I used to design PID process controllers in industry. In watching this vid I realized one reason that designing a self-driving car is so difficult. Toward the end, in the process control diagram, he has [Vehicle] as the controlled process. This reminds me of the old math joke about "assume a spherical cow". The difficulty with a self-driving car is that it isn't just the vehicle that has to be controlled but [Vehicle + Current Road] so the controlled process is not just difficult to model but that it is changing all the time and sometimes rapidly.
I think learning it all on your own is not efficient even for a genius. At the very least (assuming you are a genius) you should do a double major in Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering and a minor in philosophy at a mid- or top-tier university. EE and ME are the practical expression of the foundation of classical physics. Einstein's early work was related to integrating these two fields. In short (I am a bit sketchy on the exact details since it has been a while), before Einstein there was an odd inconsistency in Maxwell's equations whereby the results differed if the magnets were moving or the coils were moving in generating electricity. Since all motion is relative, at least mathematically, it should not matter which was moving. Einstein's revolution amounted to modifying the concepts of space and time (using Lorentz transformations) to make that inconsistency go away BUT it is possible that that is not the only possible solution to the puzzle. Once you get your BS degrees you should get your PhD in physics at a mid-tier school or no one will listen to you.
The reason you need to minor in philosophy is to understand the history of the field going all the way back to the Greeks. Most importantly, you need to clearly define a theory of concepts and apply it to fundamental concepts such as existence, consciousness, free will, space and time. Current physics (and math, btw) are vitiated by inconsistent fundamental concepts. In fact, Einstein's concept of spacetime is a denial of consciousness (an axiom) and a deadend. The fundamental concepts in physics should be lightspace and gravitytime to avoid this error. You won't learn much in modern philosophy courses in regard to these issues but you need to understand the history and read Ayn Rand's Philosophy:Who_Needs_It, Introduction_To_Objectivist_Epistemology and the title essay of her anthology For_The_New_Intellectual.
Hard agree on the EE + ME foundation. Most physicists reach their limits because they don't understand parallels between or capabilities of different established domains of applied physics. Plus, engineering gives you good advanced and backup job opportunities.
It is always easier to find a job when you have a job. Once you have made the decision to leave then putting up with the on-the-job BS is psychologically easier because it reinforces your decision and you know that you are working on getting out, hopefully soon. Also, in today's environment (lots of tech layoffs incoming) it might take you a year to find a suitable alternative. Make sure you have some savings for the transition, brush up your resume and start networking with friends, asssociates or a head hunter. Do not bad mouth your current employer in interviews and don't tell your employer or any coworkers, that will move you to the top of the layoff list if word gets out.
I didn't hate or fail math in college but it wasn't my favorite subject in engineering school. Math is now a hobby. In college math was either taught by the math dept. and stressed all the tedious proofs or it was taught in the engineering dept. so we just memorized "recipes" to setup and crank out solutions using math without much foundation or understanding of the math. I know it is a tough line to draw between the theory and the practice/use of math but to me this was the worst possible case and I hated both methods.
A few years out of school I ran across a math problem (not work related) that was interesting enough to dig in to and started hanging out on math stackexchange and later even bought mathematica to help me understand AND solve problems FOR FUN and I was hooked.
I have a modern car (2019) and the auto braking, collision and lane drift alert is a nuisance. False positives are common and there is no way to disable most of it. Some of it can be turned off but as soon as the car is restarted it resets to the default. I've even had the car emergency brake and come to a complete stop in the middle of the road due to a phantom collision. As soon as I pay it off I am going to sell it and roll back to an earlier model without all this mandated, modern tech and keep the older car rolling till I die. We will become like Cuba keeping 50's cars running into the 70's or even the 80's and this time it won't be due to the commies but the fascists.
Usually you can disable it but on a per-ride basis and it takes a lot of menu scrolling and tapping to do it again. It defaults to 'on' when you start the car, and there is no physical switch to disable it permanently.
Yeah, I meant it's weird you cannot just disable it and have that saved across starts. Mine allows me to disable those features and they don't turn back on when you restart the vehicle. I don't think AEB is a feature that can be disabled though. Just the collision avoidance feature. They are similar, but not the same. AEB is supposed to only trigger when a crash is imminent while collision avoidance is what triggers when it thinks you are about to have a crash that can be averted. I've never had AEB trigger, but CA triggers regularly enough that I know when to expect it now.
> AEB is supposed to only trigger when a crash is imminent while collision avoidance is what triggers when it thinks you are about to have a crash that can be averted
If that had been the case I would have still driven that car... very frustrating because - touchscreen aside - it was a nice and comfy car and I had planned to make it the last car I ever bought.
I imagine there is no permanent disable because it is a "safety" feature. But at least on my Subaru disabling it is a physical button. No scrolling and tapping required. On the other hand, it also works well enough that I haven't felt a need to disable it.
On my 21 Subaru I disable lane assist unless I’m on the highway. It’s too strong on the wheel, and there are too many construction related lane issues near me that have almost caused accidents for me multiple times.
In my own experience, alternating between bouts of self-doubt, hopelessness and despair followed by episodes of excitement, mania (the good kind) and progress from the fire of a new idea all seems normal and unavoidable to me. You just have to slog through the rough times and keep going. Don't listen to naysayers and don't give up but be sure to take breaks. Keep a journal of what hasn't worked in the past and summarize what you learned. Just writing it will put it in your subconscious for later use and occasionally you'll want to go back and revisit an idea that did not work.
Way back in the 90's in college I took some elective class (I forget the topic) and the prof had a lecture on how controlled burns prevent wildfires. He also said that govt policy was already limiting controlled burns even then and he predicted that in 20 years, unless the policies changed, that we'd be having giant wildfires and here we are.
Two that I've seen that made me laugh were "escape goat" for "scapegoat" and "water under the fridge" for "water under the bridge", I use these malaprops intentionally now.
I mean "scapegoat" is a shortening of "escape goat" so probably at some point in history there were grammar pedants complaining about kids these days saying scapegoat instead of escape goat.
> The English scapegoat is a compound of the archaic verb scape, which means "escape," and goat
