Driverless cars win again.

[In The Ten Ring]

I was driving my mother's car, giving my father a ride since he hates to drive that thing.....we were in a parking lot going maybe 10 mph and BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! with a flashing light reflecting off the windshield.

Dad exclaimed: "WHAT WAS THAT?" I calmly answered, "this car continuously sends a RADAR signal out in front of it and if the car is going over a certain speed and gets too close to an object, that alarm goes off."

What had it detected? A gentle rise in the pavement.

I said to dad "now imagine it had the ability to stop the car. It would have locked up the brakes on us in an empty parking lot because of an incline so gentle we could push the car over it from a dead stop."

Later, on the way home, I came up on a truck going a bit slow and smoothly passed it. There have been at least three high profile cases of "self driving cars" killing the driver, a pedestrian, or like the link above, ramming a stopped truck. The company says "well the driver must remain alert at all times." If that is the case, WHAT IS THE POINT OF A DRIVERLESS CAR?" Just wait until a judge, despite the small print of the purchase agreement, awards the victim's family 1 trillion in damages.

I think the desire for driverless cars is fueled by the inability of the cell phone addict to look up at the road anymore.

[special-K]

The single safety issue we have is drivers not staying alert. Cell phones are merely a distraction for the already non-attentive mind. How could they expect these people to begin staying alert now that a device (the car) is doing the task for them? Are these minds thinking as upside down backwards* as it seems so obvious to me or am I missing something? And yeah, phones. People are texting and having conversations that take their minds away from the task at hand now while being the only one controlling the vehicle. People are dying, getting hurt, people are paying fines, and going to jail now. Who would not know sitting here right now that later, when cars drive themselves, people will be using their devices all the more? A lot more. Like only looking up to make sure the car is turning on the right street or to see why the brakes are going on. Dumb dumb double D dumb.

Progress isn't progress when it goes the wrong way



* Picture what that would put your head up.

[RDrancher]

Originally Posted by special-K

One way you can fix stupid is don't make self-driving cars. The answer to all the stupidity we see out there is not coming up with ways for people to avoid needing skills. That is what is making them stupid. Too many warning signs & symbols, guard rails, and safety nets. Let them learn by their mistakes. How the heck do you think people who have it ever got common sense? Common sense is the same thing as self teaching. Get it now? Yeah, and we learn real well from others dying from their lack of it. Sounds hard, but too many people in the world anyway. Let the fools who don't take a look at themselves and repeat the same mistakes pass on so that others might learn and survive.

It's the dumbing down of the human race in general.

My son and I were having a conversation along these lines on the way home from work yesterday after we heard about the school shooting. It suddenly dawned on me...Why in the world are kids in school nowadays anyway? History and science have been manipulated. All they need to know is how to read and type their language, and maybe not even that so much. Shoot, most of their conversations are by electronic means and half the language is written in acronyms anyway! Social skills are a thing of the past due social media. (If that's not an oxymoron I don't know what is). Taught knowledge and skills are not necessary since they truly don't actually have to know anything personally to accomplish a task. Everything about anything is available on the web. Have to fix something? Google it. Want to know how an atom forms molecules? Search it.

And forget about common sense. Folks these days don't seem to feel the need to possess it. At least from what I'm seeing.

[special-K]

Now they passed a law that requires all new cars to come with backup cameras. One more leap into degenerative driving skills. They just keep taking things the wrong way. The thing to do is strive to be a better person with better skills, not find ways around anything that takes skill. "Your safety is in your own hands". More than one meaning can be found in that statement and none could be more definite, absolute, and true. Stop looking for ways to make things safer and just start "being" safer, as if it was that important. What next, mandatory self driving cars? No, I guess they'll do the self braking and lane changing thing first.

Back before automatic headlights or even the dummy buzzers I used to wonder how people could drive to work in the dark and forget they need to turn their headlights off. I always did a check before shutting off. Them came the buzzers. I disconnected them soon as I got the vehicle. Then I got a brand new factory order truck and decided to leave everything intact. I drove that truck every day and after a while I when I'd get in the vehicles with no buzzer I'd leave the headlights on when I never had before. I experienced degeneration first hand.