A long time ago I spoke with the NRMA about road conditions in Cape York,
where I was intending to take a break (in my VW -- It was a long time ago.
I was very young.)
He asked firstly if I had a winch on the vehicle, then came back with the
road conditions report, which indicated amongst other things, that parts of
the road were not accessible because they had been eaten away by white
ants. He also pointed out some conditions known to apply at river
crossings during the wet season, and described the use of a winch to cross
at these points.. I found another way to get to get to Laura and on
what was then a dirt track that was a little hard to find at times
I understand now there's a sealed road all the way through to Laura.
Times change.
I also recall taking 4 hours to travel the 50 kms from Raymond Terrace to
Stroud on the Pacific Highway as it then was in an Austin A40. Barely made
it. Shortly we'll even have a dual-carriageway Pacific Highway almost all
the way from Hornsby to Coffs Harbour... (give or take a few fiddly bits in
the middle and about another 18 months or so).
One day we might even have a proper NBN.
Meanwhile, of course, we have lots of people in the heart of Balmain now
driving around in their 4 wheel drive vehicles so they can navigate through
the Rozelle swamps... Surely one or more of those, refittted, could
handle The Track!
But maybe it's a long shot to expect that city cars are really the suitable
for many of our roads. They're not likely to find a sub-station charging
point for their batteries, for a start... Not yet.
I do note however, that the US military have developed a whole series of
different vehicles (including some that walk) which are capable of
negotiating very rough terrain. The track might look like a highway to
some they have. They can do some smart climbing. They have drones,
now.. Times change.
Things change.
On 8 July 2016 at 10:26, Kath Bowman <Kath.Bowman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I wonder how they would work on the Oodnadatta Track…
cheers
*Kath Bowman*
Technical Writer
It's entirely feasible for example, that self-driving cars may be safer
than others in the near future because external controls may be able to run
remote checks on their electronic and mechanical conditions via computer
controls, and unsafe cars might even be able to be stalled by remote or
local software if checks find problems. The various bits of technology
for that actually exist in cars today -- remote comms, location finding,
remote stalling, computer checks on mechanical operations etc. They
just aren't all tied together completely via communications just yet.
