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Reward the Government and road planners for maximising congestion?  Brilliant.  Dig up loads more roads.  Create traffic jams at every opportunity.  Our financial black hole is re-filled!  The only trouble is the country will have ground to a halt as well...

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by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot dotty communists) on Tue Jun 8th, 2010 at 07:40:16 AM EST
why not make the black box do more?

example warn you if the driver in front has several DUIs, or if he's suddenly putting on the brakes.

i do think driving should become more automated, so drivers could get in the electromagnetic line and read the paper while driving. long way off yet...

tax the f** out petrol, it's the only way people will realise its true cost to the environment. heck, tax all carbon costs.

~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Tue Jun 8th, 2010 at 08:16:56 AM EST
[ Parent ]
You could add a hot date feature - instant bio of the driver in front.

Or not.

Actually this is a good example of why engineers shouldn't do policy. It would be a perfect solution if cars were black boxes managed by microprocessors, but keeping a fixed minimum distance by hand would make driving incredibly tiring and stressful, and would probably lead to more accidents.

You could also be fined if the driver in front does an emergency stop, which doesn't seem like a good thing.

And it would have to be context dependent - otherwise you'd be keeping the spaces in traffic light queues as you would on the open road.

And wouldn't the optimal distance vary by road type?

Etc.

Fail.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Tue Jun 8th, 2010 at 11:09:38 AM EST
[ Parent ]
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And wouldn't the optimal distance vary by road type?

factor in tyre viability, weather and speed.

ThatBritGuy:

You could add a hot date feature - instant bio of the driver in front.

Or not.

i wuz snarking, shoulda said so...

ThatBritGuy:

Fail.

haha, yes probably...

~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Tue Jun 8th, 2010 at 11:36:07 AM EST
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