London to Dover 'smart' road could help make driverless cars mainstream – expert The creation of new "smart" roads with in-built Wi-Fi technology can be an enabler of the widespread adoption of driverless and connected cars, an expert has said. Ben Gardner, expert in autonomous vehicles technology and regulation at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said he welcomed plans outlined by Highways …
it's potentially easier to convert into a toll road, which is what will be needed to fund the necessary infrastructure investment.
Plus given the number of times this road has been converted into a parking lot for the port, you could question whether it really is a public road or a private car park masquerading as a road.
"Plus given the number of times this road has been converted into a parking lot for the port, you could question whether it really is a public road or a private car park masquerading as a road."
Which raises an interesting question - how smart does a road need to be before it can decide to go on strike?
Then I learn we will be getting petrol price signs.
Radar to detect breakdowns - don't we already have those cameras which "only read part of you number plate" to measure traffic flow on most motorways and trunk roads?
Wi-Fi and 4G reliably along the roads would be nice; even better along the railways.
Looks like a load of puff mainly announcing stuff we already have. Or there is a lot of information missing from the article.
"Then I learn we will be getting petrol price signs."
Unless they include directions to filling stations in nearby towns then the only price they need to show on motorway signs is "bloody expensive".
I find it hard to believe how many people fill up at motorway services where the prices are often as much as 60p or more per gallon higher than in towns. I suppose they must be mainly company fuel card users who don't give a stuff and don't understand how it all works. In our company, they take back the full amount spent on the fuel card then pay back the standard HMRC approved mileage rate. If you fill up at expensive motorway services and drive with a lead foot that could easily cost you, the driver, money for doing company business. IIRC the break even point is about 48mpg using cheap supermarket fuels.
I suppose they must be mainly company fuel card users who don't give a stuff and don't understand how it all works
How it works depends on what sort of card you have...
My mate has a fuel card which is charged the same price wherever he uses it - so motorway filling stations are no more expensive than anywhere else.
Vic.
They're seriously considering something like this despite so many of those roads not being in a fit state to use in the first place? Seriously? People have taken to drawing cocks around the potholes in some more extreme cases just to try and get the government to do something about them.
There are some far more fundamental issues that they need to fix first. And don't get me started on the reliability of government-mandated IT.
Remember that John Oliver sketch on encryption where he mentioned the test involving hackers gaining control of a car and cutting the engine whilst it was on the freeway of all places?
We seem to be intent on handing the bad guystm opportunities on a silver platter, and I'd imagine that sooner the terrorists will be abandoning the bombs for laptops.
They'd be just as deadly, plus they wouldn't actually die themselves in the process.
> the bad guys
How did you manage to turn an article about road infrastructure into a terrorism scare?
Plus, your hypothetical terrorist needs to spend less time watching Hollywood films and more at demonstrations, where he could learn what a few gallons of oil and a few boxes of caltrops are for.
<thingsyoulearnincollege>
Petrol with soap and/or sulphuric acid + potassium chlorate strictly optional, they work best in close quarters anyway.
</thingsyoulearnincollege>
I see the move towards autonomous cars happening in discrete steps. The first will be certain roads (motorways) being designated "autonomous control permitted". When an autonomous car joins the road, the driver will be able to press the big button that lights up, and the car will take over.
To be honest I think we're almost there, as assistive technology blurs into adaptive technology.
all the better to sell your details to the Ad slingers
sign 1
'Hey you in that thirty year old Corsa'
sign 2 - 200m up the road
'Yes you Mr Jones'
sign 3 - another 200m away
'Why not come into the 21st Century. Buy an Electric car from {insert name of your local dealer here}'
Etc etc etc
not forgetting the charges per mile.
What can go wrong?
The terrorists would have a field day. Just jam the signal and watch the carnage enschew.
Strike one for the men in black.
Stupid idea if you ask me but there, I'm a grumpy old shit who does not use social media etc etc.
Bring back Steam Lorries and Cars. Can't be bovvered with that new fangled connected stuff.
Why should they waste money on electronic signs when you will be sitting in a car that includes a screen of its own? You won't be driving so you'll have plenty of time to view their ads. Heck, I could see "toll" roads where the toll is paid by answering survey questions.
Please remember this post so when anyone Google tries to patent it you can point to this as prior art and they'll be SOL.
Are they the people who control the variable speed limits on the M25? The ones that tell you that the limit is 40 when you're already stationary? And otherwise seem to bear no relationship to what's actually happening or have any effect on it?
Yeah - they seem like a sensible choice for an advanced IT project...
Alternatively on the M1 Alfreton to Doncaster stretch up North, variable limit will usually be some low number e.g. 40, 50 irrespective of how busy the road is. Lots of locals reckon it's a scam as some of those areas regularly exceed emissions limits and the speed limits are more about emissions than traffic flow
"Alternatively on the M1 Alfreton to Doncaster stretch up North,"
When I travel down South to Nottingham a couple of times per month and pass through that stretch it's never enabled, just 70mph standard limits. Of course I get there well after rush hour and usually leave the area and head back North before the afternoon rush hour.
