If you're into rats doing cool things for food and fun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV9z0c1hjnA
Rats learned to drive
101–108 of 108 posts
Re: Rats learned to drive
#102This reminded me of the orangutan driving a golf cart: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DJsn1QivbKM He has mastered it. He clearly understands the concept of roads vs sidewalks. He can drive using one hand. And most importantly, he obviously has a great time doing that.
I don't understand. Someone, at some point, said lets see if the Orangutan can drive the golf cart, and presumably no one said "NO! That's an awful idea"... Then not only did it learn, it got good at it and seems to enjoy it... I just really don't understand how this came about. How did it learn to do this. The initial phases must have been just constant crashing into stuff. How on earth did it ever get past this wit…
Not sure but there is video of some guys driving with it. It's on at the zoo of Dubai Royal Palace. Orangutan's are supposed to be pretty smart - it could probably watch humans press the accelerator and turn the wheel and figure it. https://youtu.be/WSR_4qyz7CY?t=285
Re: Rats learned to drive
#103Ratmo?
We've achieve ratonomous vehicles before autonomous, certainly.
Re: Rats learned to drive
#104This reminded me of the orangutan driving a golf cart: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DJsn1QivbKM He has mastered it. He clearly understands the concept of roads vs sidewalks. He can drive using one hand. And most importantly, he obviously has a great time doing that.
Are you sure the steering wheel is actually hooked up? There are times especially toward the end of the video where he turns it and I don't see the expected swerve (even a small one) from the cart.
Re: Rats learned to drive
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
Driving is fun until you factor in traffic, reckless drivers, and the stakes of accidents
Still beats losing train connections, being pressed in a sardine can until everyone fits in, or stop in the middle of nowhere wondering when it will start moving again. But you can combine best of both world experiences, being compressed in a bus, stuck in a middle of stop and go traffic.
Honestly, it feels like every mode of travel has its unique headaches
Re: Rats learned to drive
#106I saw a news story about rats being trained in Tanzania to search for people under rubble. These animals have sharp hearing and an excellent sense of smell. I just don’t remember the exact breed of these rats. I really like these animals!
I believe there is also a very interesting project that uses trained rats to detect and mark landmines for clearing. The rats can apparently smell even very old explosives under the dirt, and unlike their handlers are too light to set them off :)
It’s cool to see animals being such unexpected heroes
Re: Rats learned to drive
#107I saw a news story about rats being trained in Tanzania to search for people under rubble. These animals have sharp hearing and an excellent sense of smell. I just don’t remember the exact breed of these rats. I really like these animals!
Is not a breed, is a different species. Giant pouched rats from the African rainforests. Not even in the same family as the domestic rats.
Ah, thanks for clarifying! It’s even cooler knowing they’re a whole different species with such unique abilities
Re: Rats learned to drive
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
Humans and apes are equally evolved
Along somewhat different fitness gradients, though. Meaning we've evolved some distance from them. In fact, given the dimensionality of all possible fitness gradients, our direction of evolution is likely near-orthogonal to theirs.
Good point. Given our evolution has led to a species with the ability and tendency to destroy itself, our fitness gradient could certainly be considered inferior