Last Updated on: 18th February 2023, 11:25 am
We have talked about the Blind Driver Challenge when it was in its baby stages. Well, they put this technology in a Ford Escape, and yesterday, Mark Riccobono drove it around the racetrack at Daytona.Have some audio, courtesy of Blind Bargains.
I don’t know how to feel about this. Yeah, maybe they can take something from all of this technology and it’ll grow into something folks can use on a more practical basis. But right now, it just looks like a great big waste of resources to feel good. Ooo look, a blind guy was able to drive a car in controled conditions. How about we tackle some more real world problems first?
I personally would not trust myself driving a car on the street. They fully admit that the concept isn’t ready for that yet. But I don’t think it will ever be. There are too many variables. And what if just one of those lasers fails? Crash smash crunch! If a computer breaks, it’s an inconvenience. If your artificial vision breaks while driving, it could mean death, and not just for you.
Oh don’t get me wrong. The optimistic part of me would love to be able to drive myself places. It would be super awesome to not have to rely on public transit to get me from A to B. It would rock the world to drive to Steve’s and my family’s places all by ourselves. That would be the coolest of the cool…if I didn’t have to worry about other drivers, pedestrians and other things that require extremely fast reaction time.
We will see where all this goes.