Yoga class makes me feel like a total stud, mostly because I'm about as flexible as a 2x4.
"Design"? Possibly. "Intelligent"? Sure doesn't look like it from this angle.
We used to be hunter gatherers. Now we're shopper borrowers.
The three most important words in the English language: "Front Towards Enemy".
The world makes a lot more sense when you remember that Butthead was the smart one.
You can never be too rich, too thin, or have too much ammo.
Just think of the time saving possibilities in the future.
You go on the 'net and put your order for lumber at the local Big Box. Then your driverless vehicle heads on over to pick it up. The automatic forklift, with a sensor that has a spider crawling across it, skewers the tailgate on your pickup. The spider has the sense to leave. Your vehicle doesn't.
Optical recognition senses the damages and sends copies to the claims division of the insurance companies.
The resulting investigation by the automatic claims system then works to find out which system was at fault, did the vehicle move, previous damage and all that. The computers start to squabble amongst themselves resulting in them DDOSing each other and stopping up the internet for my area and any adjoining continents.
I'm at home still waiting for my materials to arrive. When I try to check the order the 'system is down'.
I'll get the fine, rounded off to nearest $10,000, for violating the Computer Misuse Act. Automatically deducted from an account or added to a credit card of course. When the cyborg comes to arrest me I'll have my cyborg meet it at the door and let both happily wander off together.
Popcorn with butter and salt please. I'll pop it myself on a pot on a stove if that's still allowed.
-Tom
Last edited by Tom Stenzel; 03-20-2018 at 10:32 AM. Reason: Fine deduction
Seriously, if you think you're against self-driving cars, go spend a little time actually learning about how much data they can process and how many millions of miles they've done successfully. Your fear is only there due to ignorance; once you see how much they can sense that humans can't, you'll get it.
Last edited by Prashun Patel; 03-20-2018 at 1:55 PM. Reason: Smells like goats? Smells like racism
I just talked to one of my associates with a city's traffic management center. I was laughing about anti-self-driving car opinions with him, and he said something that really summed it up: "Yeah, and there are people who believe the earth is flat too." That's really what it is. We're all flabbergasted that people in 2018 don't realize this is the future, and how good it will be for all humans. From saving lives to just the outright societal cost of all of that wasted drive time now going into the country's productivity in some form. Just like I keep working when I'm on a plane, I'll be able to work while I'm in a car. I have a friend who sold his cars and uses only Uber/Lyft so he can make the time productive, and his numbers show it saves him cash. And yes, the Ubers are sometimes self-driving, as they are being heavily tested in our area.
That too, but the thing that strikes me are people doom-and-glooming about potential issues that (1) already exist to a much larger extent with human-operated vehicles and (2) are a lot easier to solve using robotics than using driver training and/or social engineering.
Yoga class makes me feel like a total stud, mostly because I'm about as flexible as a 2x4.
"Design"? Possibly. "Intelligent"? Sure doesn't look like it from this angle.
We used to be hunter gatherers. Now we're shopper borrowers.
The three most important words in the English language: "Front Towards Enemy".
The world makes a lot more sense when you remember that Butthead was the smart one.
You can never be too rich, too thin, or have too much ammo.
they say this new one is much safer than the OLD cruise control
Just think, people are designing self driving cars for the current roads instead of needing the roads to change for them! Remember when the tech giants were attempting magnets in the middle of roads or reflectors on the sides of roads?
I bet if the gov't let more private industry into the road business, we'd be seeing a lot more progress.
Edit: I didn't think it was legal to be totally hands off in a self driving car?
Last edited by andrew whicker; 03-20-2018 at 3:26 PM.
Your points make me wonder what was the things that did or didn't happen to kill that pedestrian. I would have thought that the car would have "known" the person was crossing the street. Seems like the car should have stopped, but to your point, we don't know what mode the car was in or the state of its operation (faulty sensor, driver mode) or if the pedestrian did something out of the ordinary. Even if the pedestrian did do something extreme, I would have thought the car should have prepared for it.....
Sometimes its sounds as though we hold technology to a much higher standard than we hold humans. The sheer number of motor vehicle accidents demonstrates the flaws of human drivers, not insignificant.
But if automated technology is anything less than perfect, it's unacceptable.
Also, the improvement curve in nearly all forms of technology is incredibly steep. If the launch point isn't impressive to you, it may not be very long before version 2.0, 3.0 or 4.0 will blow you away.
They have, and I'm one of those people. And that's why we have such incredible progress now. But I think most people just don't know about it yet. We already do have V2V in some 2018 vehicles and V2I coming next year. (Vehicle to vehicle communication, and vehicle to infrastructure. Cars tell each other about what they are doing with V2V, and tell the transportation management system with V2I. The result is cars that slow for upcoming traffic issues and lights, or notify the city of a problem.)
It is legal for licensed companies to run totally unmanned vehicles. We have them in our area. I always mess with them when they are empty, just to see what they do. I wouldn't mess with them if a human is involved.
Again, there are still going to be traffic fatalities even if all cars are self-driving, just as there are still (relatively infrequent) airline crashes. The question is, just how much better than human drivers do they have to be to become acceptable to the public? I'm guessing the public and/or vested interests will insist on a much higher level of safety from robotic cars than they do from human-driven cars, even if it pushes them further into the future than necessary. And yes, I for one think that would be unfortunate.
Digression: I'm wondering how many cyclists get fragged by people opening the doors of parked cars as they pass. Another bit of automation that could be easily added to current cars is to have the 'blind-spot' warning system lock the door(s) on that side when the car is stopped and it detects an oncoming vehicle.
Yoga class makes me feel like a total stud, mostly because I'm about as flexible as a 2x4.
"Design"? Possibly. "Intelligent"? Sure doesn't look like it from this angle.
We used to be hunter gatherers. Now we're shopper borrowers.
The three most important words in the English language: "Front Towards Enemy".
The world makes a lot more sense when you remember that Butthead was the smart one.
You can never be too rich, too thin, or have too much ammo.