

When Do We Get Robot Cars? Because Driving Really Sucks - abdophoto
http://thetechblock.com/get-robot-cars-driving-really-sucks/

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dragonbonheur
Driving sucks because cars have horrible user interfaces. Car manufacturers
should make cars that can be driven with joysticks instead of the current
steering-wheel-pedals-and levers-all-over-the-place mess before even thinking
about intelligent, driverless cars. Drive-by-wire, even tanks have it now.

~~~
mvid
Tanks are slow moving with a 0 degree turning radius. How would you imagine
cars operating with joysticks?

You would shred your tires unless they shared control somehow.

~~~
dragonwriter
> Tanks are slow moving with a 0 degree turning radius. How would you imagine
> cars operating with joysticks?

I would assume "not like a tank". A steering wheel is 1 dimensional.
Conceptually braking and acceleration can be mapped to a one-dimensional
continuum, so you've got two axes that map well to a joystick. With nonlinear
response, you could probably replace all three of those controls with one
stick.

~~~
mvid
Still doesn't make much sense to me. A tank, helicopter or fighter jet can all
move in 360 degrees, allowing for the full use of a joystick or two. A car
would only be able to use about 50% of a joysticks positions, since you can't
go sideways, and a car has a non-zero turning radius.

We can't use two joysticks like a tank because it would sheer the rubber from
your tires, and maintaining independent throttle control for two sides of a
car is silly and unneeded.

That and it seems confusing and unsafe to have both direction and throttle
controls on one device, especially when that device is as sensitive as a
joystick. When you slam on brakes in a car, the force pushes your body further
into the breaking system. If you were to slam on the brakes with a joystick,
the force would push you (and the joystick) forward, disengaging the brakes
and applying throttle. Very hard to control.

To me, the pedals seem like a good compromise between fine tuned adjustment
and rapid, emergency control.

The wheel is kind of annoying but I can't think of anything that would work
better. A joystick would be too finicky in its controls. Something like a
rudder might work, since you are really only ever steering a car different
degrees of "forward"

~~~
dragonwriter
> Still doesn't make much sense to me. A tank, helicopter or fighter jet can
> all move in 360 degrees, allowing for the full use of a joystick or two.

(1) A car can move in 360 degrees too (if you can rotate a full circle in a
plane...)

(2) All it takes to make full use of a joystick is to have controls with two
relevant dimensions (which cars have).

(3) A helicopter typically needs a lot more than _a_ joystick, since it
usually has about 4-5 relevant dimensions of control (2D cyclic, 1D
collective, 1D yaw, 1D throttle, but the last may be managed automatically in
normal operation).

> We can't use two joysticks like a tank because it would sheer the rubber
> from your tires

You could, with the right control regime (e.g., double forward is drive,
double back is reverse, but any other combination is based on relative
position), but you probably wouldn't want to. Of course, you know what else
often doesn't use "two joysticks like a tank" \-- actual tanks. Because two
joysticks is overkill for two degrees of freedom .

> That and it seems confusing and unsafe to have both direction and throttle
> controls on one device, especially when that device is as sensitive as a
> joystick.

"As sensitive as a joystick" isn't meaningful. Degree of sensitivity on a
joystick can be as little or as much as you want.

> When you slam on brakes in a car, the force pushes your body further into
> the breaking system. If you were to slam on the brakes with a joystick, the
> force would push you (and the joystick) forward, disengaging the brakes and
> applying throttle.

My first instinct with a joystick based system with a car would be to have
brake being forward, not back. (Forward push brakes are a common control
element in hand controls for autos, e.g., those that are made for the
handicapped.)

------
rberger
I say this everytime I get in my car

