“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” Dr. Ian Malcolm – Jurassic Park
Sure it’s a movie quote, but it rings more true today than it did back in “the day”.
I still maintain that AV technology is a worthwhile pursuit for certain applications. The commercial uses are almost limitless given a broad definition of “vehicle.” From earth-moving behemoths to warehouse pallet movers AVs are a huge windfall for industry.
However, to sprint down the road of driverless cars for absolutely no reason is insane. The best possible outcome is complete failure without collateral damage.
As reported in Reuters, the damage is already done to an extent. A criminal probe has been launched into Tesla’s self-driving claims.
I am not even slightly surprised by this. I am only wondering who was sweeping this under the rug to keep it from the light of day this long.
Genius borders insanity. Be careful which side you’re dealing with at any given time. Think about it, in 2016 the bold statement from Elon Musk was “probably better” than a human driver.
Probably? Good enough for me, let’s throw billions of dollars at it. This is where you imagine the sheep-like bleating of the sheople as they blindly agree that we must have this technology.
Reading the facts it seems to me that Elon is doing a pretty good Trevor impersonation. Maybe the Batman villain Two Face is more like it.
Evidence: The Reuters article points to a recent video on the Tesla website which said, “the person in the driver’s seat is only there for legal reasons. He is not doing anything. The car is driving itself.”
At the same time, the website says the technology is there to assist with steering, braking, speed, and lane changes but these “do not make the vehicle autonomous.”
Sixty percent of the time it works all the time. I know, another movie reference.
To be fair, let’s look at some other statistics as reported on Way.com .
Tesla’s fatal accidents involving “self-driving” cars only average 1.2 deaths per accident. Sweet!
At 9.1 crashes per million miles driven a “self-driving car” is only twice as likely as a human driver to have an accident.
What else? Oh yes, they are hackable so… they have that going for them. They are worse than human drivers in unpredictable situations, bad weather, and they lack intuition and instinct. No, AI can not replace that.
That about kills off the top reason for the self-driving car; better road safety.
What about mobility for senior citizens? Really? That’s a legit reason? How about reduced traffic or improved productivity? Perfect, now I can work during my commute. That’s what we needed.
But, they could include smart pollution sensors and help reduce emissions. Seriously, that is an argument for self-driving cars.
Come on, somebody think up a reason why we need these, and make it fast!
Oh, by the way…According to TechCrunch Argo AI – you guessed it, an autonomous vehicle company, is shutting down.
What’re a billion dollars? It’s not like we had anything else to invest in.
Peace and love.
