While I’m sure that the Uber drivers don’t want to be replaced, this idea that self-driving cars are actually feasible in real world applications is akin to the thinking that a man can be a woman if ‘she’ puts a dress on.
Normally, we would take a look at the staggering potential liabilities and throw the idea out the window, but in our state of collective delusion, we’ve decided that it’s somehow worth it for people to die because self driving cars are ‘really cool tech’.
Just the Tesla accident alone a couple months back should have chilled the idea right there, but it didn’t. These things will be excused and deaths will result, all because it’s more convenient to chalk it up to ‘progress’.
Just the Tesla accident alone a couple months back should have chilled the idea right there, but it didn’t.
...
Why should it chill anything when the accident rate is just as good or lower than cars without the technology?
When the car was on the cusp to take over from the horse, the car was demonized as a “great danger” for cities...
History truly repeats itself:
From horses to horsepower: A rocky transition
http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/transportation/blogs/horses-horsepower-rocky-transition
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“The transition literature is fascinating — lots of cartoons and jokes depicting innocent pedestrians having to leap out of the way of oncoming motorists. In “Reggy’s Christmas Present,” from Life in 1903, a smug young man in goggles and cap is hurtling down the main thoroughfare in his new car, scattering people, dogs and horses. A young woman in another cartoon is advised by her mother to make a quick getaway if she runs over a child. The car was a devil wagon, and reckless driving arrests made headlines.”
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