Full autoland with an ultralight

[Nigel H-J]

Just browsing through ultralight aircraft and came across this, I think Peter will be interested!

Autoland approach are no longer confined to the big boys!

Click on the video though I would use the mute button if the music gets to you!

http://www.tl-ultralight.cz/en/news/ful ... rius-10487

Regards
Nigel.

[dodger]

Hi Nigel,

Why on earth would anybody need an Autoland in any ulralight!!

These ultralights are for real pilots to enjoy i would have thought!

Just my two pennies,

Roger.

[petermcleland]

I drove my friend's Tesla "S" electric car last Saturday...It too has a full autopilot where you just set the speed and if you come up behind some traffic it will signal, move out a lane, accelerate past and then move back into lane and slow to the set speed. I loved the experience of driving this incredible car manually but I'm not sure that I would ever engage the autopilot...Maybe just for parking

https://www.teslamotors.com/en_GB/models

[Jon.M]

As the Tesla autopilot is still said to be in testing, the driver is supposed to "keep their eyes on the road and hands upon the wheel" as Jim Morrison sang.

The driver in this fatal accident in a Tesla presumably didn't: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... atal-crash

The car went under an articulated lorry trailer without slowing. Don't American lorries have to have side impact bars to prevent that sort of thing?

I do think that this sort of automation is the future and the roads will be much safer, but I still don't like it much.

Jon

[petermcleland]

Jon,

My friend, the owner of the Tesla S that I drove told me that accident was actually caused by the driver having his hands on the wheel...Touching the steering wheel disconnects the autopilot. He also told me that they believe he fell asleep with his hands on the wheel!

[Jon.M]

Hi Peter,

I hadn't heard that version of the accident. The information I read in more than one article suggested that the driver was watching a film on a DVD player and was not in control of the vehicle. Who knows.

I do think that automatisation of vehicles has already made the roads safer and that the criticism of Tesla over this one accident has been overdone. New technology is rarely perfect.

Jon

[cstorey]

Hi Peter,

the criticism of Tesla over this one accident has been overdone. New technology is rarely perfect.

Jon

Oh well that's a great comfort then

[nigelb]

Yes, very comforting. Your only likely to suffer a mishap occasionally, so well worth what you paid for the Tesla.

Nigel²

[Nigel H-J]

Hi Nigel,

Why on earth would anybody need an Autoland in any ulralight!!

These ultralights are for real pilots to enjoy i would have thought!

Just my two pennies,

Agree with you Roger but let's say it is just another step into flight safety?

As far as an autopilot goes in motor vehicles should anything go wrong then there would be little time to react and take over manually. But take the case of using it on the motorway and should it prove reliable then my worry would be of the driver of that vehicle, would he be more tempted to take in the passing scenery or even have his attention drawn away by passengers instead of continually monitoring the system! Which brings me to another point of road safety that is totally ignored not only by Road safety Groups but also the police......

So much is said of the distractions of using mobile phones and the likely increase risk of collisions even when using hands free ones whilst driving but no-one it appears ever seem to even suggest that many accidents could have been attributed through to distractions of the driver by talking to their passengers. Time and time again, I have followed cars whereby the driver had continually turned his head away from the road to look at his/her front seat passenger whilst holding a conversation and have observed the cars' speed to vary between as much as five miles an hour either speeding up or more commonly.... slowing down, also and more frighteningly the car has wandered towards either the crown of the road or the verge.

Maybe an autopilot may be the better option towards road safety but it would still need an alert driver to take over immediately should the system fail.

An interesting link Peter, many thanks indeed.

Regards
Nigel.

[nigelb]

I have to point out that while talking to passengers in the car is certainly a distraction, yapping on a mobile is far worse in my opinion. With passengers, at least there are other eyes that could possibly alert you to a dangerous situation. When your yapping on a mobile, the party on the other end has no idea what road conditions are like and what dangers you may face.

Nigel²