Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bu-cs!madd
From: madd@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Jim Frost)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Beating Robocop
Message-ID: <20113@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Date: 23 Feb 88 15:19:42 GMT
References: <901@PT.CS.CMU.EDU> <7110005@hpcupt1.HP.COM>
Reply-To: madd@bu-it.bu.edu (Jim Frost)
Followup-To: sci.electronics
Organization: Boston University Distributed Systems Group
Lines: 24

In article <7110005@hpcupt1.HP.COM> dclaar@hpcupt1.HP.COM (Doug Claar) writes:
>The drive for reflective
>plates was spearheaded by a parent whose child was killed when he (?)
>ran into a disabled vehicle at night. With reflective plates, he might
>have seen the car in time.

Granted that this doesn't belong in sci.electronics, but I have a
query and a comment to this.

First, if the child had lights on whatever he (?) was driving, he
should have seen the reflectors on the automobile (or was this
particular automobile one of those that wasn't constructed with
reflectors? :-).  If he didn't have lights, reflective plates wouldn't
have mattered anyway.  Or was the car sufficiently disabled as to have
no reflectors?  I picture a completely destroyed car in the middle of
the highway.

Second, how long ago was this?  In NH they started using reflective
plates something like 8 years ago (more than that?  my memory is
fuzzy).  I thought that they were used to allow plate reading at
longer distances in low light.

jim frost
madd@bu-it.bu.edu