Comments about ‘Smart roads: Driving technology accelerates’

Utah's legislature will never let this pass. The Democrats will be able to follow you and find out where your going.

My experience has been that the more the machine tries the think for you poorer the performance and the higher the frustrations factor.

1) There's a big difference between the technology existing and the implementation being feasible. The technology for flying cars and Maglev trains has been around for years.
2) The more computerized driving systems take over, the worse our driving skills will get, and the more dangerous we will be when we drive in places where such a system is unavailable.
3) There's an old joke about an argument between Microsoft and GM about whose product is more efficient, with GM pointing out that their product isn't expected to crash several times every year. If computers drove cars, however, it'd be more than a joke. No computer system is glitch-free, and in a system designed to allow bumper-to-bumper traffic at 100 mph, a glitch would be disastrous.

Here we go again. Big brother taking responsibility away from individuals. Save the money! The billions or trillions to set up such a network is mind boggling. What happens to the older cars and trucks on the road? Will they be banned. They will be incompatible with the new networks. How soon will they be outlawed? Wake up! There are more important things to spend our money on.

"will run into the tens of billions of dollars and perhaps more"

Then don't do it. If there are people who are interested in it, then they should pay for it. Keep you hands out of my pockets.

The COST SAVINGS by NOT having to treat car crash victims in the emergency rooms after a car crash and the COST SAVINGS to rehabilitate the crash victims in the future, would be in the TRILLIONS of dollars...more than enough to cover the COST of implementing these crash-avoidance technologies into the cars and roadways.

Funny how we will SPEND trillions of dollars CLEANING UP a car crash scene...racing the crash survivors to a hospital in a helecopter or ambulance and SPENDING trillions of dollars stitching up people's wounds, expensive cat scans, and burying 50,000 car crash victims every year...and then NOT want to spend money for a FIX.

I had an idea for a car that had a sensor in it that would be directed by sensors and transmitters in the roadbeds. For long-distance driving, it could be set on "autopilot" and then when the car approached an exit that you had programmed into it (where you wanted to exit), the car would alert the driver and allow you to take over. All speeds could be regulated so that cars entering the highway would slow down or speed up to flow with the traffic already there. Entering or leaving the highway would become accident-free because traffic would be like fish in a stream. The only negative aspect of this would be high volume traffic and the possibility of delays. Better to be slow than dead though.

I already have an iphone app that let's me know abut traffic, etc. before I run into it.

So what?

SteveO,

Assuming you are talking about the high-occupancy vehicle lanes , let me point it out to you: The system is set to be finished this fall. That means they have already started.

Over here in Washington, transponder tolling is a big thing. The Tacoma Narrows bridge uses it, the SR 167 HOT (high-occupancy toll) lanes use it, and the legislature has just approved building up to 2 HOT lanes in each direction on I-405.

I know that the tracking issue is a concern for a lot of people, but really, if the government wants to know where you are, they are going to figure out a way to do it anyway. This may be an easier way to do so, but it does promote several things that appear to be in the interest of citizens, such as speedy movement through toll areas.