Rally drivers are obsolete

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[lophilip1980]

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/february1/shelley-pikes-peak-020310.html

[Spence]

That's going to be an interesting race for sure! Only problem is, the car won't know the excitement of racing at Pike's Peak!

[lophilip1980]

Yea, but at least its times are going to be fairly consistent

[randedge]

Blah.

What did Jeremy Clarkson say on "Love the Beast"?

Quoting Charle's Babbage, he said something like, "The 'unerring certainty of machinery' is just that.  There's no soul, no excitement. That (the Falcon XB) thing's got soul".

And so does a raw machine piloted by a brave driver. 
I'd still count Walther Rohl's and Michele Mouton's runs as far more exciting.

[Murray Peterson]

Interesting; soul defined as human error (or possibility of error).

I prefer the word "passion"; much more in line with my personal beliefs about racing.

[randedge]

Interesting; soul defined as human error (or possibility of error).

That's not at all what I took he meant.

I thought of it more as an unending array of biological variables that could only come from human input.  Which, summed up, constitutes what we all take as 'character'.  It is the poetry of humanity wherein the letters of genetics, the syllables of upbringing, coincide with the lines of thought, the paragraphs of experience, the pages of practice and repetition, which then ultimately determines the novel of our lives. We aren't the miles of code, nor the schematics of motherboard. F*ck that. That shizzle ain't exciting. Take Senna for example:  So unorthodox with the blipblipblipblipblipblip throttle technique. Yet he was, arguably, the greatest. Even Autosport said so!  At least he was undeniably one of the fastest.

This has been one of Randy's philosophical musings, as brought to you by alcohol. 

[rx7racerca]

It will be a sad day when an automated car beats the human record - and it will probably happen at some point. Because while it will be an exciting accomplishment for a few engineers, no one else will care.  Would anyone want to watch robots race? Will anyone marvel at their bravery and skill, their grit and determination? Their reflexes and chutzpa? Driving, and racing reduced to mathematical algorithms does not hold passion or excitment. Plus, it's likely that if cars can drive themselves at race speeds on Pikes Peak or a track, that the day will come when we are no longer are allowed to drive our own cars on public roads, in favour of the safety and efficiency of machines.

[lophilip1980]

I would consider this a great technical achievement. Computers have certainly come a long way since I was younger.

Even so racing will never go away, just like people still do horse back riding.

[Morison]

Computers will only drive as well as they are programmed.
Really fast drivers usually get their mind around choosing to do things that 'don't compute' and take risks to be faster.
A national rally champion once told me that when he's pushing he'll take risks that he knows he shouldn't... could/would a computer do that?

[lophilip1980]

Computers will only drive as well as they are programmed.
Really fast drivers usually get their mind around choosing to do things that 'don't compute' and take risks to be faster.
A national rally champion once told me that when he's pushing he'll take risks that he knows he shouldn't... could/would a computer do that?

A computer would do that, if it was programmed to.

It doesn't matter if a computer does drive better then the best race car driver around. Just like a computer can beat the best chess player in the world, it doesn't mean that people will stop watching, playing, or enjoy the game.

[Flying_Finn]

I think the potential for it to be very, very good is there sometime in the future. But the all time best? Doubt it.

There are humans that can still beat the best of the supercomputer chess programs. This won't be any different. And I figure Chess is easier for a computer to play than rallying out in the mountains.

-Eric