On the other hand, as can be seen on the non-speed camera/non-smart motorway places where matrix signs display 40/50/60mph limits because of queues ahead, at least half of the drivers ignore the limits and just make the queue that much longer that much quicker by getting there sooner. Often the reason for lowering the speed limits is to stop the bunching up at junctions. If people actually respected the speed limits, we'd all get there quicker instead of BMWAUDIMan being the only one important enough to be at the front of the queue, ie ideally, respecting the reduced speed limits is intended to stop the queues from forming in the first place.
> Lots of locals reckon it's a scam as some of those areas regularly exceed emissions limits and the speed limits are more about emissions than traffic flow
It's quite common to have reduced speed limits in and around urban areas for precisely that reason: to reduce pollution (both air and noise). How is looking after the quality of life of the locals a scam?
These are concepts from the 1960ies, I had picture books as a kid with this. Electric cars looking like a shuttle from an intergalactic spaceship, being steered by hand off the motorway, being teered by computers on the motorway using some sort of doohickey or other built in the road itself.
Apart from that, another buliding block in my scheme for computer aided burglary. The IoT devices in your house will tell me what valuables you have. They will also tell me when you're out and they will let me in. And your IoT enabled car will make sure you won't come home unexpected by driving you anywhere but there.
The thing is, in this future, what are people going to steal ?
Sophisticated thieves won't be interested in anything the average suburban semi has.
Smackheads would only be interested in something they can sell/trade that's easy to lift and untraceable. Given that Geolocking already locks phones based on location, how long until TVs do the same - bearing in mind stealing a modern SmartTV is particularly dumb, as the second you plug it into the internet, it can alert whoever as to its location ...
Interesting point - remember when scumbags used to break into cars to nick the stereo and then flog it to some guy down the pub, who'd buy it because they were all a standard size and fitted into the standard rectangular slot in the car? Security meant a detachable front panel that you were meant to put in your pocket when you left the car.
Now every car comes with a built in system, so no point in nicking the stereo as they don't come out easily and no-one needs to buy one.
It would be interesting to know the actual statistics.
Stealing a modern smart TV is only particularly dumb if you connect to the internet.
But it would be kind of good to have them protected by a PIN code which will brick them after too many bad attempts like a phone, whilst taking a sequence of photos of their surroundings.
I also remember when people broke into cars to steal a GPS device, and people were encouraged to clean the tell-tale sucker-grip marks from the windscreen. Now GPS are all dirt cheap so they get left in situ again.
To be honest, I think that died out when car radios became really quite cheap. For £30 you can buy a brand new mp3/bluetooth/dab/latest_flashy_thing online, which works just fine in your car, and comes with a guarantee. Why would I risk buying something with scratches and wires sticking out, from a dodgy guy down the pub? Even for £10 it really isn't worth it. Not to mention the age old story of the thief then taking note of your car, finding out where you live, and nicking the radio all over again to resell.
Then there was the whole "Radio PIN" thing, and detachable covers, which made it harder to resell. Even if you knew a bent reprogrammer, and after paying them to work their magic you would find you might end up with a fiver profit.
Along the same lines, car alarm systems got better and better, so it rarely was worth the risk just for the radio. If you have to disable the entire alarm system just to get at the car radio, you might as well take the whole car at that point.
And yes, those custom in car entertainment systems are harder to get out of the car, but go on ebay and you will still find a raft of them. Turns out some of them are quite expensive even second hand.
I do think though, that there has been a reduction in car thefts. From what I can see, criminals target bikes round my area far more. Which makes sense, bikes are easier to nick, easier to keep hidden, easier to break for parts in your living room, and some loons will actually spend £2-4000 on a bike, meaning a decent profit for not much effort. Had a neighbour complain that it would cost her £100 for a new bike wheel, because someone nicked hers (she locked the frame and rear wheel only). Never knew that bike wheels have become so expensive.
Every morning in the early hours, outside my building, you can hear saws and hammers as the local youths try to break the bike locks in the bike parking area, yet nobody touches cars any more. Probably because there are very few chop shops around nowadays, and not everyone has the space to break a stolen car for parts without anyone noticing.
They could start with speed indicators alongside traffic lights in town. Drive at that speed and the next light will be green. They have had that in Germany for 50 years or more. It just needs disciplined human drivers, the computers are in the traffic light network.
They had it on the A4 between Taplow and Slough back in the 1970's,
Great idea.
Now we get lights with shorter and shorter green times. The ones on the A281 near Dunsfold are stupid. only green long enough for 4 cars to get through. no wonder more and more drivers just ignore them anyway.
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