This reminded me of the orangutan driving a golf cart: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DJsn1QivbKM
He has mastered it. He clearly understands the concept of roads vs sidewalks. He can drive using one hand. And most importantly, he obviously has a great time doing that.
I don't understand.
Someone, at some point, said lets see if the Orangutan can drive the golf cart, and presumably no one said "NO! That's an awful idea"...
Then not only did it learn, it got good at it and seems to enjoy it...
I just really don't understand how this came about. How did it learn to do this. The initial phases must have been just constant crashing into stuff. How on earth did it ever get past this without a teacher being able to communicate with it.
I have so many questions.
> The initial phases must have been just constant crashing into stuff.
Why would you assume that?
It didn't learn by trial and error, it watched and copied another ape.
Golf carts aren't massively complicated.
Probably same way I learned as a kid on my grandparents ranch. Start by letting them steer but correct as needed. Eventually they steer by themselves. Then introduce gas pedal.
Not sure but there is video of some guys driving with it. It's on at the zoo of Dubai Royal Palace. Orangutan's are supposed to be pretty smart - it could probably watch humans press the accelerator and turn the wheel and figure it. https://youtu.be/WSR_4qyz7CY?t=285
bees will push balls around just for the hell of it - they trained the bees to push the balls and then took the rewards away and gave them unlimited pollen and sucrose and the bees kept going back to the balls. they just wanted to mess around
Or dogs skateboarding, leaning into the curve of the roads.
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=dog+skating&iax=videos&ia=v...
Maybe skateboards are just instinctual. Anyways, here's a tiny turtle on a skateboard.
Instinctual is not the description I'd personally agree on, I mean just look at this
Haha, I basically barged into here ready to post a video of Greyson. Amazing stuff, I'm surprised more people haven't been successful (or interested in) teaching their dogs ride stuff.
or onewheeling!
For those who haven't seen The Sopranos, here is what that video is based off of: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJpNmYeooQE
One of the best TV shows ever produced. Sooo good.
Watching him go by that tiger has given me so much joy tonight thank you.
The subtle smile at the end of the Tiger's enclosure!
That is hilarious. He drives better than a lot of people I see on the road.
So chill!
Are you sure the steering wheel is actually hooked up? There are times especially toward the end of the video where he turns it and I don't see the expected swerve (even a small one) from the cart.
and that reminds me of...
https://www.youtu.be/IFACrIx5SZ0 orangutan the carpenter
https://www.youtu.be/PcvH1eOjOVs parrot drives his own car
Strange, browser shows error, and nslookup can't resolve DNS for www.youtu.be either, even using Google's own 8.8.8.8 server. (nxdomain)
youtu.be is the shortened URL, adding "www." wastes 4 characters.
Same here, refusing to load
sorry
https://youtu.be/IFACrIx5SZ0 orangutan the carpenter
https://youtu.be/PcvH1eOjOVs parrot drives his own car
Better than FSD
Just wait till the apes learn to say "no".
I don't think we've evolved very far from apes:
Humans and apes are equally evolved
Along somewhat different fitness gradients, though. Meaning we've evolved some distance from them.
In fact, given the dimensionality of all possible fitness gradients, our direction of evolution is likely near-orthogonal to theirs.
Good point. Given our evolution has led to a species with the ability and tendency to destroy itself, our fitness gradient could certainly be considered inferior
but humans still don't know to open a banana from the bottom.
Are you sure you are using the banana right side up?
Apes are people too!
> Humans and apes are equally evolved
Can't wait to hear an ape argue that online.
Oh, wait.
Humans are apes.
Depends on what the meaning of "is" is.
"One day, a student noticed something strange: One of the rats in the group trained to expect positive experiences had its tail straight up with a crook at the end, resembling the handle of an old-fashioned umbrella."
For anyone having, being friends with, are interested in cats will recognize this behavior. If you meet a cat on the street and it raises its tail like this, it will also probably come up to you. A cat that sweeps the tail back and fort, often with the end of it a bit jerky is probably afraid, angry, hesitant and does not want to engage. It should be left alone unless you want to feel the sharp end of those retractable razor blades.
