Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/12/31/gfy-self-driving-cars.html
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There have been accidents in the area involving the autonomous vans.
@xeni Respectfully, this is a bad example to support the argument. The Honda driver was at fault, and crossed the median to strike the Waymo Chrysler in manual mode driven and stopping at the light by the operator.
A Waymo in the wrong place at the wrong time is so far from blame, it’s not even funny.
Note: I’m not supporting Waymo. I’m just saying use some concrete examples to support the thrust of the piece.
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So you want driverless cars to never have testing in the place they are going to function? How is that supposed to work?
And I can’t imagine what society would look like if we had to get a vote before we introduced some new kind of technology. Do you think automated looms or printing presses would have passed that requirement? If a guy waving his gun around in public is on your side of the argument, maybe a re-thinking is in order.
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Sometimes the robots deserve it though:
Robot for shooing homeless away
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Well I guess this is how we will get AI wars. I’m not going to be surprised to find out humans started it.
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The only thing that will stop an autonomous driverless car from a mega corporation is an good American with a gun… or another car… or a knife.
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Forget tech. It took ages for colonists to even accept that tomato’s were edible. Same thinking is how you get witches. Must be black magic.
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Ah yes. Running autonomous vehicles off the road totally proves that humans make superior drivers and that autonomous vehicles are terribly unsafe.
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Is this the city of Chandler in Maricopa County of Sheriff Joe Arpaio fame? Maybe this is just a case of something new innocently wandering into an already long established crazy zone. Would the reaction be the same if they saw someone with dreadlocks riding a skateboard?
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A tech reporter can empathize with waving a gun at test-runs of driverless cars?
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Truly head scratching. Now get off her lawn?
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I am admittedly, ridiculously, strongly biased.
As someone with a visual disability that keeps me from driving, I’m already pissed off at people who build small towns, suburbs, and rural areas that incorporate the idea that anyone not in a car has nothing important to do, nowhere they have any business going, and is a second class citizen into every detail of urban planning.
I /do not/ sympathize with these people throwing a fit over the technology that might actually let me go to work if it decides to relocate to a cheaper, suburban area, visit people who live there, or otherwise get around outside an urban center.
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This is what, satire? Technological progress is not made by unanimous consent. Satellite orbit planners and airplane navigators do not ask Flat Earthers for advice. How about doing some research and digging up newspaper articles from 120 years ago of people shooting those dangerous Horseless Carriages. Is your argument that those people should have gotten their way?
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If we waited for unanimous consent for new technologies we’d have never gotten into the stone age, much less where we are now.
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I think that’s what a lot of people who oppose driverless vehicles on principle tend to forget: the transformative potential of the technology isn’t about how it will impact the lives of people who currently drive, it’s about how it will impact the lives of people like the disabled and the elderly.
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Perhaps Waymo should rejig their Trolley Problem to take a hit now and then. After all, they’re recording everything and the other driver is at fault. Double-check the air-bags and Towanda!
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I can’t really ever get behind assholes waving guns around, throwing rocks, or running cars off the road because they are mad.
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Man it sucks when your shootin’ shirt is in the wash and the robot cars drive by. Oh well, they won’t menace themselves, so some one has to.
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This all sounds awful familiar…
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