Do I need a special permit to operate self-driving mainland-roaming vehicles?

[mikka Luik]

Magic and way points and a lack of trying to over complicate. Also distinct lack of RLV @Love Zhaoying

[Callum Meriman]

12 hours ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Don’t these vehicles get in the way of other’s who want to drive?

The Yava ones are phantom.

If I found a physical, unattended vehicle I would AR the owner quick smart.

[Prokofy Neva]

 lucagrabacr truly, the Lindens should require one -- and in fact they should STOP ALLOWING THIS MENACE.

There's always a tiny claque on the forums that claim these are wonderful for "touring" and "exploring" but of course you can get your own even free vehicle and explore without this spam.

Spam is what it is.

Ugly, stupid spam, often out of theme -- buses in the air, boats, stupidity -- I see this all day by the roads where I have properties.

The Yava ones are ugly and stupid as pods are not anything that fits in with the theme of most sims, it's a science fiction theme and therefore stupid elsewhere.

It doesn't matter if they are phantom -- they are are often not on the road, above it, and just spamming as there are way too many of them. NO one is ever in them. The tiny number of users doesn't justify their SPAMMING the mainland.

 

[Qie Niangao]

Bay City has autonomous vehicles, some Linden-owned (ferries, balloons, and trolleys) and some owned by at least a couple private parties (Yava, and a Bay City local). I have maps that track 'em all. I think these add some action and interactivity to the setting, but that's purely subjective. At least these all use relatively little script time and cause relatively few problems, compared to some that came before.

Those earlier ones burned too many resources trying to do the impossible, and didn't fail gracefully enough to avoid generating a lot of enemies. 

[Claireschen Hesten]

I remember AnneMarie Otoole's vehicles really well they were bit of an eyesore on the roads and they weren't phantom so they'd try and push you out the way i'm more of a fan of the Yava pods they follow set routes stop at rezz areas so you always know where you can pick up a ride and special points of interest. given how few and far between i see these pods when i'm travelling i wouldn't class them as spam

[MoiraKathleen]

AnneMarie's vehicles were an eyesore - and I think a couple of them puffed a lot of smoke into the air as well.  I lived roadside on the mainland in several different locations for quite awhile - in places that had AnneMarie's vehicles when they were still around, and had the yava pods.  I don't mind the yava pods - I do ride on them from time to time, and I like the information that they provide about points of interest along their routes.  I also like the ferries and the relatively more recent autonomous vehicles in Bay City.     

[Lindal Kidd]

There's a Pod Riders group in world.

[Chaser Zaks]

As someone who has messed with automated vehicles before and set one loose(and lost until it finally finished a glitchy route, I'll explain below), as long as you do the following, I am sure LL doesn't care:

1. Go phantom or smart. There are drivers and pedestrians on the road or crossing roads, and in zindra, even traffic lights. While the traffic lights one isn't a requirement, you need to be very mindful of other residents on the road. Phantom will stop all collisions, while smart requires a lot of checking to make sure no one is in front of the vehicle, and people don't grief it by blocking its path(essentially, going around the obstacle if possible).
2. Stay on the right side of the road, especially if not phantom! Not even scripts can detect fast head on collisions and handle them in time.
3. Don't be noisy. Shouts are a absolute no-no, says can be ok, but whispers or llRegionSayTo are much much better. I wouldn't want a vehicle on a route that passes my house constantly saying stuff within chat range. If you are going to do sounds, keep them low volume and avoid looping motor sounds. Sounds in SL are weird and can be heard 1000m away.
4. Don't create fleets. Stick to a small number and set up a website with a schedule that can be picked up by stations. A small number can vary from person to person, I scaled mine based off distance traveled, time taken, etc. Try to stay under 4 max per route.
5. Fail safes are a must. Don't let your vehicles leave their route, ensure they stay on track or force them back on with llSetRegionPos. If all else fails, apologize to passengers(if any), report the issue to a remote server will all the info needed, the llDie.

As for my vehicle when I lost it, take this as advice, have a remote kill ready and something to track it, even in testing phase. I lost a vehicle, turns out it got stuck trying to correct it's route at a sim border and kept crossing sims. Took some time to find it.

Edited February 25, 2018 by Chaser Zaks

[Anna Nova]

I have a Yava Pod station on my parcel.  I love the Pods and use them regularly.  If that gets up some people's nose, then it's quid pro quo for the ban-lines and 10 second ejectors that ruin flying.

I also have a visitor recording system, so I know how many people arrive by Pod, it's quite a lot more than you would think.  Although I am now getting more arriving by helicopter or truck to do GTFO!

[Callum Meriman]

2 hours ago, Chaser Zaks said:

1. Stay on the right side of the road, especially if not phantom! Not even scripts can detect fast head on collisions and handle them in time.

Pffft. As an Aussie the right is the wrong side of the road!  

 

[Pussycat Catnap]

On 2/23/2018 at 3:29 PM, ChinRey said:

It may actually have been the avatar in the pod that wasn't phantom. I only know about it because the person in the pod told about it in the Pod Rider group.

Running over a Linden in SL...

Now you've given us all a new challenge to put on the bucket list...

 

[iamyourneighbour]

On 24/02/2018 at 6:09 AM, Love Zhaoying said:

Interesting. You know more about it than I do! My usual assumption is that unattended vehicles NOT owned by LL on public land would be returned to owners. So, they must have some special arrangement or method of operation.

They can only stay for some extended time before being returned. I have coded auto tram (which floats since Jeogeot has no rail) that crosses Sims . Yana pods uses the same KFM mechanism. 

[Love Zhaoying]

42 minutes ago, iamyourneighbour said:

They can only stay for some extended time before being returned. I have coded auto tram (which floats since Jeogeot has no rail) that crosses Sims . Yana pods uses the same KFM mechanism. 

Yeah, my long-time understanding of how to prevent return is, straddle 2 sims and move back and forth so the object is in neither sim long enough to be returned.