Cats also use the same patterns between each other. And interestingly some dogs use the same patterns too. Tiger puppies seem to do this also (as seen in documentaries). So, at least to me, there seems to be common 'language' to express feelings and interests between some animals equipped with tails.
I would have thought this should have been a known thing, possibly even for the driving rat scientists. Anybody on HN that have some references into known ´tail language´?
Is it like an "Oh hi!" tail? Suddenly interested in the `animal tail gestures embedding space`! There must be lots of interesting ways of conveying feelings, strategic intent and misdirection along with subconscious communication.
The home one .. nice people but there's something so lost about dedicating your life and house to your pet rats. Everyone seems to living a fake life in that.
I don't think there's anything "lost" about having a hobby, or passion and love for your pets. I find it endearing and sweet.
I'm not sure if english is your first language or you intended it like that but saying that someone is living a "fake life" also sounds quite offensive and arrogant.
Do you think its ok to remodel your life (time, house, money) around your pet rats?
I used 'fake' because this is nothing like a natural human life, nor a natural rat life.
huh? I have pet rats and you should see my house! Looks like a little zoo. It's a great deal of fun training them and providing them with joy. Could be a dog or a cat or anything else, I just happened to absolutely love rats!
As opposed to grinding at work in order to improve ad performance by 0.1%?
If you're grinding at work to make money to live - I get it.
I don't get grinding at work to buy your pet rat a new car, no.
For some, living means sharing your life and joy with animals. Some people are brought joy by taking care of them.
Maybe it is hard coded in sentient beings to enjoy moving at speed with very little energy expenditure. To quote C.S. Lewis in the The Last Battle-
“If one could run without getting tired, I don’t think one would often want to do anytrung else?”
As a runner, I agree. :)
Birds who can soar for hours on end with thermals won evolution as far as I’m concerned (they have befriended the spirals)
I've seen frigate birds taking off at sunset, flying around a bit and then going back to their nests - pretty sure they were just enjoying the experience :-)
I do regular running, and sometimes it's just pure joy.
Ugh this should have said “anything”, I can’t edit it now. You guys get it.
I'm reminded of the YouTube vids in which someone places a small toy finger skateboard underneath a turtle. The turtle quickly learned to propel itself with its legs and, having acquired a taste for speed, uses its newfound ability to harass the cats. Cowabunga!
I had no idea a turtle could be so playful
Dozens of videos from TikTok of rats driving cars very similar to the ones in the article: (not a joke link)
I have an idea for a "self" driving car company.
All the cars get stuck honking in front of the cheese distributor.
I'm curious if they could do better than software. We'd all start keeping pet rats as chauffeurs.
Really enjoyed this article. Longevity and health increasingly seems to be intrinsically tied to planning for better things, hoping for better things and enjoying the process.
reminds me of this classic
https://www.amazon.com/Mouse-Motorcycle-Ralph-Book-ebook/dp/...
Fish can drive cars too.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/goldfish-driving-1.6309485
>>> Surprisingly, it doesn't take the fish a long time to learn how to drive the vehicle. They're confused at first. They don't know what's going on. But they're very quick to realize that there is a correlation between their movement and the movement of the machine that they're in.
My armchair biologist thought is to wonder if there's a common thread of balancing (on water currents, air currents, slippery surfaces, etc) that translates into fairly easily understanding how to direct vehicles.
Of course this fits right in with the thread's theme of animals driving, and I don't want to be a spoilsport, but this article has me not too convinced about the bold claim it makes.
As good as it sounds, I have my reservations about it showing "that a fish has the cognitive capability to navigate outside its natural environment".
Rather it seems to me the fish is just swimming in the direction of the treat, as it would do _inside_ its natural environment, and the car translates that directional push - I don't see a real "driving" coordination in the sense of a motoric abstraction based on a learning of cause and effect.
I doubt the fish are in any way "aware" of what's happening, or even that it's happening distinctly outside their environment. They're just swimming instinctively, adopting to what I imagine might a feel like a strong breaking current and a boop on the nose. Some might be more adept at this than others. After all they're captive animals that probably don't have much experience navigating challenging environments, not even aquatic ones.
I highly suspect "driving" via levers or buttons like the rats do would be beyond of what can be reasonably expected from a goldfish brain anyway.
