Hi-
while looking for old friends online, I came across a post here asking for information about Briway, as featured here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvAHgwNkbHU . Unfortunately the thread was closed so I couldn't reply, hence starting this one!
I was a Test Track Technician at Briway from 1988 to 1993, when we mothballed the company, and can tell you pretty much anything I can remember..!
Regarding the crash, I (unusually) wasn't driving that day- I was on the signals, and Chris was driving- from the "wrong end", to let the camera sit up front. I don't recall how the demo started, but prior to the crash we performed a pattern of "down through the chicane, straight back up"- the test track was only 300m long, and the straight run downhill- to demonstrate full acceleration and braking- was a bit hairy to do with guests on board. On reaching the top, the car radioed back "Same again", so I set them for the "chicane", to repeat the same pattern. I suspect Alan was on radio, as the control box was loose on the driver's lap, needing a hand to hold it and a hand for the throttle. Chris either didn't hear, or misunderstood, with the results you see in the video (which I can't actually bear to watch just now!).
Actually, we did recover from that accident- it was relatively early in development, manually driven, with most safety devices not yet installed, and the Railway Inspectorate were, I think, understanding. By the time we wound up, we had two fully autonomous vehicles out on the track, playing around each other, with full, Railway Inspectorate-approved hardware safety systems. (Careful ring-fencing kept us to under 1kB of safety-critical code, which could be proved fail-safe by formal methods. The vehicle had dual control computers, and an arbiter which selected the "safer" of the two)
We were, at the end- as we understood it on the "shop floor"- sole preferred bidder for Hong Kong's Chek Lap Kok; however, Bristow had run out of money to "play with", and failed to find a taker for his curious business terms: he approached a number of players- Alsthom included- for a million pounds, for a year, which he would pay back with interest if the airport job didn't come through. If it did, they'd have to buy the company out in full for the 8 million he'd put in. He gave them 2 weeks to make up their minds. It was just too unconventional for corporate companies to consider...!
Hope that was of interest- I can give you any more details that you might like. I was very pleased to find that Briway finally had a mention on the web, and I've often thought I ought to make a site dedicated to it, so it's not forgotten...
Cheers, Tom
while looking for old friends online, I came across a post here asking for information about Briway, as featured here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvAHgwNkbHU . Unfortunately the thread was closed so I couldn't reply, hence starting this one!
I was a Test Track Technician at Briway from 1988 to 1993, when we mothballed the company, and can tell you pretty much anything I can remember..!
Regarding the crash, I (unusually) wasn't driving that day- I was on the signals, and Chris was driving- from the "wrong end", to let the camera sit up front. I don't recall how the demo started, but prior to the crash we performed a pattern of "down through the chicane, straight back up"- the test track was only 300m long, and the straight run downhill- to demonstrate full acceleration and braking- was a bit hairy to do with guests on board. On reaching the top, the car radioed back "Same again", so I set them for the "chicane", to repeat the same pattern. I suspect Alan was on radio, as the control box was loose on the driver's lap, needing a hand to hold it and a hand for the throttle. Chris either didn't hear, or misunderstood, with the results you see in the video (which I can't actually bear to watch just now!).
Actually, we did recover from that accident- it was relatively early in development, manually driven, with most safety devices not yet installed, and the Railway Inspectorate were, I think, understanding. By the time we wound up, we had two fully autonomous vehicles out on the track, playing around each other, with full, Railway Inspectorate-approved hardware safety systems. (Careful ring-fencing kept us to under 1kB of safety-critical code, which could be proved fail-safe by formal methods. The vehicle had dual control computers, and an arbiter which selected the "safer" of the two)
We were, at the end- as we understood it on the "shop floor"- sole preferred bidder for Hong Kong's Chek Lap Kok; however, Bristow had run out of money to "play with", and failed to find a taker for his curious business terms: he approached a number of players- Alsthom included- for a million pounds, for a year, which he would pay back with interest if the airport job didn't come through. If it did, they'd have to buy the company out in full for the 8 million he'd put in. He gave them 2 weeks to make up their minds. It was just too unconventional for corporate companies to consider...!
Hope that was of interest- I can give you any more details that you might like. I was very pleased to find that Briway finally had a mention on the web, and I've often thought I ought to make a site dedicated to it, so it's not forgotten...
Cheers, Tom