From: John Eagan <76130.2225@CompuServe.COM>
Subject: Re: PHIL: Is driving a car employing VR?
Originator: hlab@stein.u.washington.edu
Organization: University of Washington
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1992 23:18:30 GMT



dwang@ad-11.naitc.com (Dontin Wang) writes:

>I posed for consideration that elements of the experience of driving a
>car resemble the experiences that VR technology is trying to create.
>Specifically, I think that the tires and shock absorbers of a car are
>creating a different-than-reality feel of the road for the driver,
>which is much like what VR technology can do for the road, too.  A
>smooth comfortable ride doesn't always mean that road doesn't have
>bumps and cracks. 

Having quite a fondness for the act of driving, I think I'd like to
jump into this one. :-) "Different-than-reality feel of the road"? No,
I can'y go along with that. In some cars you may be excessively
_buffered_ from the feel of the road, but you are in direct
connection, however, with a real physical mechanism between you and
the road surface. There's nothing there that's "different than
reality", it IS reality, nothing "virtual" about it. However buffered
you are, however poorly the car you're driving may provide feedback,
what you feel is a real direct physical phenomenon.

I liked Moderator Bob's postscript at the end of the post. William
Bricken's quote about an automobile being the "world's largest
exoskeleton" is great. Besides the possible social implications one
could elaborate on beyond that statement, there really is a physical
phenomenon there that justifies the idea. A good driver is one who
approaches the act of driving a car as a process wherein they are
closely integrated into the physical system that is comprised of
road-car-driver. They develop a feel for the physical feedback the car
gives them, through the steering wheel, through the brake pedal,
through the seat, through auditory signals (screeeech!), the
tachometer if in a manual-gearbox car (likewise the shift level in the
same situation), etc.

This is opposed to a bad driver, approaching driving with only partial
attention, and considering the car as some sort of semi-autonomous
entity to which they think they only give directions to through the
controls, which will then do their bidding. (Especially if driving a
car with automatic transmission, ABS, "traction control", which is a
term which misleads many people who don't understand what it really
means, i.e., throttle control to prevent wheelspin on acceleration,
etc.) These people can be seen all over the road (no pun intended :-),
doing things like driving while holding conversations (direct, with
passengers, or by cellular phone), fiddling with stuff inside the car,
yelling at kids, etc., who if confronted with an urgent situation
almost invariably react by simply locking up the brakes. (Which is THE
_ABSOLUTE WORST_ THING one can do....if you don't think this is true,
find an automotive engineer and have them explain the physics of
roadholding and car control).

 I realize this is overly general, but there is a very real point of
division there between the idea of it all as a physically integrated
process, versus something more disembodied. Which is why I completely
object to Bob's note in the postscript about driving being
telepresence.  Uh-uh...no way. There's no telepresence involved here,
no matter how "cushy" (or "buffered") a car is in terms of controls
and chassis design.  (Like the electronic steering system used in the
Mazda RX-7s of a few years ago, before they dropped that design
approach; or luxury sedans with excessively soft suspension and high
power-assisted steering ratios, or even electronic shifters where one
shifts by simply clicking a switch, currently used by the Williams,
McLaren, and Ferrari F1 teams and certain to find it's way to road
cars soon) You are _right there_, no "telepresence", nothing "virtual"
about it. This is a direct physical system you're part of. 

I'm sure that there are lots of valid statements that can be made
about the idea of a car's controls as a form of interface, they
certainly are that, so the subject was a good one to raise for
purposes of discussion. I'll be interested to see what else is said on
the subject, because as VR technology becomes more integrated into
everyday life, philosophical ideas about this kind of subject will
need to be subjected to closer examination than ever before.

 _________________________________________________________________
| John Eagan                                                      |
| VR section leader                                               |
| Graphics Developers Forum                                       |
| CompuServe                                                      |
| compuserve:76130,2225                                           |
| internet:76130.2225@compuserve.com                              |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| "when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro"                 |
|                           - Hunter S. Thompson                  |
|_________________________________________________________________|
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds