upvote
> It could be used to automatically avoid fatal accidents

I find it genuinely hilarious that anyone could possibly think this is a good idea.

reply
[flagged]
reply
Why don't you use that vivid imagination of yours to picture the kind of carnage a car autonomously jumping around in traffic would cause.

You can't possibly be serious lol.

reply
Do the air bags in your car go off at random while you're in traffic? If not, then why do you think a system using these jets to avoid accidents would?

Also where does the habit of ending angry messages with lol or lmao come from, which I only see here on HN?

reply
> Do the air bags in your car go off at random while you're in traffic?

https://www.nhtsa.gov/air-bags/deadly-air-bag-replacements

"After the air bags were replaced and the vehicle was involved in a crash, the air bag inflators malfunctioned and ruptured, sending large metal fragments into drivers’ chests, necks, eyes and faces, leading to death or severe injury."

So yes, safety features sometimes have flaws.

> If not, then why do you think a system using these jets to avoid accidents would?

For starters, airbags are reactive to an impact, not predictive in anticipation of it.

"We're going to crash" is harder to assess than "hey a crumple sensor in the front bumper just got wiped out".

(The airbag is also deeply unlikely to obliterate a different car, pedestrian, or bike during deployment. They're simply not comparable to a rocket engine on the outside of the car!)

reply
Safety features sometimes have flaws? Sure. That's a big difference in argument now, though.
reply
> Also where does the habit of ending angry messages with lol

I'm using lol here as an expression of rueful delight, not anger. I'm not being sarcastic - the mental image of vehicles autonomously leaping through traffic is really funny to me. However, I'm slightly perturbed by the lack of parsimonious thinking.

reply
You seem a little closed-minded towards the possibility of genuinely bad ideas even existing.
reply
> It could be used to automatically avoid fatal accidents…

Or make a few! https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/...

> SpaceX thinks it knows why its newest Starship spacecraft went boom this week. "Initial analysis indicates the potential failure of a pressurized tank known as a COPV, or composite overwrapped pressure vessel, containing gaseous nitrogen in Starship's nosecone area, but the full data review is ongoing," the company wrote in an update on Thursday (June 19).

reply
I look forward to phantom braking changing to phantom launching your ass into the ceiling of an underpass
reply
You are correct in that almost nobody commenting here watched the presentation.
reply
you know what happens to you if a jet engine moves your car out of the way? you have the accident inside your car by yourself, you become the accident. physics states that all forces will be equal.
reply
If the car doesn't cause fatal accidents in the first place.
reply