| Subject: |
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Re: INTELLIGENT TRANSPORT & HIGHWAY AUTOMATION |
| Name: |
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M-a-d-d Ray |
| Date Posted: |
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Apr 15, 07 - 6:26 PM |
| Email: |
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RarelyL84ad8@aol.com |
| Website: |
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http://www.motorcyclists-against-dumb-drivers.com |
| Message: |
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Bruce,
I am not rushing to judgment on this one, in part because I personally don't know enough about the technology or the future promise of this technology.
I do think, however, that your call for motorcyclists to get involved in the issue is foresightful and important, for a couple of reasons. The first is the one you elaborate more fully, that with "intelligent" cars, there might a move to eliminate motorcycles. I am not sure in my own mind that this is a likelihood, but I should qualify that by saying that we must always keep in mind that we are a minority, subject in our democracy to the prejudices of the majority. And so it is a possibility, for example, if these intelligent transportation systems were very effective in reducing car accidents, but not motorcycle accidents, that there might be greater impetus for restricting the use of motorcycles based on the greater comparative "public health" or "state fiscal consequence."
In my own mind, on the other hand, I think that advances toward more and more effective artificial intelligence is inevitable, and might ultimately serve significantly to reduce the incidence of motorcycle accidents too. I say this not because I think that such systems will be available or could be as useful as such systems in cars, in part because we are one tract vehicles, and must maintain control over our bikes in ways that probably cannot be turned over to automatic braking systems. But most importantly because our big safety advantage as motorcyclists is our ability to quickly respond by taking spontaneous evasive action, e.g., swerving around impending road hazards. But I don't want to discount the possibility that there might be technology that could serve to alert us to impending hazards. And the big potential advantage that I see in this artificial intelligence derives from our observation that most motorcycle accidents result from ROW violations due primarily to the auto driver's failure to "attend" or "see" the oncoming motorcycle or motorcycle in the adjoining lane; and so it is possible, if the artificial intelligence was "motorcyclist friendly" that we could do much to eliminate this ROW violation source of our danger posed by inattentive auto drivers.
I think that greater exploration of this type of artificial intelligence is inevitable, and so I cannot agree more with Bruce that motorcyclists must get involved. We need to get involved to assure that these systems which are developed will take motorcycles into consideration, and be specifically designed to reduce the incidence of motorcycle ROW violations. This will substantially reduce the incidence of motorcyclist injury and death, and thus make much less likely that some may move to restrict the use of motorcycles.
"M-a-d-d Ray" Henke |
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