Why Robot Trucks Could Be Headed To Afghanistan (And Everywhere Else) 135
malachiorion writes "I'm surprised I haven't seen more coverage of Lockheed Martin's autonomous truck convoy demonstration — they sent a group of robotified vehicles through urban and rural environments at Fort Hood, without teleoperation or human intervention. It's an interesting milestone, and sort of a tragic one, since troops could have used robotic vehicles in Iraq and Afghanistan. What's fascinating, though, is that Lockheed is hoping to get into Afghanistan just before the U.S. withdraws, to help ferry gear. Plus, they have their sights set on what would be the defense contractor's first real commercial product—kits that turn tractor trailers into autonomous vehicles. Here's my post for Popular Science."
Beta sucks (Score:5, Informative)
It doesn't work.
Re:Beta sucks (Score:5, Informative)
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Time to provide detailed informaiton on what we want.
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I think the key point to what we want from the beta is that we don't want the comments section of the beta to be just like the comments section of every other website that has comments.
There are features and capabilities that exist in the classic website that MUST exist in any future modification of the website.
Just like system updates in the software used by companies, if you upgrade the system and take away the functionality the users rely on day in and day out, expect a horrendous backlash.
The old style
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I tested it and I don't find it all that different.
I like the ability to filter on tags tho I wish they were OR, not exclusive (i.e. I could check informative, funny, overrated). Oh yea, and I wish all moderation tags were supported by the filters.
I'm in a very old classic view and on a wide monitor, I'd say 3 to 4 inches of the right side of the screen are wasted for all but the longest posts.
Summary: I'd give it a 7/10 and hope for minor improvements but I do not see why there is such a shitstorm over th
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Seriously? Downmodding a reasonable comment because you disagree with it?
There is nothing trollish or flamish in
"I tested it and I don't find it all that different.
I like the ability to filter on tags tho I wish they were OR, not exclusive (i.e. I could check informative, funny, overrated). Oh yea, and I wish all moderation tags were supported by the filters.
I'm in a very old classic view and on a wide monitor, I'd say 3 to 4 inches of the right side of the screen are wasted for all but the longest posts.
S
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It's not just features. It looks shit. The comments are much harder to read. More over there is nothing wrong with the classic layout. It's a refreshing change from the usual bullshit in fact.
Look at other popular crowd sourced news sites. Hacker News, Reddit, Digg. They have a simple text only layout, obviously copied from Slashdot. The format works, all it needs is some better editing and some effort by the editors to foster good discussion.
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I think the key point to what we want from the beta is that we don't want the comments section of the beta to be just like the comments section of every other website that has comments.
Yo Dawg, We heard you like comments, so we put comments in your comments, so you can see your comments when you comment!
For once that dumb meme is appropriate.
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Less whitespace.
Smaller headings.
Less bandwidth intensive images.
The old comment system.
P.S. Beta sucks!
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We want /. classic!
Beta is like curved mobile phones, nobody needs or wants them.
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It seems from some of Soulskill's comments that this is a change that's being rammed through from the Higher Ups and the Powers That Be.
It'll be interesting to see how this will play out, and I'm glad to see that there are people already working on building a new "slashdot." I was thinking about doing some hacking on slashcode or coming up with something new entirely this weekend when I'll be more free, but it looks like the initiative is well underway by individuals with better experience at such things t
Dear Dice, please read this. (Score:1, Informative)
There are a lot of snarky comments in the “fuck beta” threads right now, and reading what little has been posted by soulskill, the admins actually think that they are being unfairly targeted by a mob mentality. This is a problem because the issues here will likely get managerial attention at Dice soon and if the executives see what looks like a bunch of juvenile shite in the comments, they are likely to buy into that false world view. If that happens, then Beta will be pushed through and Dice
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Same thing we always think! (Score:3)
FUUUCK EEET!
First Post! (Score:5, Insightful)
I’ve been lurking Slashdot for over 10 years and never posted before. It’s a bit sad that my first post is going to sound like a eulogy
I don’t like the beta-look, I think it is going to break the community and I’ll join in on the boycott next week.
Just in the case nobody comes back, I wanted to thank you, Slashdot.
Thanks for showing me there’s more people “like me” and thanks for making me proud to call myself a nerd.
I remember the Good Times. When we could still Slashdot a site, when Rob proposed, when we called the ipod lame, when ‘we’ fought scientology (before it was cool to fight ‘m) and when we heard Firefly was made into a movie :)
And the tough times, when the community really showed it’s good side, 9/11 comes to mind as well as the deaths of several pioneers in tech.
