Another “driverless” idea… http://t.autos.msn.com/car-tech/volvos-magnetic-road
That link will probably not ‘map’ for everybody. To keep things in the Microsoft ‘family’ here is a somewhat better one to Volvo’s Magnetic Road…
There were much more technically sophisticated versions of this approach ‘around’ when I was in the Transportation Program in college engineering, in the mid-'70s. Things have gotten, um, still a bit more advanced since then… ;-}
As far as I can see, this involves none of the sophisticated things that have been done with lane-position magnets, including putting magnetic ‘coding’ in them for more than positional information. I don’t see anything particularly more advanced here than substituting magnetic flux for shock and noise in the Botts Dots lane-keeping method. (Perhaps in Sweden, Botts Dots are unknown ‘technology’ because they would interfere with snowplowing?)
Botts Dots are not used in Sweden for the simple reason that they’d indeed interfere with snowplowing. Same reason they are unknown in US places like Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois. Personally, glad when I don’t have to deal with them.
Yes. What I meant was that the approach of using periodic markers to define lanes used by the Botts system might not have been recognized in Sweden, because the dot implementation so obviously could never be used there.
I dislike the dots also; it’s interesting how the use of the low-profile reflectors has taken over from the ‘tactile feedback’ in defining lanes in the presence of standing water or unusual reflections that hide stripes. (I suspect the move to smaller, lighter cars has been a large factor!) My first introduction to how useful this technology was came in Australia in 1977, where I came across what appeared to be a confusing intersection at late dusk. My headlights brought up all the lanes, in appropriate color coding to show where I should and shouldn’t go! (I confess I’ve never seen it done so well in the United States, but at least I know it’s possible! ;-} )
We have dots here. Even though there are only about two to three plow days a year, about a third are knocked off into the gutter by the plows. They are then replaced (or not) a few months later, in the mean time it is hard to distinguish the lanes. They don’t seem to learn…
There is a guided bus system that uses special stripes painted on the street, that are picked up by onboard cameras. I think that is the simplest solution.
I think I have one or two of those “dots” around the house - they’d come loose from the road.
Here in NY they’ve managed to replace the “positive displacement” of Bott’s Dots with “negative displacement” notches in the centerline of the road. It has the same effect, but without interfering with plowing (which we do a lot of here). The same concept is used for shoulder “rumble strips.”
I have seen recessed reflectors, but not recently around here.
GM (and probably others) experimented back in the 60’s with placing wires in the center of lanes, with corresponding sensors mounted on the front bumpers of test cars. It worked for “straight” driving, but still required the driver to handle maneuvers manually.