Re: Robocar--a decade away?

James Gassaway wrote:
> Sea Wasp wrote:
> 
>>Matthias Warkus wrote:
>>
>>>James Gassaway schrieb:
>>>
>>>
>>>>Actually, of the various automated vehicle plans that I've heard of
>>>>as being seriously considered, the one that seems to be the "front
>>>>runner" requires some sensors be implanted in the road bed.  But its
>>>>"only" some relatively inexpensive electronics in holes drilled in
>>>>to the road every hundred (?) or so feet
>>>
>>>
>>>I.e. about 150 device emplacements per kilometre of motorway. That
>>>is a lot.
>>
>>And very expensive.
>>
>>That ain't gonna fly.
> 
> 
> I don't remember exactly how far apart the roadbed electronics had to be
but 
> it actually _wasn't_ very expensive (at least compared to some of the 
> competing schemes). 

	The last part is true, especially for ones involving the construction 
of new infrastructure.

> Retrofitting a highway with them was literally just 1) 
> Drill a hole; 2) Put small cylinder in hole; and if you were feeling 
> generous 3) plop a dollop of concrete or asphalt on top of it.  Move X 
> number of yards/feet down the lane and repeat.

	(3) is not "feeling generous", (3) is "not wanting to provide avenue 
for destruction of road and sensor". Open holes in a roadway are 
perfect starter points for road breakup.

	This procedure is certainly cheap, as said, compared to building an 
entirely new road or infrastructure.

	It's STILL expensive, especially from the point of view of the 
communities that you'll be asking to do most of it. I'd guess, from 
observation of road crews, that this will involve three people 
(driver, driller, technician). Each emplacement probably takes an 
hour. The sensors/pingers/whatever will be sold to the local 
government at a ruinous markup, so probably cost several hundred 
dollars each. Burdened, each of the workers is between 50-100 dollars 
an hour (don't confuse those rates with the actual pay rate), assume 
75 and $300 for the device, then there's the amortized cost of the 
truck (and, if you DO fill in the hole, add another truck and a worker 
or two). So PER HOLE it's probably over $600.

	Assume that it's a hundred yards (instead of a hundred feet), that's 
17.6, say 18, per mile. There's probably a couple hundred miles of 
road at least in any reasonable county here in the East (if your 
county is 20 miles across, you'd only need 5 roads that cross the 
county to make 100 miles, so I'm pretty sure I'm lowballing). Say 100 
miles of road, 18 emplacements, 1,800 * $600 is $1,080,000.

	For a county or small city.

	That's not just expensive, that's "We laugh publicly at you at the 
town meeting" expensive.


> 



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                      Sea Wasp
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