Although Slashdot always has news 3 days after every other blog, it’s still months before my friends know any of it. If only I had set up a beowulf cluster of bitcoin miners when Slashdot first started posting about it :)
But the best part remains the commenting. I was and am still amazed by the depth some people go to post their comments. The relatable stories of the new guy, or the insights of the old guy (shout out to all you get-off-my-lawn-ers / low-id). And I remember being touched on a deep level by some very personal comments; a comment of struggling just with being who you are — and then getting a reply by multiple people who had the same experience.
Thanks also for always showing the other side of things. I never RTFA’d (something to be proud of, I guess), I new better what was going on than anybody else through the comments.
By posting, you show part of your thoughts, and seeing many people’s thoughts also makes opinions more moderate. I have a better understanding now of things I would otherwise strongly oppose. It sounds cheesy, but I know I’m a better person because of it.
Slashdot has been my home for a long time, eventhough it changed through the years. I hope it’ll stay, but I’ve grown pessimistic.
So, so long and thanks for all the fish!
I’ll see y’all lurking somewhere else :) (XKCD-forum, most likely)
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This kind of post is one of the things that makes Slashdot (in its current form) so special... and in a very "meta" fashion, does it while describing that special quality so perfectly.
Thank you, Anonymous Coward.
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As long as we're sharing heartwarming stories, mine amounts to the fact that Slashdot put me onto Drupal. (I know, many of you prefer other CMS's like WordPress.) I've since made several websites with Drupal. It's allowed me to do some sophisticated things I couldn't have done otherwise and made a big impact on my small home business. I'm not sure I would have found it otherwise because I wasn't even looking for a CMS at the time. Thanks, Slashdot!
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THIS is the value of Slashdot and what makes it so unique. True, this value doesn't translate well to a line item on an MBA spreadsheet; however, most things that make this world more interesting rarely do.
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Although Slashdot always has news 3 days after every other blog,
Seriously, wasn't slashdot the website that _defined_ the term 'blog'. Why is it I feel that we need some sort of historical landmark style legal protection for slashdot in this regard?
If you completely redesign slashdot, make it look completely different from what it originally was, how will the future generations get the right idea about where the global information superhighway that is a fundamental part of their existence came from? Yes, I'm being a bit overzealous, but if I were holding onto the reig
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I couldn't have said it better myself.
I really feel like I'm losing a good friend. I know that sounds outrageous, comparing a website to a person like that, but it how it feels to me.
I've been coming here since '98? ish and I've learned so much about so many different things. This is where I unwind at the end of every day. I'm so angry and disheartened that it looks like this community is going to be destroyed.
So, like you said,
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
And I just realized I first heard about
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As a fellow Daily Lurker from the 90's ... me too.
Just in case they are checking against unique ID's and the revolutions rallying cry, here is my voice... Fuck Beta.
[I belive that was the first time I have ever had reason to typed the lettering "Fuck".]
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Great post - and I'm sure it's not your first one, despite your claim.
So, in an eloquent way...you are saying....FUCK BETA...right?
Send robot trucks to... (Score:2)
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"beta" is a fucking shame, as this would have been an interesting discussion thread. this is like pre-boycott... it's worse than actual boycott.
fuck beta.
Purpose? (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't really see what good these autonomous vehicles will do. They won't do anything to help get rid of Slashdot Beta, so what's the point?
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The Taliban and al-Qaeda are desperately hoping that the software is written by the Slashdot Beta coding team.
Re:Purpose? (Score:4, Funny)
I think that would contravene the Geneva Convention. Some weapons are just too terrible to use.
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Hey boys and girls, mod funny. Just burned my day's mod points modding up all the f.beta posts in Timothy's lameshit article.
Robot Slashdot? (Score:3, Insightful)
Slashdot is obviously being run by a bunch of autonomous jackasses who prefer to follow "trends" in the "latest" website designs than using what works.
The Beta, The (last one from me today) (Score:5, Informative)
Please post this to new articles if it hasn't been posted yet. (Copy-paste the html from here [pastebin.com] so links don't get mangled!)
On February 5, 2014, Slashdot announced through a javascript popup that they are starting to "move in to" the new Slashdot Beta design. Slashdot Beta is a trend-following attempt to give Slashdot a fresh look, an approach that has led to less space for text and an abandonment of the traditional Slashdot look. Much worse than that, Slashdot Beta fundamentally breaks the classic Slashdot discussion and moderation system.
