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Thread: Self-driving cars--seriously?

  1. #316
    A balance and reasonable compromise you say???

    I see spec and standards wars all the time in my industry. It results in some waste, but also results in some great things. It results in specs that become defacto by market force and user preferences rather than someone just laying down the law. The RFC system for internet protocols has worked remarkably well, with mostly just a handshake agreement to do so.

  2. #317
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    Within R&D, I would think waste would be a difficult thing to define. Trying different approaches is the point, no?

  3. #318
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    Remembering some history of US commerce may be helpful. Early in the history of railroads there were many companies with different ideas and different designs. Each company owned their own track and their own trains in their own area of operation. All had their own gauge (distance between rails) of track and railroad cars to fit on their track. This meant that trains could not leave their area. Any cargo that had to go further than the boundaries of one company's track had to be off-loaded and re-loaded on another train.

    The US government stepped in and standardized track gauge to help commerce to flow more smoothly. This meant that most companies had to re-lay all their track and order all new engines and train cars. This is an example of tremendous waste due to unregulated free enterprise.

  4. #319
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    Quote Originally Posted by Yonak Hawkins View Post
    This meant that most companies had to re-lay all their track and order all new engines and train cars. This is an example of tremendous waste due to unregulated free enterprise.
    Not for me. Are you saying that in the earliest days of rail, gauge should have been standardized by the government? How would they know what was right?

    Should the government standardize Wi-Fi today? What if they had standardized internet delivery as Co-ax cable before Fiber? I do agree that standardizing rail gauge made sense after a point, but I don't consider anything that preceded that 'waste'. Perhaps it's all just semantics.

  5. #320
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    Quote Originally Posted by Yonak Hawkins View Post
    Remembering some history of US commerce may be helpful. Early in the history of railroads there were many companies with different ideas and different designs. Each company owned their own track and their own trains in their own area of operation. All had their own gauge (distance between rails) of track and railroad cars to fit on their track. This meant that trains could not leave their area. Any cargo that had to go further than the boundaries of one company's track had to be off-loaded and re-loaded on another train.

    The US government stepped in and standardized track gauge to help commerce to flow more smoothly. This meant that most companies had to re-lay all their track and order all new engines and train cars. This is an example of tremendous waste due to unregulated free enterprise.
    They also did this because some short run RRs were extorting large fees to transfer and reload cargoes. If you wanted it quickly the fees were much higher. A good example of this occurred in Erie County PA, where the tracks from The New York state border ended and the Ohio border and to get through the city of Erie you had to hire another freight company and transfer. Total distance about 46 miles.
    Lee Schierer
    USNA '71
    Go Navy!

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  6. #321
    Quote Originally Posted by Yonak Hawkins View Post
    Remembering some history of US commerce may be helpful. Early in the history of railroads there were many companies with different ideas and different designs. Each company owned their own track and their own trains in their own area of operation. All had their own gauge (distance between rails) of track and railroad cars to fit on their track. This meant that trains could not leave their area. Any cargo that had to go further than the boundaries of one company's track had to be off-loaded and re-loaded on another train.

    The US government stepped in and standardized track gauge to help commerce to flow more smoothly. This meant that most companies had to re-lay all their track and order all new engines and train cars. This is an example of tremendous waste due to unregulated free enterprise.
    That's a great example of how using resources to experiment is logical and lead to people knowing what was the ideal compromise for the nation to adopt. Good thing they didn't just run with some arbitrary number that would have to be replaced later; that would have been a much more colossal waste. Good thing the government didn't step in and declare that the prevalent power system of its time, DC, was the only way to do it. Good thing nobody has stopped the proliferation of competing internet standards that have lead to so much of our current technology, at the cost of so much useless tech that didn't make it, but taught us something. My life is littered with "wasted" projects that lead to where my career is today.

  7. #322
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    We need self driving cars so our kids won't have to take away our car keys because we are no longer safe on the road.

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