IBM's Future Traffic Lights Want to Control Your Car

[killerclick]

In the US alone in 2009, 33,963 people died in traffic accidents. That's the lowest number since 1954 and still that's like ten times 9/11, mostly attributable to human error. I'd feel a lot safer in traffic if it were automated. I want auto cars like in the Minority Report. Then we'll be able to do away with traffic lights. I'd also feel safer with automated flights, that would be even easier to implement.

 

[smashley]

Awesome, just wait till some high-tech hillbillies rig up a stop light in the middle of nowhere. Shuts your engine off and they make you squeal like a pig.

 

[Guest]

IBM is willing to pay its employees to come up with innovations that sometimes get patented -- like this one. I am 100% certain that there is no plot, no subtext, etc. There's a lot of thinking about "Smarter Planet" and how innovation might be able to help the environment, people (and, reasonably, I imagine also the bottom line). Even if this invention only gets used for future all Electric Vehicles, say, there may well be some real value to it. Obviously, engineering refinements have to happen, e.g. dealing with a broken signal light. So what?

 

[ta152h]

[citation][nom]tornitron[/nom]"obiown77" isn't totally crazy; perhaps just a little. IBM did play an active role in the Holocaust by designing a system that allowed the Jews and other "enemies" of Germany to be cataloged, processed and later disposed of in extermination camps. The parameters of the system designed were highly specific, and Thomas Watson and the developers that worked on that system knew exactly what it was being used for. There has been a tremendous amount of documentation that has been uncovered in recent years that go into great detail about exactly what IBM was doing, and how with the prospect of propelling their business into the stratosphere, they were able to look the other way while millions of people were systematically singled out and exterminated.Of course, this is totally going off topic, but I can easily see why people would not trust IBM.[/citation]

IBM didn't even make computers then, and sold punched card machines. They weren't programmable to any extent that IBM would have to "design" them for things like this. Like other tools, they could be used for cataloging people, simply because the U.S. Census used them and that's really how IBM indirectly formed anyway (do a search on Hollerith).

So, if you're saying that IBM shouldn't have sold them punched card machines before WW II, because Germany were bad guys, then you should criticize every country that sold everything to Germany. Any iron could be turned into a bullet. Any oil or gas could be used for war or to kill, etc... Why not sue Walter Christie since his suspension was used on German tanks? Why not nail the Wright brothers since Germans used airplanes? Heck, why not sue Great Britain for inventing tanks? The Germans did use them pretty well. It gets to be a can of worms.

By the way, the Germans didn't actually decide on the final solution until 1943, well after we were in the war, and well after IBM in the U.S. had lost contact and control over anything in Germany.

It should also be clear that Germany could have gotten this type of equipment elsewhere - IBM wasn't the only company creating punched card machines.

So, if you want to indict IBM for selling machines that kept and worked with data, because it could be used to kill, but wasn't until long after IBM lost control of the machines, then you'd have to sue virtually every company that did business with Germany. Just about everything can be used the wrong way, but it's not that device that's responsible. It's the person controlling it that must be held accountable. Any other way would make human progress impossible.

 

[bv90andy]

A better thing would be to stop people from crossing the red light. It would save hundreds of lives every year. OR maybe inform the ppl coming on green light that there is a speeding vehicle approaching the crossroads with a red light on his direction.

 

[elbert]

This is a bad ideal for so many reasons. The obvious fact it takes more fuel to stop and regain speed. This ideal should look at the fact no stop lights would save more. Our government takes the cheap way out on many intersections. Better designed roads such as overpass instead of intersections. City's would benefit by savings in fuel, less emissions, and safer cross walks. Cross walks would no longer exist. People would walk under the overpass or up and down steps at the overpass to cross the road. Both time need for travel and road rage should decrease by removing stop lights all together.

 

[tornitron]

[citation][nom]TA152H[/nom]IBM didn't even make computers then, and sold punched card machines. They weren't programmable to any extent that IBM would have to "design" them for things like this. Like other tools, they could be used for cataloging people, simply because the U.S. Census used them and that's really how IBM indirectly formed anyway (do a search on Hollerith).So, if you're saying that IBM shouldn't have sold them punched card machines before WW II, because Germany were bad guys, then you should criticize every country that sold everything to Germany. Any iron could be turned into a bullet. Any oil or gas could be used for war or to kill, etc... Why not sue Walter Christie since his suspension was used on German tanks? Why not nail the Wright brothers since Germans used airplanes? Heck, why not sue Great Britain for inventing tanks? The Germans did use them pretty well. It gets to be a can of worms. By the way, the Germans didn't actually decide on the final solution until 1943, well after we were in the war, and well after IBM in the U.S. had lost contact and control over anything in Germany. It should also be clear that Germany could have gotten this type of equipment elsewhere - IBM wasn't the only company creating punched card machines.So, if you want to indict IBM for selling machines that kept and worked with data, because it could be used to kill, but wasn't until long after IBM lost control of the machines, then you'd have to sue virtually every company that did business with Germany. Just about everything can be used the wrong way, but it's not that device that's responsible. It's the person controlling it that must be held accountable. Any other way would make human progress impossible.[/citation]

Your logic is tremendously flawed.

