Tech Support Pits:

From Martina===

Dear Webby,
I saw on the news how badly those robot cars did in that
race where the Pentagon promised some big prizes for
vehicles that can drive through the desert without a driver
or remote control, so that they can develop automatic ammo 
carriers. Was the problem that computers are not good
enough? Compared to what they can do with star wars 
games, a simple desert should be no problem.
Martina

Dear Martina
The computers are good enough.
The problem is the boneheads in the Pentagon, who didn't 
think it through, and obviously were too dumb to read 
classic Science Fiction like Keith Laumers Bolo series from
the 60's, where the author thoroughly analyzed the problems
inherent with autonomous vehicles.

Autonomous (driver less and without remote control) 
ammo carriers can be stopped and captured by half a 
dozen swimsuit girls. How ? The robot car can't tell if the
sexy babes are friend or foe, and so it can't kill them. 
The girls can simply stand in it's way and drive it nuts, 
steal the hubcaps and set the cargo on fire. DUH!

Except for the mechanical breakdowns due to sloppy
workmanship or lack of foresight, the vehicles failed 
because they encountered too many unfoerseen 
challenges, like barb wire fences that appear to the
robot like static or bugs on the lens.

By contrast, a six year old space wars player, using the 
same interactive controls that were used to guide the 
missiles in Serbia and Kosovo, could have guided a 
vehicle from Barstow to Las Vegas at real race speed,
AND probably would have offered to clean up his room 
PLUS the garage to be allowed to do it.

Robots are for clearly defined, repetitive tasks; not for
a challenge that requires creative thinking and dealing 
with new and never before encountered situations. 
It all boils down to the first law of computing:
The computer does NOT do what you want it to do,
it only does what you tell it to do.

Have FUN!
DearWebby