- The first truly useful news of the political season: how to block Hillary and Donald from your social media.
- Even if I’d been considering v*ting for Hillary (not a chance, but if) there’d be no possible way after this.
- So we know misuse of Tesla autopilot killed one driver. But it may have saved another who suffered a medical emergency.
- Holy cr*p. Now the Gadsden flag is “racist.” You’ve got to be kidding me.
- Check them Android phones, guys. (H/T MJR)
- Hahaha. The DEA, taking a tip from Reefer Madness declares pot grows the new meth houses. Meantime, guess who’s the biggest opponent of legalized pot? (Except, of course, where proposed legal pot laws give those highly principled opponents special privileges.)
Referring back to the recent Maxpedition thread, the Velcro panel on the flap of mine sported Nyberg and Gadsden patches for a long while. Then the idiots got the vapors about anything with a St. Andrew’s Cross on it, but particularly the confederate battle flag, so the Gadsden came off and the confederate patch went on. Now this nonsense, so the Nyberg is coming off and the Gadsden is returning.
Screw ’em all.
What Tesla requires of their drivers is impossible. Drivers are expected to remain 100% alert and ready to take control in an instant.
Humans don’t work that way. Human factors studies from 50 years ago show that if operators are not actively engaged by the task, they grow bored and distracted, and the potential for errors and oversights increases dramatically.
On the other hand, if operators are severely stressed the error rate also goes up. There is an optimal level of stress for best driver performance, neither too much nor too little.
Tesla does nothing to keep drivers engaged. Why should the late driver have thought that a white truck turning left was an unusual and immediate danger?
But there is a bigger ethical question that I haven’t seen discussed. It’s fine for Tesla drivers to sign waivers and let their cars have their way with them.
What about the rest of us? When (not if) a Tesla mows down a pedestrian or crashes into another car, people who had no part in the decision to use autopilot will be hurt or killed. I’ve made an affirmative choice not to use Tesla autopilot, but I am part of the company’s grand experiment. Every US driver and pedestrian is part of this trial, like it or not.
S… “autopilot” is only one of many, many potential risks you might encounter in life, even in the privacy of your bed at home. There is no way to eliminate risk, only to be aware of it, and to manage it rationally.
Avoidance of risk, where possible, is obviously important, but the risk of being run down by a car with autopilot is far less than being run down by a car driven by any other means, probably a whole lot less. And that’s were defensive driving and situational awareness comes in. You are responsible for you, for your own safety, and need to extend your awareness and be competent in your own skills to see the danger coming and get out of the way if possible.
Stopping people from using autopilot, or self driving cars, won’t increase your safety on the road any more than “gun control” makes people safer from guns.
Morning all! I just saw the fundraiser thermometer was all filled up. Hurrah! Looking forward to all this blog/forum has to offer.
I have only one patch on my Versipack: this one. I also like the resistor patch.
$5,573 of the $5,500 goal raised! Yay!
Happy blogging, Claire.
ML,
We have zero, nada, zilch data on which to base a conclusion that “the risk of being run down by a car with autopilot is far less than being run down by a car driven by any other means, probably a whole lot less. ” Tesla doesn’t release the data, and their attempts to spin the senseless death didn’t help their credibility.
I don’t know if the risk is small or large. I do know that the mental model of Tesla autopilot is deeply flawed and asks the impossible of drivers. That suggests that the risks are larger, perhaps much larger, than they need to be.
Of course I should be alert, and drive defensively. I do that already. Now there is a new hazard, new and different than distracted drivers. Now I face a threat from a machine that can malfunction in ways human drivers do not. I’ve never seen a driver decapitate themselves and then continue down the road for 100 yards or more. What other new surprises are hidden in Tesla code? How do I prepare for them? Why should I find it acceptable to be a crash test dummy for expensive automated cars?
The larger point is that Tesla is conducting an experiment on the US population, one with non-trivial risks of serious injury and death. It’s fine for Tesla drivers to consent to those risks. Most people object to having new hazards forced on them without notification or opportunity to dissent.
“Why should the late driver have thought that a white truck turning left was an unusual and immediate danger?”
Because the guy was on US 27 which is not a highway, has cross streets and red lights. The guy in Florida, G-d rest his soul, was a moron.
Autopilot is not autonomous driven robot cars. I’m no fan of either.
