11627 replies to this topic

[dasmo]

 

(Reuters) - The U.S. Transportation Department said on Thursday it may waive some vehicle safety rules to allow more driverless cars to operate on U.S. roads as part of a broader effort to speed up development of self-driving vehicles.

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx unveiled the new policy guidance for self-driving vehicle testing in Detroit. He also announced that U.S. President Barack Obama will call on Congress to approve nearly $4 billion over 10 years to accelerate vehicle automation.

 

http://finance.yahoo...zFfMQRzZWMDc2M-

[LeoVictoria]

Yeah I've got some questions on how liability works with this type of scenario.  If your car runs little Timmy over and you aren't even in it, what happens?  There doesn't seem to be any possibility of accountability.

 

Doesn't really matter.  Insurance company pays the damage.   Accidents far less frequent than now so overall claims will be vastly reduced.

[LeoVictoria]

Interesting article about Google's autonomous car research centre https://medium.com/b...9c45#.uyy065n81

[Greg]

Not to mention human's skills and abilities continue to be degraded by technology. People can't spell anymore. Kids are less and less permitted to play sports. Soon they won't know how to drive, either. Some day there may be no need for most of us to be conscious at all.

 

Did you get those kids off your lawn yet?  

 

It is a myth that technology is making people less literate. In reality most research points to the fact that kids today spend more time utilizing written communication than any generation in history. And not knowing how to drive a car in the future will not be a loss, any more than not having the ability to shoe a horse today is holding me back. 

[Mike K.]

Have you seen how atrocious spelling and grammar is among many of today's youth? It's horrible, and what's worse is they're learning bad writing habits from each other and just affirming the nonsense with every Facebook post.

[LeoVictoria]

The problem is the people running social media platforms. They're enabling our youth to rot their brains on these forums! Burn them to the ground I say.

[Greg]

Have you seen how atrocious spelling and grammar is among many of today's youth? It's horrible, and what's worse is they're learning bad writing habits from each other and just affirming the nonsense with every Facebook post.

That's missing the point. There have always been loads of people who were terrible writers. They only wrote what was required in school, got bad grades on written work, and then avoided writing for the most part. Today everyone writes. The problem is that we are comparing average writers on the internet, with good writers from a previous generation (the only ones who ever got published). Kids today write more. They are not becoming worse writers as a result. That is not how writing (or anything else) works. 

[Mike K.]

Kids may be writing more but they're horrible at it. It's atrocious what's out there.

But then most adults can no longer spell without a spellchecker so perhaps we shouldn't be all that surprised that kids no longer take writing seriously or know the simple difference between your and you're.

[dasmo]

This line of logic is almost like people who complained about the use of DOS disappearing in favour of a GUI.... A car is technology. Knowing how to operate it's current interface has nothing to do with being a better human being....

[LeoVictoria]

Kids may be writing more but they're horrible at it. It's atrocious what's out there.

But then most adults can no longer spell without a spellchecker so perhaps we shouldn't be all that surprised that kids no longer take writing seriously or know the simple difference between your and you're.

 

Literacy rates (reading, writing, comprehension) is much higher in youth than older people in Canada.

[sebberry]

This line of logic is almost like people who complained about the use of DOS disappearing in favour of a GUI.... A car is technology. Knowing how to operate it's current interface has nothing to do with being a better human being....

 

Define "better"

 

As a society, our values appear to be quickly moving in the direction where we're so wrapped up in social media that we can't even be bothered to drive to the grocery store any more.  We want everything done for us, and when we do have to do something ourselves or go somewhere getting there now needs to be automated so we can fiddle with our cell phones. 

 

Wall-E summed it up well.  We're all going to end up sitting around drinking pop and texting while the machines cart us around:

 

Edited by sebberry, 17 January 2016 - 12:17 PM.
Spelling

[dasmo]

Define "better"

As a society, our values appear to be quickly moving in the direction where we're so wrapped up in social media that we can't even be bothered to drive to the grocery store any more. We want everything done for us, and when we do have to do something ourselves or go somewhere getting there now needs to be automated to we can fiddle with our cell phones.

