[ExI] self-driving cars again

[spike]

>... On Behalf Of BillK
Subject: Re: [ExI] self-driving cars again

On Mon, Jul 16, 2012 at 2:31 AM, spike wrote:
>> ...No, scratch that, better idea.  The hell with Pike's Peak, too far 
> away.  We have a perfectly adequate hill right here next to San Jose, 
> the road up Mount Hamilton where the Lick Observatory sits...
> We don't need the engine, so off that comes, or just look for a frame.  
> With engine, this rig is about 100 pounds, so once we get that motor 
> off and the sensors on, we might still be under 100 pounds.

>...:)  At the risk of setting you off again...The motor is not just used
for driving the wheels.
You will need a good battery to power the sensors and the computers.
And to operate the steering and brakes...

Oh my, ja, this is the mechanical engineer's playground.  A battery would be
good, or better yet, a supercapacitor with power generated off the axle as
the car descends.  For that matter we could even use the power generated as
a braking assist, and use the excess power to do something fun, like run a
siren or something.  {8^D  The engineering students at Stanford and San Jose
State U would have a blast with this, and also that other school up the
street whose name escapes me.  Berkel something or other.  We could get
teams from all three, or four if Santa Clara U wants to play.


>...To get faster times you probably need better tyres for cornering grip...

Ja!  We have the super sticky motorcycle tires, already preadapted for this
sort of silliness.  The fun part will be in seeing if we can get a
four-wheeled vehicle to tilt all four wheels into a turn to take advantage
of the motorcycle tires, or even more fun: just go ahead and rig a
de-engined motorcycle to make the run.  That would have a lot of advantages:
the brakes are already more than adequate without modification, the tire
infrastructure is already in place, they are available cheaply in arbitrary
quantities with zero risk of ever running short, it has the advantage of
challenging humans directly at their own game (motorcycles race up on that
road all the time.)  It would be super wicked cool to get a robo-bike
tearing down the hill so fast that biker proles couldn't catch it, even with
the advantage of an engine.  {8^D

>...And a bit of streamlining cover as air resistance quickly builds up
above 50 mph...

The faster bikes already have fairings.  We could easily make an aerodynamic
cover (for where we remove the radiator) out of moldable polyethylene.

That road has another way in which it is ideal: there are no houses in the
upper 2/3 of the run, and nothing you would risk damaging if things gang aft
agley.

>...Maybe a wing for cornering downforce? BillK

Cool, like the sprint cars?  With a two-wheeler, that wouldn't be necessary
of course, and forgive me for fixating on a robo-motorcycle, but that is
something I find fills me with awe and wonder, just the sight of a riderless
motorcycle tearing down that hill with a dozen racer boys chasing it and
failing to keep up.  Oh my evolution, that would be a kick.  People would
buy tick... THAT'S IT!  This is one HELLLLL of a spectator sport!  We could
have proles on the insides of the turns so they aren't in much danger, have
them kick in five bucks for it, or up on the cliffs twenty feet above the
road, a series of bikes released every couple minutes like Isle of Man time
trials.  We could set up betting and so forth.  This is the new NASCAR,
except quieter and cleaner.

spike