it was that I didn't do it.<br>
<br>
Electric cars: granted those are way cool and fast, but I still want to see<br>
the robocars do their thing. We know formula One cars cost a forch, so my<br>
notion is to take older cars worth about 5k or less, such as old Crown Vics<br>
and Lincolns and Grand Marquis and stuff like that, cars you can afford to<br>
risk, retrofit them with the robocar stuff and race them stock: no engine or<br>
suspension mods, then let amateurs play. <br>
<br>
You could have them in classes by model and year, so the competition is<br>
between software developers. If someone could put together a LIDAR kit a<br>
prole could buy for a coupla K, I would be willing to build a car and run<br>
it. It sounds like a hell of a lotta fun, zero risk to the racers except of<br>
course the financial risk. We could do solo time trials around a big open<br>
space around cones such as out at Moffett, so you wouldn't even need to risk<br>
your car.<br>
<br>
spike<br>
<br>
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