Those cars on the mainland roads. Grrrrrrr.

[DrFran Babcock]

Am I alone in disliking those cars that seem to be on the road all the time on Sansara, along with other continents with roads? I am on a sim along a road, and every few minutes an unmanned car, garbage truck, ice cream truck, van, Buick, etc,. etc. goes by and often heads off sideways onto the sim I rent. I have a bucolic, south of France setting, and this is disturbing to the effect we are trying to create.

Surely, there are other people in SL who would appreciate seeing them banned. Allow only vehicles with residents driving them. I wonder how this was allowed to happen? Thanks for reading.

[Cinnamon Lohner]

Actually I like them.  The roads are mostly empty anyway.  I don't understand why people are so uptight about these vehicles.  I think they are wonderful fun. People just want to ban and AR everything.  No wonder SL has gone to hades in a handbasket.

My 2 lindens worth.

--Cinn

[Claireschen Hesten]

the problem with these vehicles is you can't aimlessly stand afk on any linden road minding your own business with out one comming along and driving in to you next thing you know you've been pushed 2 or 3 regions up the road and then when they veer off the road they're there in piles taking up someones prim count if you ride one every few minutes it asks you if you want to buy one or donate or whatever and they never travel where you want them too

[Govindira Galatea]

---

Cinnamon Lohner wrote:

Actually I like them.  The roads are mostly empty anyway.  I don't understand why people are so uptight about these vehicles.  I think they are wonderful fun. People just want to ban and AR everything.  No wonder SL has gone to hades in a handbasket.

My 2 lindens worth.

--Cinn

---

If you want those cars toodling around on all the mainland roads, you certainly would also want to pay for a portion of the tier payments for all those who are affected by these driverless vehicles. I'm guessing that a 5% of tier payment would gratify us each enough that we'd accept them. Guessing some more, I think we're talking about somewhere in the nature of several hundred thousand to several million Linden dollars per month.

 

I'm sure you would have no problem getting together a group big enough to make these payments to us reasonable and affordable to you each, since you have such an affection for them. Most of us will be grateful for your group to subsidize our tier payments.

 

We will all be looking forward to your proposed system for compensating us for the aggravation (lag, cars trapped at property borders, etc.) caused by your roadway enhancements.

[Cinnamon Lohner]

If you don't want the aggravation of living on the Mainland, move to the Estates.  Really quite simple and frankly not worth all the typing you just did which I scanned and then lost interest in.  All my property is mainland and on Linden roads and as stated I don't have a problem with these vehicles.  You have other options, exercise them.  Or live your Second Life as a miserable mainland owner.   Your world, Your choice

--Cinn

[Govindira Galatea]

---

Cinnamon Lohner wrote:

If you don't want the aggravation of living on the Mainland, move to the Estates.  Really quite simple and frankly not worth all the typing you just did which I scanned and then lost interest in.  All my property is mainland and on Linden roads and as stated I don't have a problem with these vehicles.  You have other options, exercise them.  Or live your Second Life as a miserable mainland owner.   Your world, Your choice

--Cinn

---

OMG, you're right! Brilliant!  Why didn't I think of that! 

[Cinnamon Lohner]

---

Govindira Galatea wrote:

OMG, you're right! Brilliant!  Why didn't I think of that! 

---

Not enough fish in your diet.

--Cinn

[Wynochee LeShelle]

I think the secret behind the mystery of those vehicles is best explained here:

http://secondthoughts.typepad.com/second_thoughts/2011/02/software-hubris-or-the-invasion-of-annmarie-otooles-vehicles-everywhere.html

[Marigold Devin]

Those driverless vehicles certainly seem to be like (insert name of branded yeast-based product here) - you either love or hate them. I'm in the Cinn camp, and I really find them quite amusing.  I didn't at first, I have to admit, and I felt "stalked" by them, as they don't always stick to road, and I'd find myself chased up a dirt track by a school bus. 

The creator herself has said in at least one JIRA that if her vehicles are causing an individual problems then they are free to AR her.

I have more of an issue with landowners who spam me with landmark and notecard information while I am walking down the Linden Highways and not on their land, or those who have ejector orbs, again, set far wider than their land boundary.  But none of these irritate me enough to AR; heck, let's get some perspective and feel glad you're not having to rebuild your house like the poor unfortunates in Japan and NZ are having to do.

