Everything‘s going great with the rear brakes. This is the final mock up. The bracket is on its way to the machine shop. Hoping to have it by Friday. I’m trying to have everything up and running by the end of April.
Cheers,
JOHN
Can a self-driving car be courteous?
Tesla owners have been given a month of free Full Self Driving (Supervised) to see for themselves how far the technology has come. We can use FSD (Supervised) as long as we give full attention to the road ahead (Yes, there is a camera in the car checking that.) and keeping hands on the steering wheel prepared to take over if the car does something unexpected. I truly have been enjoying having the car do all the driving, signalling, turning, stopping, avoiding pedestrians and bikers. Set a destination and watch the magic. On Friday, I was using FSD to take me to the Southside of Fredericton and the car did something that really surprised me. You will see in the short clip below that there is lots of traffic and an oncoming vehicle signalled for a left turn across my lane. The car ahead almost stopped to let him turn but not quite. My Tesla made a full stop to let him cross, even though it knew there was a green light a ways ahead—a true act of courtesy. I did nothing. It is what I would have done, and that is what people are experiencing with FSD—it is acting so humanlike.
If you are interested in such things, the version of software doing this 'magic' is based on Artificial Intelligence. Super computers are given millions of hours of videos showing good driving habits in countless situations. The computer learns how to drive from these. This replaces an older method which involved writing hundreds of thousands of lines of computer coding trying to explain how to drive. One of the advantages of FSD is that the Tesla has eight cameras and no distractions. Everything we do is recorded on a little jump drive in the car. It is only shared with Tesla if there is an accident or we report a problem. It is not perfect yet, but it is being improved every day. I have had three updated versions of the software in the past ten days. I have several things I would like to see changed—time will tell how that goes.
If you are really excited about all of this, let me know and I would be happy to give you a demonstration.
- David
Monthly FABAC Meeting Wednesday April 17
East Side Mario’s is booked for the car club on Wednesday evening for 5:30.
- Joe H.
Owl's Head Transportation Museum
There have been discussions at the Tuesday morning breakfast about a tour to the Owl’s Head Transportation Museum (https://owlshead.org/) for their Foreign Auto Rendezvous on Sept. 21st and 22nd. The tentative plan is to travel on Friday Sept. 20th to the Augusta/Waterville, ME area via Calais for lunch and to Brewer/Bangor via US Rt. 9 (The Airline for us old folks) and on to the Augusta area where we will overnight. The next morning (Saturday) will be an hour and fifteen minute drive to Owl’s Head. I did look at accommodations closer to Owl’s Head but could find nothing under $300 US in September.
The car show ends at 3:00 PM on Saturday after which will travel to Ellsworth, about a two hour drive, where we will overnight. Sunday morning we will travel to Campobello Island for a short tour of the island and lunch and then catch the ferry to Deer Island and on to St. George and Fredericton.
If you’re interested, chime in in the comment section and I’ll refine the trip details a bit further.
- Phil
Spitfire rear disc brakes
Well, here’s a mock up using secondhand parts. To see what my new rear brakes are going to look like. New parts on the way hopefully I’ll have it all done by mid April.
Cheers,
John
And here are the ones on Mark Colwell's MGB. Ernst is working on them right now hoping to have it done by mid May.
FABAC Meeting March 20th
Isaac's way is booked for 5:30 pm on the 20th March for twelve people. Not in the vault but they will set up tables in the main restaurant.
Special note: There is NO parking between their building and the old Service Canada building. It is now a tow away zone. Monitored 24 hours per day!
Thanks,
Al T.
Report on Dumfries Maple Run
Our first run of the season, to Dumfries maple in Dumfries (where else?) was another success with no one in our sizeable contingent getting lost. It was rainy and foggy out but the warm temps made for a pleasant break from the cold. We're forbidden from talking much about the unseasonable weather lest we jinx it so that's all that I'll say.
The place was packed and our table was ready. All 14 of us crowded in and ordered. Because we were early we had plenty of time to chat and catch up with each other. As the food arrived, the newbies to the place were relieved that they'd been forewarned and had only ordered one pancake. The cakes are huge, covering the plates, and thick enough to stand a fork up in them. I'm sure I'm not the only one who skipped supper once home.
***A note to me (Rob) for next year, it's only a 35 minute drive...don't leave so early (again).***
Thanks for all who attended.
Rob E.
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Rostyle Wheel
Here’s a bit of information that some folks might be interested in: the origin and history of the Rostyle wheel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rostyle_wheel
Phil
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