Posted on 01/12/2008 1:37:45 AM PST by neverdem
Imagine if self driving tech takes off.
We have a lexis that parks itself now.
If you can buy a self driving car, who needs the bus. (who needs a license)
A “robot chauffure” for every house
Your cell phone use should stop where my safety begins...
Instead of telling me that I can’t multitask, how about this: add driving and talking on a cell phone to the driver’s test. If you can’t do it, no license.
"Drinking alcohol has become politically incorrect; not too far removed from pederasty in the hierarchy of evil. We've adopted a virtual zero-tolerance attitude toward any drinking before driving, which may or may not be a bit over the top.
"But if it isn't an overreaction, then how come we tolerate people smacking away on their cells when it's beyond dispute that talking while driving is at least within the same ballpark, risk-wise, as having a glass or two of wine over dinner and then driving home?"
If someone can have their driving privileges jeopardized without any evidence of impaired driving except that any alcohol had been consumed, then a similar penalty should exist for those driving while distracted unless their driver's license was obtained and qualified for driving with neuropsychologically equivalant distractions. The latter isn't rocket science, and it is easily quantified, e.g. reacton times, collisions with pylons on standardized test tracks, etc. Selective categorical prohibitions, such as no drinking before driving, just breeds more contempt for the law in a society that wants a pill for any problem.
Has nothing to do with that. A vehicle can be a deadly weapon and should be operated with safety in mind.
Question: if you were shooting a weapon for accuracy at the range, while practicing the required safety, would you shoot your weapon while taking on a cell phone?
This is basically a yes or no question.
"Green pig" gives birth to green piglets
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
Hey, I expected to have cars that drive themselves by now. And I’m counting on Apple to give us Dick Tracy style wristwatch videophones.
“which may or may not be a bit over the top.”
(Snort. Gross vulgarity.) It is as bad as Carrie Nation or our experiment with prohibition. It is counterproductive in that it issues an order that is *not* going to be obeyed, people being people.
We would be much better off drawing the line at “drunk.” There is some chance that most people will see the sense in that.
“it’s beyond dispute that talking while driving is at least within the same ballpark, risk-wise, as having a glass or two of wine over dinner and then driving home?”
IOW, zero, right? This looney obsession with eradicating every possible whiff of *some* risks is as stupid as it is nutty.
“If someone can have their driving privileges jeopardized without any evidence of impaired driving except that any alcohol had been consumed, then”
Then our liberties have been wrongfully infringed, and we need to get up on our hind legs and start barking, and if necessary biting, until the blue-noses are slapped down and the law put right.
“a similar penalty should exist for those driving while distracted unless”
Unless we are still sane enough to understand that passing a second bad law justifies neither.
“The latter isn’t rocket science, and it is easily quantified”
It would be, except that academia is writhing in its death-throes from the disease of liberalism. It is corrupt, top to bottom, and no trustworthy study could be funded, executed, or published.
“Selective categorical prohibitions, such as no drinking before driving, just breeds more contempt for the law”
That’s certainly true, but the solution is not the categorical prohibition of everything, but the tarring and feathering of these Miss Grundies who keep attacking our freedoms.
Why did we not hear about problems with CB'ers, mobile Amateur Radio Operators, and safety forces talking on the radio while driving in years past?
It is already illegal to fail to control your vehicle. More laws will not change a thing.
Maybe it's a combination of folks who were trained as part of their jobs to communicate amd drive safely, and they didn't bother to test them. Once all the cell phones got on the road chatting their way into accidents, they finally started to notice.
“This is basically a yes or no question.”
No, it isn’t. I can drive with one hand. Lots of amputees have to.
However, there are weapons I cannot fire very accurately with one hand. Matter of fact, for maximum accuracy I like to use two hands for all weapons.
Therefore, if you like, I’d be happy to recite Latin backwards through a hands-free cell phone while firing.
If you put up a man-sized target and count everything within the torso as max points, be glad to put rounds into it while holding a cell phone to my ear and discussing complex subjects.
Just get used to it: some people have enough wetware processor cycles to drive and talk at the same time.
I thought you’d decline to answer the question.
“I thought you’d decline to answer the question.”
How are things over there in delusionville?
I answered it thoroughly.
I was just on the way home and a lady in a car was stopped next to me at a red light. She had one hand on the phone and was using the other hand to air sketch whatever she was trying to communicate to the person on the other end of the conversation.
When the light turned green she was still waving her free hand as I left.
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