If you haven't seen Slashdot Beta already, open this [slashdot.org] in a new tab. After seeing that, click here [slashdot.org] to return to classic Slashdot.
We should boycott stories and only discuss the abomination that is Slashdot Beta until Dice abandons the project.
We should boycott slashdot entirely during the week of Feb 10 to Feb 17 as part of the wider slashcott [slashdot.org]
Moderators - only spend mod points on comments that discuss Beta
Commentors - only discuss Beta
http://slashdot.org/recent [slashdot.org] - Vote up the Fuck Beta stories
Keep this up for a few days and we may finally get the PHBs attention.
-----=====##### LINKS #####=====-----
Discussion of Beta: http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl?op=view&id=56395415 [slashdot.org]
Discussion of where to go if Beta goes live: http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl?op=view&type=submission&id=3321441 [slashdot.org]
Alternative Slashdot: http://altslashdot.org [altslashdot.org] (thanks Okian Warrior (537106) [slashdot.org])
The Last One (Today)? (Score:4, Informative)
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You'll probably see more from me tomorrow. Then I'll be off for a week. Then we'll see what happens.
Re:The Beta, The (last one from me today) (Score:4, Insightful)
These copy paste posts are ok, but people will soon gloss over them. Try to work hate for the beta in with an on-topic comment.
Download Comments While You Can! (Score:2)
Hello, everyone.
Now is the time: if you have some comment/thread you really like, accesible through search or bookmark, then you should
SAVE THE POST OR THREAD!
With the direction things are going, they may very well disable linking to posts. We may lose the Slashdot archive!
There's no way to back it all up, but we *can* preserve the gems. So, save the good stuff so it won't disappear!
Let's Replace Beta (Score:1)
Check out ##AltSlashdot on Freenode IRC network for more discussion.
Less dangerous than Beta? (Score:2, Insightful)
Beta Sucks (Score:1)
The whole point of feedback is, well, feedback. It's not to make you feel good that you pretended to take users' input into account before just forcing a Beta down their throats that they have been providing feedback on for months. Seriously, is asking for comments that don't get squished in a canyon of whitespace too hard of a suggestion to implement?
Slightly off-topic, but... (Score:1)
What are people's thoughts on the Slashdot Beta?
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What could possibly go (axle) wrong? (Score:1)
I can't think (radio signal interference) what could go wrong (rock slide) with this approach (mine).
Great (massive failure) idea!
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I can't think (radio signal interference) what could go wrong (rock slide) with this approach (mine).
Great (massive failure) idea!
I was thinking of them being stolen as they drove along unmanned. They wouldn't make it 5 miles.
Article had a picture of a truck that could make someone very wealthy if torn down to it's basic parts.
Then this part: "who, in other words, gets sued or charged when an unmanned automobile harms people or property?"
Urban myth or not you decide. While in Viet Nam you hear of the story - one time someone got run over by a 2 1/2 ton truck, the family got a lot of money as a settlement. When trucks drive through vil
Beta abstinance. (Score:3)
I am declining to read or discuss this article, in protest.
I will not visit this site at all Feb 10 through Feb 17, as part of the slashcott. http://slashcott.com/ [slashcott.com]
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I must be new here. ;)
autononomously awesome (Score:2)
Autononymous semi truck convoys would have a better grasp on slashdots layout than DICE.
Why is there no slashdot beta poll on slashdot? (Score:1, Insightful)
"What do you think of the new Slashdot Beta?"
I for one would love to see the results of such a poll. Is there a silent majority or isn't there? This would be an easy way to find out.
Unfortunately I get the feeling that there's a strong back room agenda behind this beta thing. But they are forgetting that slashdotters are not an audience; they are the content creators. Piss them off and your site is doome
Re:Why is there no slashdot beta poll on slashdot? (Score:5, Interesting)
No comment (Score:1)
Are those the same autonomous crapvertisement drones that run slashdot now?
Why Slashdot Users Could Be Headed to Afghanistan (Score:1)
ateB kcuF (Score:1)
Inflicting this Bumptious Emiction of Turgent Agnosy on this site indicates a state of being massively uninformed.
One wonders if the small throwable objects with multiple resting positions are at all aware of the annoyance expressed by their disgruntled visitors.
This will all end in tears.
Not Google cars (Score:4, Insightful)
i've been telling people for a while that the first we'll see of autonomous vehicles in any big way isn't in personal Google-style vehicles, but in the long-haul trucking industry.