[Dana Hickman]

I saw my first one of these vehicles the other day, it was 10 minutes after selling all my land in that sim and I was standing on the road nearby. It was some kind of truck, but had a had time telling for sure as it hit the guardrail on one side of the road and immediately bounced away while rotating itself sideways in mid air so the passenger door was on the road. I let it plow into me while standing there and an amazing thing happened... my MystiTool movelock easily won the battle and I wound up pushing the sucker over the near guardrail and into Outys open front store lol. Ooops... So I watched the dumb thing bounce off every suface in there until it stuck itself on a nearby tree, at which point I just pulled out a big gun and launched it 2 sims away. I got sick of automated vehicles years ago when the skies around that area were filled with unmanned ufos and other strange creations that used to do 4-sim circles around the linden pond. These unmanned thingies are just as annoying as they were back then, only these ones are easier targets with the heavy weapons lmao.

[Celestiall Nightfire]

I saw those vehicles the other day.  Just now tried to stop one by clicking on it, and as soon as I did that another vehicle comes along.   Only this vehicle is a military tank.  And when I tried to stop it, it shot me with a missile! 

[LisaHot Juran]

I don't like them.  It would have been polite for the owner to contact the owners of each sim explaining the intent and let us say yay or nay.  I personally loose 10-15 fps as they enter the region of my home.  So even though on LL land,  they affect my experience.

 

 

 

[Polenth Yue]

I liked the vehicles at first, but not so much after the changes. The frequency has gone up dramatically and they spam menus as they pass. In moderation, I think it's a nice idea. Moderation would be a low frequency of vehicles and no automated menus.

[Govindira Galatea]

No, no!  You don't get it!  If we don't like these driverless vehicles causing lag in the mainland, all we have to do is to move to private estates!  It's Brilliant!  What a clever solution!  

[Holocluck Henly]

Well I've blogged and tweeted about them. you know where I stand on something that lags regions in multiples with a dozen scripts per object while pushing people into banlines and ditches, shooting missiles, soliciting (network advertising), encroachment, datamining, and more.

Sorry but we're not the ones who should leave mainland. The instigator and the subject of countless ARs from dozens of angry residents should either comply with TOS and output phantom/temporary sans weapons or solicits -- or set up their own sim. And I agree - moderation is key. Either allow the vehicles to output on click and meet a genuine demand by residents or output one per hour PER continent.

The roads are empty because a LOT of people gave up after being bullied off routes from these things.

[Baloo Uriza]

I'm lukewarm to them.  I see the value, but the frequency of automated vehicles, and the ability of these vehicles to track properly or handle obstructions leaves something to be desired.  They're fairly disruptive on the rail lines, even if they're not physical, since they interfere with prototypical operation by resident railfans.

[Knutz Scorpio]

First time I saw them I thought it was pretty neat.  But after being bumped by them several times, seeing them piled up in someone's yard, watching them drive down the railroad tracks and even out in the water I came to dislike them.  I can imagine how annoying these things are to land owners, they certainly are annoying to those of us trying to use the PUBLIC roads.

[Marx Dudek]

They are primitive looking, scripted badly, and make actual driving (or walking) on mainland roads nearly impossible.

They are not Linden owned, but they run on Linden-owned land.  Without compensation, I'm certain.

My opinion of course, but I'm not alone.

If they looked nicer, didn't move around on the road like they were being steered by a drunk driver on black ice, and would de-rez if an actual car is on approaching, I wouldn't mind them so much.

[Marx Dudek]

Cinnamon, you seem to have the opinion that mainland owners deserve to be inconvenienced.

Some of us like mainland.  Some of us like mainland a lot.  (Look at the SLURLs at the bottom of this post - every single one of the parcels is mainland.)  And since we do appreciate our mainland, we certainly have every right in the world to complain when someone takes it upon themselves to create a nuisance - and not even on their own land.

