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Comment by diggernet | Hacker News Reader

I really hope they get self driving cars working with nothing more than current GPS maps, plus lots of sensors. Considering the drive I took this weekend, past actively changing construction zones, landslides, along infrequently traveled roads (and even a logging road), I wouldn't want to trust my life to stale data.

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We did all that in the DARPA Grand Challenge over a decade ago. Most of the problems today involve dealing with other road users.

(Some of the self-driving car projects today are less capable on bad roads than the off-road systems of 2005. They don't have to be; it just comes from focusing on lane following on freeways as the primary goal.)

I'd love to see self-riding multileg robots, like an advanced version of Boston Dynamics alpha dog. You don't even need roads for them. With some kind of super-stability they could become more comfortable than vehicles. Perhaps we'll have human carying drones a bit soner, though. Still, in a bit more distant future, roads might become obsolete.

Riding one of those, galloping along at 70mph, would be quite something. (I guess it's the legged-equivalent of a motorbike?) You'd have to have a lot of trust..

It's been tried a few times. Early versions were really clunky. Later versions were usually art projects.

* General Electric Walking Truck (1969) [1]

* Adaptive Suspension Vehicle (1984) [2]

* Korean giant mecha (2016) [3]

The BPG Motors Uno transforming motorcycle seemed a good idea, but they gave up on it.[4]

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMGCFLEYakM [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIiD1JimBXQ&feature=youtu.be... [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqZWNn5qZ7U [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odI4WaYEcCU

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