This is a very sad article.

"deprecated account" (savethei4s)
10/02/2016 at 22:26 • Filed to: None

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Issues like the ones presented in the MIT game that was mentioned on the FP are why I hope fully autonomous vehicles never exist, among other obvious reasons. And regarding the article - Hot Wheels are meant to be played with, not be watched as they drive themselves around.

DISCUSSION (24)

Richtofen, Baron von Pickup > deprecated account
10/02/2016 at 22:32

What makes it so sad is that this man has children.

PS9 > deprecated account
10/02/2016 at 22:36

Well I’ve got some bad news for you; most drivers will never attend a race track, never understand car enthusiasm, and only care about the German 3 because ownership buys them into the ‘we’ve made it!’ club. To them, an M3 is a showy display of means and nothing else.

To most people, driving itself is just another inconvenience. Burning up your money while sitting in traffic, getting cut off by inconsiderate assholes, having inattentive people damage your property because they don’t want to stop snapchating or whatever idiot distraction then indulge themselves in while driving, all that stuff sucks. And we haven’t even covered the beauracracy surrounding just earning and maintaining your right to drive...

There will still be enthusiasm. There will still be interesting cars to drive. But beyond that, there totally will be a generation of humans who in majority will never touch a steering wheel or a gearshift, and will happily let their electric crossovers handle the inconvenience of driving for them. That’s coming, and there’s nothing we can do about it.

Sam > deprecated account
10/02/2016 at 22:42

Honestly, though, the MIT thing is what humans do every single day. Humans have a sense of self-preservation, though, so they’re more likely to choose hitting someone vs. injuring themselves. And how often do kill or be killed situation really pop up? I’d wager that it’s pretty uncommon.

aberson Bresident of the FullyAssed Committe > deprecated account
10/02/2016 at 22:42

The idea of a parent forcing their ideology on their kids kind of scares me tbh.

Sam > PS9
10/02/2016 at 22:44

Yeah, cars replaced horses, but we didn’t destroy all the horses. You just can’t take them on the 405 during rush hour. Self driving cars will probably be mandatory on highways and in cities, but rural and suburban areas will probably still allow driven cars. (This is in like 40 or so years) The enthusiasts will be the only ones still driving.

Urambo Tauro > deprecated account
10/02/2016 at 22:45

And even after [HAVs] become safe enough to pass muster with regulators, they will probably have to share the road with legacy vehicles operated by all too fallible wetware .

I’m offended by this.

jasmits > aberson Bresident of the FullyAssed Committe
10/02/2016 at 22:48

It’s not so much the driverless car bit, it’s preferring to watch something than participate in it if it’s too hard or requires practice.

jasmits > Sam
10/02/2016 at 22:50

Which is really sad, because every day I can take the long way home from work or school but I can’t necessarily make it to the stable(track?)

AkursedX > deprecated account
10/02/2016 at 22:50

It should be titled “Teaching my kids to never do anything for themselves”.

As a parent of a 6 and 4 year old, this mentality makes me cringe.

facw > jasmits
10/02/2016 at 23:06

You’re never going to be an expert (or even competent) at everything. It’s unavoidable that something will be too hard, simply because you don’t have time to master everything. Everyone is going passive participants at somethings, so why not let them pick what they want to master, and what they are going to leave to others?

Hot Takes Salesman > PS9
10/02/2016 at 23:08

There’s a part of me, maybe a vain and naive part, that says, fine. Let them have their electric crossovers. Let the vast majority put a nice dent in global warming and car accident rates. But let me have mine. Carmakers might just make performance vehicles if there’s still a market of people who enjoy cars, which there always will be. So firms like Porsche and the rest might still create their status symbols and their Best Driver’s Cars, if only to keep their would alive, or just to make money. That’s my hope.

facw > Sam
10/02/2016 at 23:09

Yeah, I don’t get the freakout here. These situations already happen, and people have to make the decision (or more likely just make a panicked response out of instinct). I guess it is scarier to have some company or the government make the decision for you, but it is not like we weren’t (rarely) already faced with these choices.

