[FTC]: [FTC] Autonomous center line rule

[Nemo]

FYI, I just emailed FIRST through their website and let them know that they really ought to make a rule preventing teams from crossing the center line during the autonomous period. It's way too easy to program your robot to drive straight forward and then point it at an opposing team to derail their autonomous strategy. That's bad for the game - it reduces the variety and complexity of successful autonomous strategies. This is a rule they could easily put in place this year.

If you feel the same way, feel free to email them and let them know.

[ekovacs]

I strongly agree with what you are saying because the FTC team I am on spends hours upon hours working on autonomous programs. We were able to successfully execute a double ring autonomous in competition which gave us a large advantage before teleop even started. We thought that one of the most frustrating things in all of FTC is that the hours of time that we put into making an accurate autonomous program can be neutralized in a few minutes with a simple program that involves crossing the center line and then driving straight for 10 seconds.

From a programming standpoint, I feel that teams would spend more time perfecting an offensive autonomous than a quick and easy defensive program. Frankly, the programmers would probably learn a little more by writing that type of a program.