As a kind of mental cross-check of the claim, I'd expect, say, a moth to be able to "drive" just the same way towards a light - and it would be pretty obvious there's no deeper cognition involved.
> Unexpectedly, we found that the rats had an intense motivation for their driving training, often jumping into the car and revving the "lever engine" before their vehicle hit the road. Why was that?
That is absolutely adorable and wonderful!
This is the cutest thing I've seen all day
The researcher jumping for joy in the last video is almost as cute as the rats. Everyone is having a good time!
I saw a news story about rats being trained in Tanzania to search for people under rubble. These animals have sharp hearing and an excellent sense of smell. I just don’t remember the exact breed of these rats. I really like these animals!
I believe there is also a very interesting project that uses trained rats to detect and mark landmines for clearing. The rats can apparently smell even very old explosives under the dirt, and unlike their handlers are too light to set them off :)
It’s cool to see animals being such unexpected heroes
Is not a breed, is a different species. Giant pouched rats from the African rainforests. Not even in the same family as the domestic rats.
Ah, thanks for clarifying! It’s even cooler knowing they’re a whole different species with such unique abilities
If you're into rats doing cool things for food and fun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV9z0c1hjnA
literal rat race when?
You should check out micromouse, it's a robo rat race.
Amazing! And these rats look just like our boys which really... drives this home.
When can we teach them how to sail or drive motor boats
Wait til they make a rat bicycle, that'll break the Internet.
Seriously though, I wonder if they drive to please the researchers (to any degree).
Many people drive to please the managers.
The funniest thing to me is that rats are much quicker on their feet than they are in the toy car.
That's beside the point. Walking/running requires energy and is exhausting. The car provides its own energy, so driving is easy and relaxing. I know which one I'd prefer!
My new nightmare: the rats are all driving cars to their nightly plight to my yard.
Now imagine the aftermath: rat tire tracks all over your lawn. A true nightmare, indeed!
Ratmo?
We've achieve ratonomous vehicles before autonomous, certainly.
I have a new casino idea.
You should call it rat race ;)
Who needs self-driving cars when we can have rat-driving cars?
Who needs rat-driving cars, when you have Snakes on a Plane:
I would totally watch them race each other.
Man those rats really hit the jackpot. They're over here cruisin while their buddies a few rooms over are probably getting vivisected or something.
Zardulu strikes again
Rats learning to drive is cool and all, but the real takeaway is how anticipation of fun can rewire our brains. Behavioral "pharmaceuticals" are a wild concept.
Now someone tell me how to teach 'en not to drink and drive - plain English wouldn't work I guess.
We still haven't figured out how to teach humans, in their own native languages, how to not drink and drive.
But maybe the rats will be smarter.
This is the beginning of a research that will ultimately make humans enjoy their rush hour commutes.
all the research would have to say "in rats"
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If i show an elephant or a orang utan google maps, does he know how to use it?
Just now scientists are finding out driving is fun, when we're just about ready to ban it!
Mind you, I don't think the rats would enjoy it as much if they had to share the road with the kind of rats I share it with, and if the penalty for crashing (or being crashed into) was as high.
Driving is fun until you factor in traffic, reckless drivers, and the stakes of accidents
Still beats losing train connections, being pressed in a sardine can until everyone fits in, or stop in the middle of nowhere wondering when it will start moving again.
But you can combine best of both world experiences, being compressed in a bus, stuck in a middle of stop and go traffic.
Honestly, it feels like every mode of travel has its unique headaches
Pfffft, nobody is banning driving. Self driving cars are not going to be rolled out that widely for a while. Also, moving away from car centric infrastructure doesn't mean that cars are getting banned. That's such a weird US centric take I see way too often.
Here in the Netherlands, we arguably have some of the most bike and pedestrian friendly infrastructure in the world. Guess what, we also have a very well respected car infrastructure with high quality highways and connections.
Focussing on other modes of transport isn't banning cars, it is making cars optional for those who choose to do so. Or worded differently, it gives people a choice.
With that out of the way, the title here on HN is misleading. It is not so much about driving but enrichment in general.
Yeah sorry that was a joke, if not clear