What could go wrong?
Posted on 01/12/2020 8:45:12 AM PST by Moonman62
Waymo’s fully driverless vehicles are doing passenger trips in the suburbs outside Phoenix, Arizona. We got to experience it first hand, and our ride included a close brush with a construction site, a wrong turn, and a flock of pigeons. But more importantly, it got us thinking about what it means when Waymo says the future is driverless, and what we lose when we eliminate human driving.
Link to video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__EoOvVkEMo
Link to article:
https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/9/21000085/waymo-fully-driverless-car-self-driving-ride-hail-service-phoenix-arizona
What could go wrong?
stupid idea. even if no real accident happens, many problems will arise with automated - can’t think and see/reason as human does - sort of technology.
Estimate cost per car $400,000. Plus cost of support staff. Human intervention still needed in certain situations such police guided detours. I do see it for delivery/shuttle/freight services in the very near future.
Both the WJR am radio host Paul W. Smith and Bill O’Reilly in
his book Old School said “Not a chance.” about accepting a driverless car. Smith: And the driver and passengers will have no way to make an emergency change over some sort of control-—it’s out of their hands totally.”
A preposterous reason for having them: A proponent said “So you want to go to a downtown building and will be there several hours. You send the car driving back to your home and when you want to leave you ask for it to drive to you downtown. That way downtown businesses and sports and entertainment venues will have no need to provide any parking lots. And that land can be changed to profit making businesses instead.”
Unless the carbon footprint including electric charging source is zero, you’d needlessly have thousands of cars going back and forth all day under that plan.
Government could ban all individual cars for us and demand we use the others or rent a mini car at a stand I saw in Futurist magazine. Like a row of bikes in a bike rack—all rentals.
That way downtown businesses and sports and entertainment venues will have no need to provide any parking lots. And that land can be changed to profit making businesses instead.
...
What about all the parking garages and parking lots that are making a fortune in the cities?
If God wanted man to fly, he would have given him wings.
Like the stupid pictures of a local mayor here wearing his business suit and cheerfully riding his Segway in traffic-—on a 70 degree blue sky sunny day——
where is his Segway during the 4-5 months in Michigan with ice pellets, ice on roads, ten to twenty inch snowfalls, windchills far below zero, and heavy rains leading to flood alerts? Maybe put a rain slicker over his suit?
Michigan driverless cars will have to guess at the invisible lane markings like we do when budgets cuts in towns and cities mean delays in plows getting to clear roads of heavy snow and drifting. So sensors under every lane? Billions of dollars? And when to decide to venture forward or not risk it when some lanes are flooded for a day long period—that happens every year.
He did provide brooms for Hillary, Maxine and Elizabeth Warren to fly. Low carbon footprint, too.
There’s nothing more fun than a one-person bus.
“Artificial” intelligence is zombie intelligence.
Someday all the zombies will fail, all at the same time.
I thought of that, too. Guys like the late Mike Illich and his cheapskate son (owns Detroit Red Wings and Detroit Tigers and hundreds of offices, condos and parking facilities) demand they get the parking revenues as well as get the taxpayers to pay their mortgage for the stadiums supposedly to enrich the areas of the city near them.
A book I leafed through had data proving cities and taxpayers end up paying it all and getting back much less than they paid in civic enrichment but the owners got richer.
I still don’t trust them — they need Waymo testing.
I can see a plus side If you go out drinking no DUI. on way home
on the other hand if you want to make a quick stop at Wendys drive up window a bit more of a challenge
Thanks for posting. I will be on the alert. Dodging tumble weeds on the interstate is a hoot. I suspect dodging driverless cars will be even more challenging.
Michigan driverless cars will have to guess at the invisible lane markings like we do when budgets cuts in towns and cities mean delays in plows getting to clear roads of heavy snow and drifting. So sensors under every lane? Billions of dollars? And when to decide to venture forward or not risk it when some lanes are flooded for a day long period—that happens every year.
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no sensors it is all done by GPS
All this will become so unnecessary when we perfect electronic transporting.
Thanks.
I used to ride the bus sometimes and a recorded voice said the coming stops over the speaker. You could see outside the window the GPS was wrong, usually one but often two stops wrong.
Some riders would hear the wrong statements and laugh and say out loud "No it isn't."
By the way, for what they call full disclosure: I am a Luddite, I hate AI and robots and androids displacing and soon exterminating the human race, I don't use a cell phone (have a minute phone for car problems),am not on Facebook and I will do what I can to resist the driverless cars taking away my freedom to drive.
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