Wall-E summed it up well. We're all going to end up sitting around drinking pop and texting while the machines cart us around:

You will. I'll be walking and riding my bike ;-)

[sebberry]

You will. I'll be walking and riding my bike ;-)

 

With a bit of luck, pedestrians will be mandated to ride autonomous Segways and cyclists on autonomous bicycles  

[Greg]

With a bit of luck, pedestrians will be mandated to ride autonomous Segways and cyclists on autonomous bicycles

Or free to enjoy walking and cycling without human-driven cars potentially running them over through incompetence by either or both parties.

[LeoVictoria]

Like with everything, you can take a positive view or a negative view.  To me, autonomous cars are going to be a massive positive revolution by reducing road deaths, reducing the drudgery of necessary driving, and freeing up time for more productive uses.   Or you can spend your days worrying about how they will degrade us because...  somehow driving yourself to the grocery store is some kind of virtue that we should protect?  

[sebberry]

  somehow driving yourself to the grocery store is some kind of virtue that we should protect?  

 

How productive could one possibly be in the 10 minutes it takes to get to the grocery store? 

 

Or put it this way: how much real work gets done on the bus or in the back of a taxi? 

[LeoVictoria]

How productive could one possibly be in the 10 minutes it takes to get to the grocery store? 

 

Or put it this way: how much real work gets done on the bus or in the back of a taxi? 

 

Exactly as much as you want to do.   Driving there is at best a wash, so in the pleasure or productive categories it's a zero.   

Without having to drive you could read a book, write some emails, watch the scenery, close your eyes and listen to music, etc,   All better than zero.  Maybe not much work gets done but I can guarantee you I can relax on the bus much more than the bus driver.   If you could unwind in the car after work you would be way more present for your family after work.

 

10 min is not much, but consider a 45 minute commute from the westshore.   That's some 350 hours of your life you can reclaim every year or 21 days of time.   I can certainly think of many things I would do with 21 extra days.

Edited by LeoVictoria, 17 January 2016 - 12:07 PM.

[rjag]

 

 

10 min is not much, but consider a 45 minute commute from the westshore.   That's some 350 hours of your life you can reclaim every year or 21 days of time.   I can certainly think of many things I would do with 21 extra days.

 

You can do that now....its called taking the bus....

 

I guess for some folks they look at driving as a chore while others enjoy driving. This is why we have multi modes of travel, to accommodate everyone and provide choice.

 

Such as the choice to live in the westshore and spend an hour commuting.....if you don't like it, you can solve that really quite easily, you don't need to invent autonomous cars to solve it.

[sebberry]

 I can certainly think of many things I would do with 21 extra days.

 

It might amount to 21 days, but it's broken up into time periods that simply don't allow for much productivity. 

 

I listen to AM talk radio in the car.  It's great way to be kept up to speed on the happenings of the day.  I don't need to be glued to a phone to read the internet to get that information. 

 

 

The other problem with this idea of increased productivity is that car trips are often quite short.  Getting stuff organized to do some work for a short trip, only to have to pack it all up again once you get to where you're going after 20 minutes is likely to result in more disorganization and lower overall productivity than if you were to just add 20 minutes to your work day. 

[sebberry]

Such as the choice to live in the westshore and spend an hour commuting.....if you don't like it, you can solve that really quite easily, you don't need to invent autonomous cars to solve it.

 

The commute is the price you pay for a more productive life.  If you can only afford an apartment in town, then the house in the westshore is pretty much your only option if you want two kids and a dog.  Or one kid and two dogs.  Or just two dogs.

 

And you can't exactly walk your dog while sitting in your autonomous buggy.  So again, the productivity level of autonomous cars isn't as high as people think.