Won’t v*te (dirty word ’round these parts) for clinton because she laughed about killing gaddafi. Killing a man, any man, is serious business, it is no small matter, it is not funny.
My questions for her;
Why did you laugh about killing gaddifi?
Do you think that killing people is funny?
What’s wrong with your soul?
It was a sick, terrible laugh. She is taken over to evil. Actual evil.
Do you fly commercial airlines? Most of those big airplanes are on “auto pilot” a lot… The safety record of commercial flight is very, very good.
If “most people” object to having new hazards like this, if they think it is “deeply flawed,” they won’t buy the product. The free market is still the best answer.
Nobody can be “forced” to buy one, and potential customers have absolute opportunity to dissent. They just won’t buy one if they are not satisfied. Those who do buy one will have to take responsibility for what they do with them – as with anything else… and the insurance companies will have a lot to say about how that works out too.
Right now there are only a few of these cars on the roads, far as I know, so the jury is still out.
“Do you fly commercial airlines? Most of those big airplanes are on “auto pilot” a lot… The safety record of commercial flight is very, very good.”
But ML, the big vast sky, with aircraft flying at different altitudes, isn’t analogous to a busy highway with traffic in and out and slowing down and speeding up.
“If “most people” object to having new hazards like this, if they think it is “deeply flawed,” they won’t buy the product. The free market is still the best answer.”
I’m sure S. agrees that the free market is the best answer. I haven’t heard him arguing otherwise. But that doesn’t mean he’s wrong that Tesla’s concept for autopilot is flawed.
He’s also made the point, however, that the Tesla’s system doesn’t just affect the people who buy Teslas. Of course, many things in the world affect people who “don’t buy them” — from bad driving to religious mania. But if Tesla has put out a system that bucks basic facts of human psychology, that is a problem — and not just for those who might buy Teslas.
Hey Fred! “Killing a man, any man, is serious business, it is no small matter, it is not funny. ”
I think the same thing every time I think of laughing Hillary and her “we came, we saw, he died!” Evil, evil, woman…
I stopped voting a decade or so ago — but I must admit, I think I will probably vote for Trump in this election. I am very much of two minds on whether to vote, but the fact is, Trump has never (as far as I know) killed anyone. The mere thought of standing by while a mass murdering, genocidal, sociopathic killer of men women and (especially) children moves into the White House just turns my stomach.
Such times we live in…
What you are missing is that Tesla and Google plan eventually to make these systems mandatory, as has happened with equipment like backup cameras.
FWIW, here’s an article on the Libertarian candidate and his trashing of a pistol that was given to him as a peace offering: http://bearingarms.com/bob-o/2016/05/31/libertarian-nominee-johnson-trashes-second-amendment/
And the election may really be about “globalism,” with everything else a smokescreen. http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21702750-farewell-left-versus-right-contest-matters-now-open-against-closed-new Trump is now making nice with Ryan and McCain, so that difference may be vanishing in large part.
The impartial (!@#$) Commission for Presidential Debates may allow a third candidate http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/debates-clinton-trump-johnson-stein-226806 who will take votes only from Trump, not from Hillary. Perot similarly got Bill Clinton elected (I’m not a fan of Bush, BTW). And the debates have been scheduled to coincide with NFL games, which will limit Trump’s exposure to a segment of the population that has a very good chance of being positively impressed by him. Everything is designed to anoint Hillary.
Claire and S…. what you say is true, but is true of so many other things. The potential risk may well be great, but objecting to technology based on the fear of risk (real or imagined) is pretty much what the “gun control” crowd is trying to do, isn’t it? Is the solution to FORCE Tesla (or anyone else) not to produce such technology? How would that work unless government decided to do so?
Tesla isn’t the real problem, but there won’t be a good solution for that or anything like it until there really is a free market and individual liberty for all. I don’t know how to make that happen today either, of course…
As for making the autodrive car “mandatory,” I have to laugh. How well has that (including all prohibitions) worked out for the controllers with anything else? I don’t think so… but we’ll have to wait and see. The idea of gun confiscation is much nearer to happening… and I don’t think that will go well for the controllers either.
This one is starting to be picked up by the MSM: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-08-10/wikileaks-assange-hints-murdered-dnc-staffer-was-email-leaker-offers-20k-reward-info
I don’t think this will surprise anyone: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/08/10/dea-travel-record-airport-seizures/88474282/