How does one design against "magic" used to trap self-driving cars?

2017-03-21T12:45:00-04:00

As if the challenges of politics, engineering, and weather weren't enough, now self-driving cars face another obstacle: purposeful visual sabotage, in the form of specially painted traffic lines that entice the car in before trapping it in an endless loop. As profiled in Vice, the artist behind "Autonomous Trip 001," James Bridle, is demonstrating an unforeseen hazard of automation: those forces which, for whatever reason, want to mess it all up. Which raises the question: how does one effectively design for an impish sense of humor, or a deadly series of misleading markings?

PLP Architecture conceives of automated, underground "CarTube" for London

2016-12-08T12:45:00-05:00

Imagine driving into London not on surface streets, but rather in an underground tube with automated, moving tracks designed specifically for electric cars. Like a kind of subterranean track-laden ferry, which drivers would be able to individually join and exit at numerous points, this "CarTube" concept is the work of Lars Hesselgren's research team at PLP Architecture.

Although the proposal uses London as a starting point, the firm isn't limiting it to the U.K., as this Guardian article notes:

If the project’s goal is to reduce street-level congestion, then is a city like London (which already has an extensive public transport system and congestion charge) its prime target? “London is our case study, but chances are it will get built somewhere else where people are desperate for a solution,” Hesselgren says, listing Mexico City, Delhi, Jakarta and Mumbai as the sorts of gridlock-heavy cities that could benefit from the CarTube. “This kind of approach in those places could really make...

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How does one design against "magic" used to trap self-driving cars?

PLP Architecture conceives of automated, underground "CarTube" for London