Hot Takes Salesman > Urambo Tauro
10/02/2016 at 23:14

T R I G G E R E D

Frenchlicker > facw
10/02/2016 at 23:21

I love the thought of a computer making the decision. Then I’m not the asshole that ran over a pedestrian.

facw > Frenchlicker
10/02/2016 at 23:29

Of course I think the real gain is that the computer will be better at noticing the pedestrian in the first place, and better at reacting quickly in a way that avoids risk to both the pedestrian and the occupants. Obviously it can’t save the day in all cases, but there’s a lot more happening the binary expression of the trolley problem.

Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever > deprecated account
10/02/2016 at 23:35

This is parenting at an idiotic level.

Good parenting is raising children to contribute to society, while at the same time evaluating the world around them with critical thinking.

This moron is teaching his kids to assume that cars can already drive themselves perfectly, and that autonomous motoring is already a solved problem.

Until that actually happens, teaching your kids incorrect assumptions based on your own inconveniences is dangerous. Did he not read about the Tesla accidents caused by a system marketed as “Autopilot” when it’s really more like a half-baked driver assist?

Why don’t I teach my son never to ride horses because a horse once threw me off its back, and cars don’t have a temper? In fact, why don’t I teach him to avoid all people of a certain race, because I was the victim of a pickpocket?

DC3 LS, will be perpetually replacing cars until the end of time > deprecated account
10/03/2016 at 00:14

Do you want skynet? BECAUSE THIS IS HOW YOU GET SKYNET!!!

Let AI control nuclear weapons or fumbling meatsacks who can’t take 5 steps without tripping over their own knuckles handle them (autonomous car advocate’s view of humans apparently)

Also we ain’t half bad at driving. Your only 5.5% less likely to get murdered than die in a car crash.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_in_U.S._by_year

https://mises.org/blog/fbi-us-homicide-rate-51-year-low

thebigbossyboss > deprecated account
10/03/2016 at 01:28

The authour of this article is my least favourite. Fuck him. I love driving and he can pry it outta my cold dead hands.

bhtooefr > deprecated account
10/03/2016 at 05:01

Conversely, I really, really think it’s a bad idea to make people who don’t want to drive drive - that’s how Camry dents, and terrified people doing 20 MPH under the limit in the middle lane, as they’re being simultaneously overtaken and undertaken, occur.

Although, I don’t think self-driving cars are the answer (they’re an answer, but they seem to be treated as a silver bullet to avoid having to implement functional mass transit). They do very little about pollution and resource usage concerns (yes, a lot of self-driving concepts are electric, but that’s not inherent to them, and meatsack-driven cars are also going that direction, meaning that their only efficiency advantage is in not doing idiotic things that meatsacks do). They do very little about space issues in cities (sure, they can drive themselves to an inconvenient parking garage, but they still take up exactly the same road space as a meatsack-driven car and contribute to traffic problems in that way). They do very little to deal with the expenses of getting around (while a lot of the proposed models don’t involve the user owning the vehicle, instead treating it like a taxi... that’s still expensive even if you remove the labor of a driver).

deprecated account > Sam
10/03/2016 at 08:47

I just don’t think a robot should be allowed to do that is all I’m saying. Seems a little morally sketchy for those programmers if you ask me.

jasmits > facw
10/03/2016 at 08:57

I understand that, that’s why I said it’s not the driverless car bit that gets me, it’s actively encouraging your kids to watch cars automatically drive around a track if personally driving them is too difficult.

Hot Takes Salesman > Hot Takes Salesman
10/03/2016 at 09:57

I meant to put “keep their souls alive” but the iPad keyboard is a slow and vindictive motherfucker.

Kanaric > PS9
10/03/2016 at 12:47

I am far less optimistic on driverless cars. Not only do I think that people have a kind of fantasy attitude towards them (no steering wheel, sleeping while driving), but I think they will be HEAVILY regulated.

Basically you will be required to be attentive at all times while driving and cities will LOVE the new ticket income of taxing people not looking at the road. I mean yo have fully automated trains and ships and equipment, still requires an attentive “driver” by regulations. And just wait until these Uber banning cities start possibly even outlawing them because of the taxi and public transport unions. Paris will be the first.

Nauraushaun > aberson Bresident of the FullyAssed Committe
10/03/2016 at 22:27

I tend to agree. It’s almost like brainwashing. Of course, a parent’s job is to shape their children’s beliefs in order to keep them safe, and you could argue this is similar to demonizing alcohol consumption.

But he’s preparing them for a world that doesn’t exist. He’s feeding them lies.