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.
LandR 2 days ago [-]
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.
NikkiA 2 days ago [-]
> 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.
2 days ago [-]
tim333 1 days ago [-]
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
whamlastxmas 2 days ago [-]
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.
mprast 2 days ago [-]
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
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.
One of the best TV shows ever produced. Sooo good.
rkagerer 9 hours ago [-]
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.
Mistletoe 2 days ago [-]
Watching him go by that tiger has given me so much joy tonight thank you.
Baeocystin 2 days ago [-]
The subtle smile at the end of the Tiger's enclosure!
grahamj 2 days ago [-]
That is hilarious. He drives better than a lot of people I see on the road.
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.
m463 2 days ago [-]
but humans still don't know to open a banana from the bottom.
withinboredom 2 days ago [-]
Are you sure you are using the banana right side up?
MonkeyClub 2 days ago [-]
> Humans and apes are equally evolved
Can't wait to hear an ape argue that online.
Oh, wait.
verisimi 2 days ago [-]
Apes are people too!
mjan22640 2 days ago [-]
Humans are apes.
WalterBright 2 days ago [-]
Depends on what the meaning of "is" is.
JoachimS 2 days ago [-]
"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´?
luke-stanley 2 days ago [-]
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.
sebastianz 2 days ago [-]
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.
verisimi 2 days ago [-]
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.
neom 2 days ago [-]
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!
account42 2 days ago [-]
As opposed to grinding at work in order to improve ad performance by 0.1%?
verisimi 2 days ago [-]
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.
animal_spirits 2 days ago [-]
For some, living means sharing your life and joy with animals. Some people are brought joy by taking care of them.
Mistletoe 2 days ago [-]
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. :)
gyomu 2 days ago [-]
Birds who can soar for hours on end with thermals won evolution as far as I’m concerned (they have befriended the spirals)
danparsonson 2 days ago [-]
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 :-)
WalterBright 2 days ago [-]
I do regular running, and sometimes it's just pure joy.
Mistletoe 2 days ago [-]
Ugh this should have said “anything”, I can’t edit it now. You guys get it.
2 days ago [-]
bitwize 2 days ago [-]
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!
All the cars get stuck honking in front of the cheese distributor.
dunham 2 days ago [-]
I'm curious if they could do better than software. We'd all start keeping pet rats as chauffeurs.
2 days ago [-]
srkiNZ 2 days ago [-]
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.
>>> 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.
shmeeed 2 days ago [-]
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.
crooked-v 2 days ago [-]
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.
cainxinth 2 days ago [-]
> 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?
The researcher jumping for joy in the last video is almost as cute as the rats. Everyone is having a good time!
grahamj 2 days ago [-]
Amazing! And these rats look just like our boys which really... drives this home.
tediousgraffit1 2 days ago [-]
literal rat race when?
mofunnyman 2 days ago [-]
You should check out micromouse, it's a robo rat race.
leoh 2 days ago [-]
When can we teach them how to sail or drive motor boats
tomcam 2 days ago [-]
The funniest thing to me is that rats are much quicker on their feet than they are in the toy car.
Timwi 2 days ago [-]
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!
eternauta3k 2 days ago [-]
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).
MonkeyClub 2 days ago [-]
Many people drive to please the managers.
kylehotchkiss 2 days ago [-]
My new nightmare: the rats are all driving cars to their nightly plight to my yard.
interludead 2 days ago [-]
Now imagine the aftermath: rat tire tracks all over your lawn. A true nightmare, indeed!
borbtactics 2 days ago [-]
I have a new casino idea.
dumb1224 2 days ago [-]
You should call it rat race ;)
adxl 2 days ago [-]
Ratmo?
dredmorbius 1 days ago [-]
We've achieve ratonomous vehicles before autonomous, certainly.
2 days ago [-]
gyre007 2 days ago [-]
Who needs self-driving cars when we can have rat-driving cars?
factormeta 2 days ago [-]
Who needs rat-driving cars, when you have Snakes on a Plane:
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.
coolius 2 days ago [-]
I would totally watch them race each other.
rock115 2 days ago [-]
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.
mock-possum 2 days ago [-]
Zardulu strikes again
2 days ago [-]
interludead 2 days ago [-]
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!
kombookcha 2 days ago [-]
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 :)
pvaldes 2 days ago [-]
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.
theGeatZhopa 2 days ago [-]
Now someone tell me how to teach 'en not to drink and drive - plain English wouldn't work I guess.
shiroiushi 2 days ago [-]
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.
imp0cat 2 days ago [-]
This is the beginning of a research that will ultimately make humans enjoy their rush hour commutes.
m463 2 days ago [-]
all the research would have to say "in rats"
sachinaag 2 days ago [-]
[dead]
muffwiggler 2 days ago [-]
[flagged]
ashoeafoot 2 days ago [-]
If i show an elephant or a orang utan google maps, does he know how to use it?
veltas 2 days ago [-]
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.
creesch 2 days ago [-]
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.
veltas 2 days ago [-]
Yeah sorry that was a joke, if not clear
interludead 2 days ago [-]
Driving is fun until you factor in traffic, reckless drivers, and the stakes of accidents
pjmlp 2 days ago [-]
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.
Rendered at 07:11:33 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
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.
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.
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.
https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6639406
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=dog+skating&iax=videos&ia=v...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVbtAYPSapw
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/rEwpaMJLgTI
https://youtube.com/shorts/kvFKIovjbWo?si=8pwlZfwtPZpHoQRu
So chill!
https://www.youtu.be/IFACrIx5SZ0 orangutan the carpenter
https://www.youtu.be/PcvH1eOjOVs parrot drives his own car
https://youtu.be/IFACrIx5SZ0 orangutan the carpenter
https://youtu.be/PcvH1eOjOVs parrot drives his own car
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHODo_jIPo4
In fact, given the dimensionality of all possible fitness gradients, our direction of evolution is likely near-orthogonal to theirs.
Can't wait to hear an ape argue that online.
Oh, wait.
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´?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08G8u7sk2Jo
A different one, in a home environment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYHMc3-f3v8
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.
I used 'fake' because this is nothing like a natural human life, nor a natural rat life.
I don't get grinding at work to buy your pet rat a new car, no.
“If one could run without getting tired, I don’t think one would often want to do anytrung else?”
As a runner, I agree. :)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UIe8Y0k-QDw
https://www.tiktok.com/@emperorsofmischief
https://www.amazon.com/Mouse-Motorcycle-Ralph-Book-ebook/dp/...
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.
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.
That is absolutely adorable and wonderful!
Seriously though, I wonder if they drive to please the researchers (to any degree).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakes_on_a_Plane
But maybe the rats will be smarter.
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.
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.
But you can combine best of both world experiences, being compressed in a bus, stuck in a middle of stop and go traffic.