Automated trucking would be cool to see in my lifetime, but to be honest the idea makes me really uncomfortable because it would put roughly two million people out of work.
Ask HN: Object you'd like to see connected to the internet?
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Re: Ask HN: Object you'd like to see connected to the internet?
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
This already happens in some cities. There are traffic lights in my city, for example, which adjust for trains, presence of cross-traffic, etc. The cross-traffic one is neat because a light will, quite literally, stay red forever and only change when a car pulls up to actually use the green light. From this[0] article: > Today, cities use computer-controlled traffic lights that adjust their timing based on traffic le…
My hometown had one of those "cross-traffic" lights a few blocks from my house at an intersection that I had to cross to reach one of the major bike paths. Naturally, it didn't register bikes. So if you wanted the light to ever change, you had to cross over to the left side of the street, go up on the sidewalk, and push the pedestrian button (no crosswalk on the right side of the intersection). Not much of a fan. I'm…
I've seen the induction loops "presence" sensors too. One near where I used to live would never change to green unless the sensor was triggered, but wouldn't register until your car was beyond the crosswalk, nearly in the intersection. That means if someone in front of you stopped where they were supposed to, the light would never change.
I suppose there is bias though, in that people don't notice as much when traffic lights are operating efficiently.
Re: Ask HN: Object you'd like to see connected to the internet?
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
This already happens in some cities. There are traffic lights in my city, for example, which adjust for trains, presence of cross-traffic, etc. The cross-traffic one is neat because a light will, quite literally, stay red forever and only change when a car pulls up to actually use the green light. From this[0] article: > Today, cities use computer-controlled traffic lights that adjust their timing based on traffic le…
My hometown had one of those "cross-traffic" lights a few blocks from my house at an intersection that I had to cross to reach one of the major bike paths. Naturally, it didn't register bikes. So if you wanted the light to ever change, you had to cross over to the left side of the street, go up on the sidewalk, and push the pedestrian button (no crosswalk on the right side of the intersection). Not much of a fan. I'm…
If the sensor there is an induction loop you might be able to figure out where it is and line a wheel up well enough that the metal rim triggers it.
Re: Ask HN: Object you'd like to see connected to the internet?
#54I would love for my breaker panel to be smart. Knowing the power draw of different breakers and being able to trend those. Analytics could alert me to a slowly failing compressor on my fridge or a burnt out element in my hot water tank. Lots of other cool features that could come with a smart panel a well.
I'd take that a step further and put a sensor on every outlet so it would be like a built in kill a watt that you could look at from a household level, circuit level, and then socket level. You could monitor and alert on things that are suddenly using more or less power and also determine where you are losing the most energy to unused or seldom used devices that are always on.
This is something I've looked at. When outlets with built in USB charging ports came out I thought, "Gee it would be much nicer if they used some form of powerline networking to tell the house server how much power they are supplying."
Re: Ask HN: Object you'd like to see connected to the internet?
#55Automated trucking would be cool to see in my lifetime, but to be honest the idea makes me really uncomfortable because it would put roughly two million people out of work.
Every time you think or hear "it would be nice to make this more efficient, but it would put people out of work", think of discussions surrounding universal basic income. If the only reason for having humans behind the wheel is because those people have no other way to make money, maybe it's time to face the fact that we don't need them to make money. Take their job but keep paying them the same, and the benefits from not having them on the road (they won't get in accidents, won't need to stop and sleep, will be free to pursue other things to enhance their and their family's lives) will still ensure that the economy benefits.
It's not just truckers, but forklift drivers, cab drivers, nurse assistants, any other job that can be replaced by a robot. There should never be a situation where we are putting people to work or putting people in danger for no reason other than so we feel comfortable paying them to do poorly what a robot can do perfectly.
Re: Ask HN: Object you'd like to see connected to the internet?
#56Automated trucking would be cool to see in my lifetime, but to be honest the idea makes me really uncomfortable because it would put roughly two million people out of work.
Every time you think or hear "it would be nice to make this more efficient, but it would put people out of work", think of discussions surrounding universal basic income. If the only reason for having humans behind the wheel is because those people have no other way to make money, maybe it's time to face the fact that we don't need them to make money. Take their job but keep paying them the same, and the benefits fro…
I'm reminded of my friend Ben, who has a PhD in Physics and drives a bus. Please, please put Ben out of the bus-driving business, if it means a basic income so he can do physics, or teach physics. This current economy is a waste, that demands smart people do stupid work so they can eat, instead of doing smart work that would enhance us all.
Re: Ask HN: Object you'd like to see connected to the internet?
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
My hometown had one of those "cross-traffic" lights a few blocks from my house at an intersection that I had to cross to reach one of the major bike paths. Naturally, it didn't register bikes. So if you wanted the light to ever change, you had to cross over to the left side of the street, go up on the sidewalk, and push the pedestrian button (no crosswalk on the right side of the intersection). Not much of a fan. I'm…
If the sensor there is an induction loop you might be able to figure out where it is and line a wheel up well enough that the metal rim triggers it.
Probably not. From my experience bicycles and small motorcycles will not trigger the sensor on the induction loop.
Re: Ask HN: Object you'd like to see connected to the internet?
#58I don't know about connected to the internet, but it would nice to have more built in sensors in an oven/stove. They have digital thermometers, but it would be nice to get a total IR/temperature profile of what's inside. Maybe some basic computer vision programs. Something like 'looks like your bread is done and its temperature is correct, we'll turn the over down automatically unless you issue an override'. Perhaps even better would be a smart microwave that detects temperature unevenness with some IR setup and adjusts it's internal plate/heating mechanism to compensate.
I guess the internety aspect would be, people could upload ideal cooking/completion settings to achieve certain results. Or it could let you start food up as you are approaching home, but this would lead to some food borne pathogen issues, so it's probably not a good plan.
Though really this might be a bit excessive.
Re: Ask HN: Object you'd like to see connected to the internet?
#59Traffic lights. While not directly personal or "Internet of Things", traffic lights could really use some AI. It would be fantastic if they could learn routine traffic patterns (rush hour, weekends), detect flow (green light, but no one is there), even receive traffic data from Google/Apple/etc., then automatically adjust timing accordingly. Even mesh networking with nearby intersections. I can't count the number of…
This already happens in some cities. There are traffic lights in my city, for example, which adjust for trains, presence of cross-traffic, etc. The cross-traffic one is neat because a light will, quite literally, stay red forever and only change when a car pulls up to actually use the green light. From this[0] article: > Today, cities use computer-controlled traffic lights that adjust their timing based on traffic le…
In my area I find that the cross-traffic ones are poorly implemented. I'll drive up, come to a complete stop, the light will change for me and will already be back to yellow before I clear the intersection. This forces me to always stop when there was no traffic on the preferred route. It also means that if there is a car more than a few car lengths ahead of me it will change for them and force me to wait a full cycle even when there isn't traffic on the preferred route.
This shouldn't be a hard problem to fix. Sensors just need to be installed farther from the light to detect approaching vehicles earlier.
Re: Ask HN: Object you'd like to see connected to the internet?
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
If the sensor there is an induction loop you might be able to figure out where it is and line a wheel up well enough that the metal rim triggers it.
Probably not. From my experience bicycles and small motorcycles will not trigger the sensor on the induction loop.
I looked around some before I posted that. This article seems respectable enough and at least supports the idea that bikes are intended to be able to trigger some of them:
http://bikeportland.org/2010/09/27/bike-science-making-sense...