[Prokofy Neva]

Everyone should AR them:

o they are selling products on Linden Land -- the cars are for sale and have a scripted popup that tells you to buy them -- that's not allowed, selling on Linden Land

o they use up region resources -- dozens of them carom across sims all day long

o they crash into avatars -- this is bumping, and is against the TOS

o they go on other people's property and often crash and stay there -- this is encroachment and trespassing

o they are about one resident using public resources intended for all, to the detriment of the enjoyment of SL by others

 

So they involve many offenses, and the Lindens who may be permitting this under the notion that this gives them free stress-testing on sim seams or something should take a step back and ask why they are inflicting this on the population who pay them tier.

[DrFran Babcock]

OK, I am going to AR the vehicles every time they encroach on my land. I agree with many people. When I first saw them I was entranced, but that quickly changed to annoyance. Folks who stay in SL are willing to put up with many irritations. There are times when I have to log in three times before things work, but this is something about which I can do something. 

I will.

[squashy Beeswing]

So the bus that hit my partner the other day was likely one of these vehicles?  :smileymad:

[Tiffy Vella]

I laughed at the first one as it meandered past and forced me off the road. I smiled blandly at the next several dozen, and assumed the Moles had begun to provide a public transport service, albeit a really dodgy one. Then they quickly lost all appeal over the next few months, as any attempt to use the nearby Linden Roads on Jeojeot has been interrupted every 2-3 minutes by these ugly looking things.

After reading this, I'm getting a cannon and going hunting. These things really pee me off now I know how they came to be, and after living on Mainland for 3 years I can usually take most annoyances without batting a prim lash.

[Marianne McCann]

I feelings echo a lot of others here.  When I first saw them, I chalked them up to just another one of many interesting automated vehicles that have come along over time, from the old telehopper and kissling vehicles, the ferry from Purple to Cecrotopia, the GSLR, Cubey's automated planes out of Abbotts, etc. Not that big a deal. 

Then I started to see these cars everywhere. Ambling along the rails of the SLRR, floating in the waters off of Cowell, and along the bridle path (aka Route 6). Tanks rolling through neighborhoods, buses at the bottom of canals, and steam belching vintage tractors wandering aimlessly down the road. 

In some areas, the frequency of these means you'll see several pass by in the scope of only a few minutes, and their "brainless" meandering makes them hard to avoid on the roads. As a result, I don't tend to use the roads anymore. Likewise, even standing on right of way (such as on the aforementioned bridle path) can lead you to be hit by these automatons. 

Thankfully I didn't end up in a cast!

On one hand, I think it's a pretty amazing piece of work. These things are fully self guided, and "learn" as they go. And that is pretty cool. I agree, too, with those who talk of how nice it is to see traffic on the road. And frankly, I worry that too much regulation against them could affect some of the other automated vehicles out there that aren't annoying people.

I did try to talk to the owner of these, specifically to ask her to consider keeping them off the bridle path and other otherwise inappropriate locations. Unfortunately, in spite of the amazing AI work that went into them, she declared that it was simply impossible to teach her vehicles to avoid these paths (for example, having a blacklist of regions where it would be a "no no" to travel into). Likewise, she said, she gets so many people riding them  (and donations from these riders), and besides, they really like the "country roads."

To me, I see some issues. For one, these are self-guided. They end up going into areas where vehicles are not intended (for example, a stretch of Linden-owned right of way that is deliberately "blacklisted" for vehicles, and sectioned off with a faux tunnel). For another, they do end up negatively impacting regions due to script load (and to a lesser extent sound, particles, and such). They're also arguably far too frequent. Also, as I believe was indicated above, they're non-phantom, bump into people, and end up often collecting in ditches.

A bigger issue, IMO, is that they're soliciting for Lindens, and give you information to purchase your own AI driven vehicles. In short, it turns these from "friendly public service" to "mobile ad farm." This, IMO, runs afoul of the spirit of the ad farm rules.  So as much as I'd like to say "meh, random cars," I can certainly sympathize with those annoyed by these things. It seems like a noble -- but very misguided -- effort, and one that puts 'look what i can do" in front of "we all share this space."

Supposedly these things learn, but the one thing they cannot adapt to is the growing frustration of people who would like to be able to share the road, yet have been pushed off of them (literally and figuratively) by these vehicles.

[Dana Hickman]

We need to team up with a few landowners who own roadside land, where the street traffic of these idiot vehicles is really bad and have a mass roadside "bump and return" party :smileytongue: