"Regular or Premium, sir?"
Posted on 11/02/2017 12:33:27 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
A self-driving car is not a self-driving car is not a self-driving car.
That is the message Waymo, the autonomous vehicle division of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, tried to send on Monday, when it invited a group of reporters to visit Castle, a facility in California’s Central Valley that it has been using as a training course for its self-driving vehicles.
Castle, which is built on a decommissioned Air Force base roughly 120 miles from San Francisco, resembles a miniature city, with many of the realistic elements a self-driving car might encounter on the road — like cul-de-sacs, traffic signals and a smattering of potholes. Waymo has been putting its test vehicles through their paces here since 2013, and conducting some 20,000 tests of different road situations. And on Monday, the company was offering rides in its latest prototype, a Chrysler Pacifica minivan outfitted with a cluster of sensors and cameras.
But first, John Krafcik, Waymo’s chief executive, wanted to give a vocabulary lesson.
“Let’s talk about self-driving,” he said. “There’s a lot of confusion about what the terminology means.” He rattled off a list of terms that have been used to describe vehicles with varying levels of self-driving ability: autonomous, driverless, semiautonomous, fully self-driving, partially autonomous, semi-driverless.
“It’s really a bit of a problem, isn’t it?” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
He should have probably also asked if the winner will be personal automobiles; for-hire cars (Uber, Lyft, etc); long-haul trucks; or regional trucks.
I read recently that this is the HOT area for young people to start their careers, especially if they are good at AI and autonomous systems. Starting salaries are over $200k for the best engineers!
What I wonder is what happens when one of these cars runs up against a road rage idiot?
“What I wonder is what happens when one of these cars runs up against a road rage idiot?”
Or is reprogrammed by a Jihadi?
I really think the driverless car is going to, eventually, alter American society in a way that will be a detriment to the American way of life, the American spirit.
That’s a very good big-picture, long-term outlook. People won’t have to actually DO anything any more. Everything at your beck and call via a mobile app. Will everybody turn into a mindless lay-about slug with the expectation everything is done for you by somebody else?
For an early experiment in this topic, look at the five-decades long result of multi-generational welfare and how it created the feral underclass.
Could driverless cars lead to even MORE government take-over of our lives?
Ping
Nobody seems to be excited about these things except those intent on foisting them on us. I will never have one. In fact I’ll switch to a motorcycle first.
In the year 2525.
They want passive people to rule over. What could be more passive than sitting on your ass and letting the computer make all the decisions?
Didn’t Wham-O make crappy toys back in the 70s? Can’t wait to drive one of those!
Who’s going to gas it up?
I still want to know who & how will INSURE these vehicles.
Now-—YOUR personal driving record dictates how much you will pay in premiums.
IF one of these ‘vehicles’ hits me, WHO am I suing???
BTW- I drive a 1976 STEEL Chevy dually 1 ton truck——a driver less car will not be the winner in the war about gross tonnage.
I think it will definitely lead to more government takeover of our lives. Even more than that, it will take away from the independent, self-motivated spirit of America that helps us resist the constant government encroachment in our lives.
Wham-O toys went back farther than that and they were cool. Wish I still had my Air Blaster!
It all started with the electric starter.
Yeah but you’ll be able to nap the whole way!
They better employ some redneck engineers to develop driverless 4x4 mud trucks. It would let the guy hold a beer in one hand while scratching his balls with other while blasting through the sippee hole with a rebel yell.
Now that’s profound.
Thank you.
"Regular or Premium, sir?"
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