The difference here is Watson KNEW what IBM's machines were being used for. And yes, while they were not "computers" as we see them today (you are stating the obvious), IBM was aware of all of the parameters, which went far beyond just a simple census.

Everyone knows the "Final Solution" did not start until the last few years of the war, but that hardly excuses millions of people taken from their homes, thrown into cattle cars and literally worked and staved to death.

Of course, IBM was not the only entity to play a role in the Nazi's plan. More things are continuing to come to light about just how much has been covered up. Most of the major governments in the world knew exactly what was going on in those camps long before Germany was invaded.

 

[falchard]

I think a better use of the technology would be to sense when I am coming and make the light turn green.

 

[joebob2000]

I heard that Fanta was made for the Nazis when they couldn't get coca cola anymore. If you drink Fanta, you're supporting Nazi Germany! QED!

 

[reader314]

It seems like it would be better to manage the cars' speed and position so they don't have to stop at the intersection at all. Just group and position the cars so there aren't conflicts at the intersections. Saves energy, too.

As for the patents, I do hate it when companies are allowed to patent obvious ideas. Hopefully there's more to this than how it reads in the "article". Engine management is just one piece of the much broader automated driving puzzle. I hope this doesn't become yet another area where progress is stifled by patents. It's becoming difficult/illegal to think and invent anymore.

 

[Regulas]

Ah just what we need, another way for the liberal nanny state to control my life.

 

[Darkerson]

I dont even know how this has made it as far as it has. It has to be the most retarded idea I have ever heard of.

 

[s4fun]

Just what is so liberal about a nanny state. It is a the conservatives that wants tell sonny how they must behave at the on the street or at a street intersection. It is conservative busy body with nothing better to do that comes up with crap like this.

 

[garyshome]

But you will be required to buy a prius or you will go to jail. One EMP and that's all over with eh! Looks like we all walk or ride horses.

 

[djsting]

[citation][nom]outlw6669[/nom]Wireless control of my ignition?Thanks, I will pass.How long do you think it would take for someone to hack this...[/citation]
one word...OnStar.

Read these links. It's already possible and it already happens! lol

http/www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/03/hacker-bricks-cars/

http/tech.slashdot.org/story/10/05/14/1225256/Hacking-Automotive-Systems?from=rss

 

[ethanolson]

Wow. I had a weak battery once and I had a porta-jump. If IBM had their way, I'd have held everyone up once the light was green because I'd have to jump my car again to get it going... until it's fixed later that day, of course.

 

[Regulas]

[citation][nom]s4fun[/nom]Just what is so liberal about a nanny state. It is a the conservatives that wants tell sonny how they must behave at the on the street or at a street intersection. It is conservative busy body with nothing better to do that comes up with crap like this.[/citation]
Every time you read about some kook law being passed and dig into who passed it, it is almost always the Demorats, that's why.
Look at NY, we will tell the restaurants how much salt, no trans-fats, they are even trying to demonize Ronald McDonald now, so yeah liberal kooks on the left are the main nanny state idiots.

 

[storageinventor]

If IBM patents something 20 years before it is viable, the patent will expire before it will be brought to market. Patents are only good for 20 years after they are filed. After that, anyone can use your idea without paying you a cent in royalties.

 

[Gin Fushicho]

Truthfully...... I like it. There are way too many people that blow through red lights and kill people.

 

[ta152h]

[citation][nom]tornitron[/nom]Your logic is tremendously flawed.The difference here is Watson KNEW what IBM's machines were being used for. And yes, while they were not "computers" as we see them today (you are stating the obvious), IBM was aware of all of the parameters, which went far beyond just a simple census.Everyone knows the "Final Solution" did not start until the last few years of the war, but that hardly excuses millions of people taken from their homes, thrown into cattle cars and literally worked and staved to death.Of course, IBM was not the only entity to play a role in the Nazi's plan. More things are continuing to come to light about just how much has been covered up. Most of the major governments in the world knew exactly what was going on in those camps long before Germany was invaded.[/citation]

You must be a Jew, you're logic is very biased.

Germsns were not killing Jews in 1939, and cataloging people was done in the United States, for the census. In the United States, they ask for race. Were the blacks in this country treated as the whites? You're being hypocritical.

IBM sold equipment to every country. They were not part of the NAZI plan to exterminate the Jews, which wasn't even a plan at that point anyway. If they took political views, they wouldn't have sold to the United States either.

Concentration camps were originally places for political enemies of the state, and are distinguished from death camps. After the war started, the treatment of Jews got far worse, but even most Germans didn't know what was going on.

The German aim before WW II was to get the Jews to leave Germany (although, without much of their wealth), not extermination, by the way.

Also, why hasn't Israel ever pressed the Turks on the Armenian massacres? It's kind of hypocritical to attack all entities in some way related to the German massacre of the Jews, but then be allied to the country that massacred Armenians and was the basis for Hitler believing that it could be done again without great penalty.

As long as there's money in it, people choose to see what they want to see.