Posted on 06/11/2017 7:06:36 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Eliminating the Problem
How difficult is it to test autonomous vehicles (AVs) on public roads? Uber can probably tell you all about it. Much of the difficulty in obtaining the permits necessary for such tests comes from fear. Because self-driving technology is new, because the systems have been involved in incidents in the past, and so on, people aren’t quite ready to trust the tech.
The governor of Washington state, however, has a different perspective. Governor Jay Inslee signed an order on Wednesday that would allow for autonomous vehicle tests without a human driver behind the wheel. According to the governor’s official blog, the order could allow these tests to begin within the next two months. Self-driving system developers can already apply for permits for pilot program tests through the state’s Department of Licensing.....
(Excerpt) Read more at futurism.com ...
The vintage British series The Prisoner comes to mind. Namely the episode “The General”.
If this catches on, will there be anyone that will still have the skill to drive in a generation? Will autonomous cars have restricted destinations? Will they limit the amount of miles you can travel? What other hidden surprises are waiting?
All of these autonomous cars are being developed by people or organizations that think they can run your life better than you. They are often climate change cultists to boot. I always wonder the true motivation to develop these cars given their other beliefs.
Dang me, and I always thought the world is overpopulated and there is no shortage of human drivers. Heck, in neighboring Oregon, no one can pump their own gas. There are human attendants at every gas station. The idea is to preserve gas attendant jobs. But now I worry about Uber drivers, taxi drivers & Lyft drivers. Their jobs are about to be eliminated.
But don’t worry, jobs for driverless car computer programmers, technicians, accident investigators, lawyers filing suits for driverless cars accidents, car body repair shops, etc will expand nicely.
If you are correct, what happens to jobs for car body repair shops, cops investigating accidents, lawyers filing accident related lawsuits, judges to rule on those lawsuits, court clerks and bailiffs to process those lawsuits, and the huge auto insurance industry employing millions of people.
But all will not be lost. Jobs will increase for programmers to program computers in driverless cars, technicians to install and repair those computers, lawyers filing class action suits against driverless cars when accidents do happen, judges and court personnel to process those lawsuits etc.
With 94 million Americans without jobs, where is the driver shortage?
If it does not flip me the bird when I pass the driverless car, I am OK with it as well.
It will be CEO of the company responsible for placing the autonomous car on the road.
CEO of the corporation fielding the autonomous car involved in an accident.
Will the computer driven car be able to avoid the 13 Billion pot holes on US streets? I can visualize huge increase in tire damage, wheel damage, suspension components damage such ass ball joints, frequent need for wheel alignment, shocks wearing out prematurely, etc.
Reasons to refuse a self-driving car:
* Take the liberal bully mobs blocking traffic as “protest”, sometimes assaulting those inside if of the wrong race or ideology. A self-driving car likely won’t let you go forward, even if for your own safety, and these are the people who will exploit such for personal pleasure.
* Criminal gangs in Mexico and further south create false road blocks to rob people they stop. Self driving cars can’t cope with this.
* Driver is the biggest job category in many states, and we don’t have any good plan for helping the working class already displaced by competition with immigrants and automation. Let’s delay the new technology before creating more people reliant on welfare and dispossessed.
I also hear a lot of comments about how these companies will be bankrupted by lawsuits if there are any accidents with these vehicles. I'm not seeing it that way. In the current situation, some 40,000 people are killed annually in the United States alone by car accidents and hundreds of thousands more are injured. There are some 5,000,000 car accidents each year in the U.S. (if you want to include every fender bender). That's pretty astonishing - but we have grown pretty inured to these grisly statistics.
No doubt we are going to have some accidents and fatalities with autonomous cars too but considering where we are at today, there is a huge opportunity to make our highways safer with this technology. Let's face it, human drivers make a lot of stupid mistakes while driving. Be it texting, eating, digging in the glove compartment for something, not paying attention, etc., etc. Even when human drivers do pay attention, they tend to go too fast and make stupid decisions too often. Just go to YouTube and search for "snow/ice crashes" and see the stupidity for yourself.
“If that were true, you would not have companies like Apple, Google and others spending billions on the technology today”
So your theory is if big corporations invest big money they’ll never be wrong?
There will never be another New Coke or Segue?
Since I never had a single accident since 1960 when I bought my first car, a Buick Super with straight 8 engine, I am the least qualified to pontificate on why other drivers cause accidents.
But we can all count on one thing for sure...as soon as accidents happen, and accidents will happen, the trial lawyers will have a field day suing whichever corporation fields the computer driven cars.
These type of cars are bound to cost more than a standard human driver car due to sophisticated electronics necessary. My guess is most people will not shell out the extra dollars to buy them. However there are some people with physical handicaps of one type or other who will be happy to buy one if they can afford one.
Here is a list of 11 major companies making the investment, including Intel, Google, BMW, Ford, Volvo, etc. Now maybe all these companies are big dummies and you are the one smart one that they should be all listening to. I guess we shall find out soon enough. Perhaps you have a future as a consultant to Fortune 500 companies.
got it. when MANY large corporations invest billions then they are infallible.
(My finder's fee is 10%)
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