Now I know that's true, because it's the only physically possible way to safely haul away the toxic mess that's the fucking Beta shit being sprayed everywhere like something out of a low-budget slashbeta horror flick.
Fuck the Beta,
b&
More than meets the eye! (Score:2)
The demo will roll coolly towards camera #1 in slo-mo as the village explodes behind it; assuming Bay is directing this program.
I'll join the 'Fuck Beta' crowd! UP WITH NNTP!!! (Score:1)
I purposely turned off Javascript on my browser completely, just to defeat Beta. It turns out that it improves the entire internet massively - I am no longer pulling 50+ scripts from Science knows where on every site.
Fuck Beta and fuck Javascript.
People are suggesting that we should go to another web site, or form one, to get out of the Slashdot Beta trap, but I will put forth a suggestion - this could be an opportunity to rejuvenate Usenet, to post in the manifold moribund groups, and to create a renaissa
[FUCK BETA] The Beta sucks balls (Score:1)
The new look really sucks. FUCK BETA!
Lockheed more successful than... (Score:3)
...slashdot beta.
I am sure that their trucks will be more well received. And unlike Slashdot beta, the troops will want to use them.
In other news, TheLadders.com > dice.com
trucks (Score:2)
Isn't the entire idea of robotic trucks is that the troops don't have to use them!!
Beta sucks (Score:2)
Please listen to the feedback! (Score:5, Insightful)
Now this community has clearly stated that proposed BETA changes are not wanted and even worse will drive many of the old users away from this site. Others have clearly outlined the faults of the new BETA and the effect it will have on commenting and moderation. This feedback should not be ignored.
Hence, please reconsider BETA or at least listen to the community feedback on how to improve it!
Upvoting stories in the firehose is an exercise in (Score:4, Informative)
FUTILITY!!!! I've tried to upvote countless topics related to the suckiness of Slashdot's new UI. Or even topics that were just trying to discuss the issue (no bias in the title). NONE of these gets picked. Not one.
Fuck Slashdot Beta even more, because the admins are gaming the system to protect the beta UI from criticism.
yeah great (Score:2)
This will go over well when one of these trucks mows down a kid.
Beta- more space for BAD ads (Score:3)
so the beta is obviously just a ploy to cram more ads into our already way-over-exposed-to-ads eyeballs, but the ads you do show SUCK...I keep getting ads for a hotel that I looked at several hours ago for a business trip that is already booked now...and at home I get ads for stuff that I already bought on amazon...give me a break! how stupid is this targeting? and why do we need more of it again?
Even a ROBOT could avoid this land mine... (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know what DICE was thinking (perhaps they weren't) but it doesn't take a genius to figure out they need to stop the beta site and stop it now. Unlike every other news aggregator, the majority of the people are here FOR the discussion forums. We also submit the news, vote on what should be published, comment on the news, moderate the comments, and moderate the moderators. DICE you don't do a damn thing compared to what the community gives to you in exchange for access to the site.
Pull your collective heads out of your various orifices and fix this while you have time. Without the community you have NOTHING to sell. Want proof? Look at comments on stories from a week ago versus comments today... with the community protesting you have nothing of value to sell other than a niche already covered by CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, Fox, and God knows how many other sites that now aggregate the news. Slashdot will NEVER be a mainstream site... Fix this NOW or the community will fix it for you.
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Well said sir
DICE & Timmy in the lair Ep2 (Score:2)
DICE: Pass me a cuban timmy. /.ers 'till bitcoins start popping out their asses.
TIMOTHY: A Habanos or a Cubatabaco sir?
DICE: Timmy my boy. You don't get to sit in the big chair without getting a fidel.
TIMOTHY: A fidel sir?
DICE: Yes, finest cuban a man could ever have. Rolled by Fidel Castro himself; In fact I'm suprised the man didn't hand deliver it.
TIMOTHY: You sound kind of... powerful sir.
DICE: Timy you have no idea of my power. I'm going squash all those
TIMOTHY: How sir?
DICE: Beta. Haven't you seen it
Better Ridge's Law (Score:2)
Beta is garbage. (Score:2)
Disabled ads& Fuck Beta (Score:1)
I've Disabled Ads
Not Posting relevant comments
Boycotting.
liability issues (Score:2)
or they can be like uber and let the victim be the one holding the bag.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t... [google.com]
wait for the auto truck to drive tail of dragon... (Score:2)
wait for the auto truck to the drive tail of dragon and fail
http://tailofthedragon.com/dra... [tailofthedragon.com]
Beta Sucks (Score:1)
Dice: Frankly, many of us want a new design, Classic is broken in so many ways. But beta is terrible, and this is what is wrong:
* The value that Slashdot brings to its users is not in its articles. Frankly, the articles are terrible. The value that Slashdot provides is a discussion forum for self-selected nerds.
