Technology

”never having to drive again”

Y’know I can’t put my finger on it but something tells me that there’s an alternative to that without technofascist wet-dream robocars involved 🤔

Permit me to reiterate an idea I had the last time a self-driving car did something illegal:

All of these cars are being driven by the same software "driver". That driver is in contempt of the law. Thus it needs to be punished like any other driver in contempt of the law. All fines to be paid by its representative human or company. All incarceration to be for as long as is necessary for the driver to be rehabilitated. If no such rehabilitation is possible, the driver is permanently banned from driving.

By which I mean, all Waymos need to be taken off the road until they're provably rehabilitated and it is certain that this won't happen again.

And if Waymo the company thinks that would be detrimental to their business, tough. Take some responsibility and fix your damn cars.

The article links to another source, but the video they show doesn't have the elements the passenger describes, like speeding through a construction zone or evading police. All you see in the video is the car moving less than 1 MPH while trying to merge through a clusterfuck of traffic. Is there a longer version of the video somewhere? Because so far, it sounds fishy. Especially with claims from Tesla workers, of all people, commenting on it.

EDIT: The guy's LinkedIn profile starts with: "As a Content Creator & Social Media Specialist, I collaborate with various stakeholders within institutions to create paid and organic content for social media. I support and drive the overall efforts and strategic visions by engaging in multi-disciplinary cross-functional teams (strategists, marketers, copywriters, etc.)." The man is literally a professional bullshitter. I'm not buying it.

I can believe that the Waymo could've gotten stuck in a complicated merge, but I don't believe for even a second that it would flee from police or speed through construction. I used to work on these cars, and it was nearly impossible to get them to drive through construction zones at even 5 MPH, let alone at highway speeds. On top of that, lights and sirens behind the car will trigger a pullover.

This sounds like somebody who got stuck in traffic and got annoyed, and wanted to put their name on some headlines.

If only there was some kind of system, that could take multiple people from A to B, with only one dude in front to keep track of what the automated system is doing. Ideally on some form of predictable track, that makes sure that the vehicle always stays in line without the need of advanced AI. Someone should invent that.

insiders at Tesla saying, along the lines, "You couldn't pay me to let one of these things drive me somewhere."

That’s rich coming from cars that don’t use LIDAR and rely solely on cameras.

All industrial equipment is required by law to have an e-stop. Not having one in a "self-driving" car is criminal.

Being trapped in an autonomous vehicle driving erratically should have never, ever been possible. Shows you how these companies value the safety of the humans involved: they don't.

The terrifying incident underlines the very real dangers of relying on autonomous vehicles for ride shares, while they still suffer from nagging technical shortcomings

I don't care if they have a perfect driving record or not, anything autonomous MUST be equipped with clearly visible emergency stop buttons, why the fuck aren't those there?

Fleeing from the police, speeding through construction zones. Sounds like Waymos are trained on human data.

And yet I still know people who are just so chuffed about "never having to drive again."

Did they not heard about public transport or it doesn't count because it isn't choke-full of fancy tech and isn't pushed by techbro?(it is choke-full of fancy tech but never pushed by techbro)

"Waymo offered the rattled occupant $40 worth of free rides" Time to lawyer up. I'm guessing that even in our car loving society there are cases of reckless drivers who endangers passenger lives being sued.

Also, I missed the part where Waymo was ticketed in this and every other story about these renegade cars.

I was surprised these things were allowed on public streets without first being certified by some strict regulatory body.

I WAS surprised, since I used to suffer under the delusion that someone, somewhere was looking out for public safety, at least on some basic level. Like the FDA, USDA, OSHA, etc. But, these institutions were so easily gutted and pushed aside, and the traffic laws we do have aren't nearly enough for regulating self-driving cars. We've always just allowed shit to happen as long as there are no existing laws to challenge it.

They kicked corporate money out of politics in Hawaii, that can't happen fast enough in every other state. Imagine having common sense measures put before the people, like "should we allow self-driving cars on public streets before there are laws to regulate them?" and NOT having corporate money flow into the state to shift public opinion and buy off local politicians.

And yet I still know people who are just so chuffed about "never having to drive again."

I mean, I think that part is 100% understandable. I get that many people in fact enjoy driving, but likewise, many people do not. For many a driving commute is the most anxiety inducing part of their day, and they'd be happy to be rid of it.

That's the promise that self driving cars present. They just aren't actually capable enough yet. From what I gather though, waymo is probably the farthest along of any of these companies. I don't think I'd trust them for complicated Boston area driving though. To many narrow, winding roads complete with active road work, aggressive drivers, rotaries, etc...

Sounds like they need to change the name to Delamain and market it as a feature.

In a sane world a regulatory body pulls their fleet from the roads until they can prove they are safe to a third party. Instead they get a self imposed slap on the wrist with a promise to return soon

AI SAID FUCK THE POLICE

I'd be damn proud of my waymo if it fled the police.

And these are said to be the best ones of their kind...

I'm not against self driving cars for the sake of it but because I understand technology comes at a cost. The idea of pumping out cameras everywhere and centralizing all the data is giving corpos and governments unimaginable power.

I really don't like this crystal ball dystopia they're building and self driving cars are excellent means for surveillance and data collection.