Driverless Cars

[Secret Chief]

"My heartbeat quickens just a little as the cab approaches. It's a bizarre sight, one that I thought I wouldn't see in my lifetime.
The cab has no driver. It stops in front of me and invites me to unlock its door with my phone - before whisking me into the night..."
Thoughts?

- How robotaxis are dividing San Francisco

 

[ChristineM]

"My heartbeat quickens just a little as the cab approaches. It's a bizarre sight, one that I thought I wouldn't see in my lifetime.
The cab has no driver. It stops in front of me and invites me to unlock its door with my phone - before whisking me into the night..."


Thoughts?

- How robotaxis are dividing San Francisco

Can't be worse than some of the human drivers I've seen

 

[Twilight Hue]

"My heartbeat quickens just a little as the cab approaches. It's a bizarre sight, one that I thought I wouldn't see in my lifetime.
The cab has no driver. It stops in front of me and invites me to unlock its door with my phone - before whisking me into the night..."


Thoughts?

- How robotaxis are dividing San Francisco

Put a traffic cone on the hood. Lol.

https://www.npr.org/2023/08/26/1195695051/driverless-cars-san-francisco-waymo-cruise

 

[Secret Chief]

Can't be worse than some of the human drivers I've seen

True!

 

[Heyo]

"My heartbeat quickens just a little as the cab approaches. It's a bizarre sight, one that I thought I wouldn't see in my lifetime.
The cab has no driver. It stops in front of me and invites me to unlock its door with my phone - before whisking me into the night..."
Thoughts?

- How robotaxis are dividing San Francisco

Maybe they aren't ready to navigate a whole city if they stop functioning at tight turns?
What could possibly work is when shared cars could autonomously drive from a central parking station to all users and back. A much smaller area to cover and it would make car sharing more convenient.
In the long run autonomous vehicles are inevitable.

 

[PureX]

The tricky part is getting there. Getting to the point where such technology is completely trustworthy.

Also, although I am all for freeing humans up from having to perform mundane tasks using technology, we need to make sure that we are not harming humans in the process. Because if we are, there is no point to engaging in it. And this is something that our current capitalist culture completely ignores.

 

[Mock Turtle]

Less likely to rape one, but might be more likely to be involved in an accident - until they get 100% reliable. And I'm probably glad that flying taxis will not be a feature of my future - or even present.

 

[Secret Chief]

Less likely to rape one, but might be more likely to be involved in an accident - until they get 100% reliable. And I'm probably glad that flying taxis will not be a feature of my future - or even present.

Yes I can see driverless being the harbinger of big changes both good and bad. And it seems like something that's going to be impacting sooner rather than later.

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

I have both concerns and cautious optimism about the idea of self-driving cars. It's more concerns, for now.

 

[bobhikes]

"My heartbeat quickens just a little as the cab approaches. It's a bizarre sight, one that I thought I wouldn't see in my lifetime.
The cab has no driver. It stops in front of me and invites me to unlock its door with my phone - before whisking me into the night..."
Thoughts?

- How robotaxis are dividing San Francisco

Dangerous in many ways.

 

[Secret Chief]

Dangerous in many ways.

I agree, but there's plenty of RTA's with the human operated versions! Hopefully the technology will advance quickly.

 

[Secret Chief]

I have both concerns and cautious optimism about the idea of self-driving cars. It's more concerns, for now.

That's how I feel, but it seems to be coming to a town near you sooner rather than later.

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

That's how I feel, but it seems to be coming to a town near you sooner rather than later.

Yeah. I expect my optimism will increase once technology gets better in a way where it's demonstrably safe.

 

[Quintessence]

Whatever happened to designing livable cities were walking was more than good enough? No matter, we'll go back to it sooner rather than later.

 

[PureX]

Yeah. I expect my optimism will increase once technology gets better in a way where it's demonstrably safe.

Not just safe, but also actually advantageous for humanity. Otherwise, why bother? We seem to keep overlooking this criteria.

 

[The Hammer]

Activists disable SF autonomous vehicles by placing traffic cones on hoods to make a point

As sophisticated as driverless cars are, a group called the Safe Street Rebels simply place traffic cones on their hoods that stops them cold.

www.google.com

Heh heh heh heh

 

[Twilight Hue]

Not just safe, but also actually advantageous for humanity. Otherwise, why bother? We seem to keep overlooking this criteria.

I can see a hyperbolic future where no one knows how to drive a vehicle. Complete dependency on outside corporations and government.

I don't see that as advantageous for humanity when individuals will have no future control or ability if my hypothetical comes true at some point.

 

[Revoltingest]

Can't be worse than some of the human drivers I've seen

Human & computer drivers can both have accidents.
But only humans purposely run people down,
cause accidents for insurance fraud, drive at
ridiculously high speeds, & commit other
intentional wrongdoing.
Let's hope that hackers don't turn computers
into highway death machines, eh.

 

[Subduction Zone]

Less likely to rape one, but might be more likely to be involved in an accident - until they get 100% reliable. And I'm probably glad that flying taxis will not be a feature of my future - or even present.

In the Arizona city where they first started from my understanding they are less likely to get involved in an accident. Yes, they sometimes will make stupid errors. But humans are all but guaranteed to.

So how much better than human drivers do they have to be before they are accepted?

 

[Subduction Zone]

I can see a hyperbolic future where no one knows how to drive a vehicle. Complete dependency on outside corporations and government.

I don't see that as advantageous for humanity when individuals will have no future control or ability if my hypothetical comes true at some point.

Or one could look at it as freedom from a menial task. You do not have to buy a car, you can use one only when you need one for far less. You can go out and tie one on and not have to worry about getting a DUI or even worse on the way home.

You will be able to buy cars if you want to for quite some time. But here is the important part, if you do not want to you won't have to and you will still have the freedom of going where you want to when you want to.