Thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate the time you took to write this! Btw. being fairly new to sites like Hacker News and Reddit, I'm actually amazed by how nice this community is.
You are right, the write-up isn't meant for newbies to the topic. I'll definitely think about updating the intro to reflect that.
Regarding the ML series: aren't there already quite a few introductory series into the topic, which can be referred to? Because the text I wrote on the project page wasn't intended to be a guide of how to build a project like this, but rather to give a glimpse of how such an algorithm might work. But anyway I must say that I really like your concept of an interactive tutorial series. Maybe I'll write a guide to a project like this in the future; would also contribute if someone else does (to anyone out there).
Welcome! I find that the HN community is generally very nice to people showcasing stuff they're worked on. Occasionally the community can be harsh, but in my experience this is usually because 1) there are some serious issues with a project (so harsh, but true), or 2) the creator of said project gets defensive or combative when presented with feedback.
I definitely hope you stick around and keep posting interesting stuff you're working on. It's one of the main reasons I'm a regular visitor, and it inspires me to keep tinkering with my own projects!
> Regarding the ML series: aren't there already quite a few introductory series into the topic, which can be referred to?
I agree with the earlier poster that upon seeing what you did I kind of expected a tutorial explaining how to get there. I don't think you'd have to provide such a tutorial, of course, but I think setting expectations and ideally even linking to good 'introductory series into the topic' would be very much appreciated.
Personally I like to be presented with some end result that might take quite a bit of work to recreate. Being frustrated upon realizing that there's quite a bit of work ahead works well for me. But I especially love it when I'm given some gentle pointers towards next steps, so for me at least adding such pointers would make your article/demo even better.
For example: I had been interested in this 'lisp' thing for a while. I'd read a few short articles explaining the basics and why lisp is cool and so on, but I never dove in.
Then, one day, I read an article that presented some (relatively) idiomatic code in js/python/ruby/I don't remember, and a much shorter equivalent in, iirc, Clojure. The latter made no sense to me, but I was so curious about what was going on, that I continued reading the rather long article.
After finally vaguely understanding what the Clojure code was doing, I was so excited that I immediately went on and spent a few weeks tinkering with Clojure. Somehow, for me, it took a `look at what you'll eventually be able to do` type article to tickle me in the right way to actually sit down and bother learning clojure.
Love the demo, good work! However my cars got stuck in a fairly "stupid" way, both in the same place, when I tried to break their usual path. Maybe too low exploration / exploitation ratio?
About the series: there are quite a few of those around, but most of them are difficult to follow for the mathematically challenged. So, can you explain it without needing to include mathjax.js? If so, you would definitely stand out. :)
You are right, the write-up isn't meant for newbies to the topic. I'll definitely think about updating the intro to reflect that.
Regarding the ML series: aren't there already quite a few introductory series into the topic, which can be referred to? Because the text I wrote on the project page wasn't intended to be a guide of how to build a project like this, but rather to give a glimpse of how such an algorithm might work. But anyway I must say that I really like your concept of an interactive tutorial series. Maybe I'll write a guide to a project like this in the future; would also contribute if someone else does (to anyone out there).