Eleanor Holmes Norton ‘kills’ driverless car

The Washington Post ^ | June 25, 2014 | Mike Debonis

[beaversmom]

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) was invited Tuesday, along with fellow members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, to test drive — er, test ride — a driverless car on the Capitol grounds.

Well, the ride never happened, because Norton did a particularly good job of testing the car’s bright-red “kill” button — which, as captured by WRC-TV’s cameras, killed the car to the point that it could not proceed with the test ride.

“Oh, no, don’t push it!” an engineer from Carnegie Mellon University cried after Norton pounded the mushroom button. “It shuts everything down.”

[...]

[TruthWillWin]

Now a drive-less car?

[lee martell]

Sheila is definitely Lost In Space! Or anywhere else, for that matter.

[Flash Bazbeaux]

How can she possibly resist the maddening urge to eradicate history at the mere push of a single button? The beautiful, shiny button? The jolly, candy-like button? Will she hold out, folks? Can she hold out?

[morphing libertarian]

JPL photo from Mars? Or is it Hubbell?

[dfwgator]

"You killed the car."

[RaveOn]

That’s the only button the feds are interested in.

[Colofornian]

(why, NEXT she & others like her would go after killing off drones on that same basis...if they had any consistent bone in their body, that is)

[RJS1950]

Not fool proof, the proper term is idiot proof. Nothing can be idiot proofed and if you think you have idiot proofed something a bigger idiot (or a democrat) will come along and prove you wrong.

[morphing libertarian]

Is there an invention which would idiot proof congress?

[Larry Lucido]

“Thank you for pressing the self-destruct button.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKAdkbQWAJ8

[TWhiteBear]

I appreciated the humor in your post. :)
TWB

[TangoLimaSierra]

Simple fix: Don’t make the button shiny.

[a fool in paradise]

Don't touch that button, PING!

[a fool in paradise]

What happens when you slam your hand on that button and you are traveling at 85 mph. Oh wait, it’s electric, okay what happens when you slam you hand on that button and you are traveling 25 mph?

Can the drivers behind you respond in time?

[MrB]

beatya to it... but, yeah, that’s the first scene that came to mind.

[SoothingDave]

Let’s not invite her to tour any power plants, eh?

[Fresh Wind]

Eventually, you end up with Elanor Holmes-Norton in a driverless car ...

That's probably a lot better than Elanor Holmes-Norton driving a car.

[Dr. Sivana]

Elmer Fudd: Every time you push one of those buttons, something happens to me.

Daffy Duck: Well, I’ll tell you what, this time, you push a button.

Elmer Fudd: Alwight.

[laughs]

Elmer Fudd: I think I’ll push this wed one.

Daffy Duck: No! No! No! No! No! Not the wed one! Don’t ever push the wed one!

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

And, can the driver-less cars behind you respond in time too?

I’m feeling a lot of trepidation about driverless cars. There are so many things that can go wrong. However, when I think about the number of things that can go wrong when cars have drivers, those problems don’t seem insurmountable.

Which car would you rather have Ms. Holmes use — one she completely controls; or one where she can only hit the STOP button?

[a fool in paradise]

Good thing she didn't press the ejection seat button!