In the meantime it is a crazy world out there.
Posted on 05/05/2025 7:08:32 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
The average American adult will spend around three years of their life driving. If robots could take the wheel instead, well, think of all the Netflix shows we could stream instead. Don't forget work via wifi.
But the true benefit of a self-driving revolution will be in lives saved. And new data from the autonomous vehicle company Waymo suggests that those savings could be very great indeed.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
For some reason I’m reminded of what Israel did with the pagers that were shipped to Hamas.
Utopia? No.
One of the biggest issues not discussed enough is liability. Today, if a person driving a car causes an accident, the driver is liable, civilly or criminally, or both. Cars dont kill people, people kill people. (see the gun analogy here).
Autonomous driving cars flips that. Who is now liable? Will the manufacturers be sued, sent to prison, for accidents caused by their products? I dont see how assembly line workers (who are probably robots anyway) much less rich execs thousands of miles away are going to do prison time because your child was run over by a ‘smart vehicle’.
I disagree with this. It's no coincidence that motor vehicle crash rates have risen even as driver assist technology has been adopted at a large scale -- even under government mandate.
The problem is that making the vehicle "safer" introduces a complacency risk that has done nothing but incentivize a major decline in driving skills.
If you want to reduce collisions, the best thing you can do is eliminate 90% of the safety features that have been added to cars over the last 30 years. And outlaw the automatic transmission while you're at it.
This is the essence of “The Technology Trap”, people rely so much on technology they simply won’t know how to cope when it’s not available.
**When my TV went digital, the shows froze and became choppy.**
As I remember the naysayers wanted the cable companies to give them a new tv. Some need to be told to get with the program.
Sure, it will save lives? /sarcasm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufQPDJnmgdA
Next they will be flying planes without anyone in the cockpit?
Pure Insanity!
I find all the nudges very annoying, in rental cars.
Bump
Self driving cars - no judgement just a set of canned responses set by one team of programmers. What could possibly go wrong?
Better use of time is driving 500 miles in a van and sleeping in the back.
What will then happen is driving around town for an hour with a “partner”. Of course there will be hidden cameras someone can use to blackmail.
When the cost of insurance for smaller companies providing goods and services exceeds the entire value of the job, much less the profit from the work, such companies walk away.
On a related note from 2017:
Takata Corporation Pleads Guilty, Sentenced to Pay $1 Billion in Criminal Penalties for Airbag Scheme
https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/takata-corporation-pleads-guilty-sentenced-pay-1-billion-criminal-penalties-airbag-scheme
Takata declared bankruptcy and was liquidated in 2018. These recalls are still open.
It's not just insurance for all the sub-component companies, but also the liability of no driver and the complications of what a manufacturer/assembler gets stuck with when sub-component companies go out of business due to lawsuits for defective products.
It is already happening on limited route. This dog won’t hunt.
https://houstonherald.com/2025/05/driverless-trucks-are-rolling-in-texas-ushering-in-new-era/
In the meantime it is a crazy world out there.
And what of non-conformist that have to share the road with autonomous vehicles?
Let’s say my 80-85 mph cruise speed puts me at odds with a bunch of robotic roadblocks. Whose rights will be trampled on “for the good”.
It wasn't overnight as it was in the works for years. It's not a comparable analogy because the conversion from analog TV to to digital TV was due to the reallocation of signal frequencies.
That would be like taking a lane away from drivers and dedicating it for other use, such as parking, not switching from "analog drivers" to "digital drivers".
Lost interest when they decided that 500 miles was too much of a drive. Now we have stages so everybody has a chance to “share” the purse, and low attention span viewers don’t get bored.
Meh.
Absolutely 100% not interested. I enjoy driving.
I don’t enjoy being a passenger. I tend to get a little carsick when I try to read or watch something while in a car.
Did I mention that I enjoy driving?
The other day, I drove 725 miles. I do 50-60,000 miles a year.
I hate the idea of having some robot steal my freedom.
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