* As such, it is vital that you remember that the community is not just an audience, it is also your primary content creator.
* Your new redes
LISTEN TO YOUR USERBASE OR .... (Score:2)
.... die a death of ZERO clicks
The rest of the net doesn't understand (Score:1)
I haven't really seen much coverage over the Slashdot beta spat elsewhere on the net. There was a small post on the geek section of reddit but a lot of commenters there just considered Slashdotters to be incapable of change and whiners and if they didn't like the change, they could get their news elsewhere.
People outside of Slashdot don't seem to realise that we don't go to Slashdot for news - not primarily anyway, since topics are often brought out late and with poor editorializing. We come here because ou
Not just trucks (Score:2)
Call and let them know (Score:4, Informative)
Calling the number Dice lists for Slashdot [diceholdingsinc.com] results in a recording which in turn tells you to call 415-625-0856.
The receptionist type who answered was polite, said they'd already had several calls today, jotted down my complaints to relay once more to a guy who's involved with the beta, and said "we're withholding his snacks until this is fixed." They said it was nice to realize there were people out there who were passionate about the site.
Make your voice heard. Let them know that wasting screen space, butchering comment sections, etc are going to result in their visitors leaving en masse. If the phone is ringing all day, day in and day out, with users who don't want to see this place ruined, perhaps things will turn around.
This is embarrasing. (Score:1)
Combat Scenarios (Score:1)
Combat Scenarios have a lot more variables then civilian street driving. With civilian driving, the assumption is that if something happens, it was an accident. It would be completely impossible, currently, to make robots that can adapt to such situations, (even if they could make one, it would be ungodly expensive). Civilian driving also has you using roads, following explicit traffic signals, with the assumption that everything will be well lit.
When in the infantry, our drivers would sometimes drop a w
As an ex-trucker let be first to say... (Score:1)
... They took mah JOB!!!
They took his job!
Durp-a-dduurr!
Joking aside there's no real way for such a technology to be rolled out on a national scale anyway. There's been people trying to get rid of the OTR/Long Haul trucking for a long time. Generally in favor of trains haulage. But the national transportation infrastructure is so dependent on trucks that that such a task would be a generational effort. That's assuming that they can actually get it to reliably work. Now moving in and out of urban center
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Then one day I started to think about Google Car and I realized that the "killer app" for Google Car isn't as a car, it's as a truck. I agree it won't happen overnight, but it will happen. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are almost 800,000 big rig truck drivers at $40,000/yr in the US. (2012 data) Another 40,000 drive delivery trucks. Politics are th
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This uses a velodyne lidar with 64 beams at 15Hz (Score:2)
If you look on the top of this vehicle, you will find a velodyne lidar, that sweeps the field of view at 15Hz with 64 beams. Here is there website: http://velodynelidar.com/lidar... [velodynelidar.com] .. From my understanding, there are 64 laser diodes mounted as a stripe, and 64 corresponding avalanche photodiodes , each group of 8 detectors is being fed to an 8-bit 3 gigasample per second ADC.
These units sell for $80K, and is one of the factors effecting wider adoption. I understand that there is a lot of demand among th
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Change can sometimes be better (Score:1)
Tragic milestone?? (Score:2)
It's an interesting milestone, and sort of a tragic one, since troops could have used robotic vehicles in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Don't worry. There will be another war. And one after that. And one after that. I don't know when, or where... but I seriously doubt that we'll get global peace anytime soon.
OMG Beta. (Score:1)
Wow, I finally went over and actually tried to read posts in the beta format...
I will never come back to the site. How can I? I can't believe I'm saying it... it's a HORRIBLE design. It effectively kills the discussions by not showing information in an easy-to-read format. It's an abomination of design. Fron tpage looks nice, discussions are a disaster. What numbskull greenlighted this thing?
I've been coming here for maybe 10-ish years (?), and there is no place like it, but that's because of the discussion
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Wait...
wait...
GO see the beta site for yourself. See what you think, then contact Dice if you don't like it. That's a better comment.
Driver less convoy is tested by the US military (Score:1)
Re:FUCK BETA! (Score:4, Insightful)
if you have positive karma make sure to disable advertisements as part of your protest, for years i had the option but left them enabled to support /.
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