^ Have you ever SEEN L.A. traffic?
If you like driving, something to consider....
- Thread starter Warped9
- Start date
We're confusing the idea of having automated cars, with requiring people use only them. Manufacturing reliable ones? Totally. Legally forcing their use onto people, & trying to pigeon hold the industry into making only them? No.
I'll build my own transport before handing over its control to automation. It's highly doubtful they'll ever automate all transport variants (Like my motorcycle). They can't currently even account for them. They can't possibly eliminate manual controlled vehicles completely. (Any more than they could eliminate all guns)
If ever legislation tried to restrict the use of manual operated transport, I'd have major objections. Otherwise, build whatever you want. I'm sure it will reduce fatalities eventually, & improve road safety. However, something creeping into the culture lately is the assumption that a statistical probability of presumed safety automatically trumps people's liberty. No thank you.
I'll build my own transport before handing over its control to automation. It's highly doubtful they'll ever automate all transport variants (Like my motorcycle). They can't currently even account for them. They can't possibly eliminate manual controlled vehicles completely. (Any more than they could eliminate all guns)
If ever legislation tried to restrict the use of manual operated transport, I'd have major objections. Otherwise, build whatever you want. I'm sure it will reduce fatalities eventually, & improve road safety. However, something creeping into the culture lately is the assumption that a statistical probability of presumed safety automatically trumps people's liberty. No thank you.
Driving is a privilege, not a right.
Many drivers can't deal with whiteouts and black ice.
I like worrying about that. I like being able to ride a commuter train too, sometimes. A car, a bicycle, a motorcycle, that's freedom.Perhaps not, but hey, a man can dream.
Yeah, I...don't think L.A.'s attempt at a subway is really the best example..
Fixed that for ya.
Think of it this way: Cars cost money to operate, maintain, park, license, and even store. And I think we can all agree that driving in a big city like New York, Boston or L.A. is a major pain in the ass. Wouldn't it be great if you didn't have to worry about any of that?
Freedom of movement, however I choose, is a right. That I tolerate licensing (for certain modes of transport) is enough imho
Only just.
Provided you're not breaking any laws or straying into restricted areas, then yeah, freedom of movement is assured. The freedom to drive in pursuit of said movement, OTOH, is not.
Hence why I said I'm fine enough with licensing, like you'd be expected to maintain, if you wanted to move about with a plane or a boat etc... Moving about, any way I choose, is a HUGE part of moving about freely. Regulation for the sake of society, I concede. Restriction or prohibition for said society, I reject.
That's true. But I still think that human drivers assisted by various AI aids is the way to go, at least for now. Also, AI can be very useful in smart traffic control, for example to ensure free passage for emergency vehicles by switching traffic lights appropriately and directing drivers to alternate routes where available to decrease rush hour congestion.
That is your prerogative, of course. But consider this: Rejection of a thing does not make that thing go away.
If enough people reject it, in a democratic society, it can. That's how a prohibition falls, & one banning people from freely operating their own vehicles would certainly meet that level of opposition
Yeah, because people don't understand statistics and risk analysis. About 3,287 people are killed in car accidents around the world each day. How many have died in self-driving car accidents in their entire history of operations? 3? And that's a technology in its infancy that will only get better and safer as it's tested and refined.
Today it likely would but fast forward 20, 30 etc.. years and people who grew up with more automated cars might hold a different opinion as they grew up with that technology.
Take seat belts for example I suspect some people still hold the viewpoint it's their right not to wear one go back decades and the number would likely be higher, attitudes change over time esp. as we become more used to the technology.
And there's the fringe element who still refuse to wear motorcycle helmets. As if the "right" not to wear them somehow trumps the right not to have your head bounced off the pavement like Happy Fun Ball.
I'm still one of them. There is no safety harness on my motorcycle (Because that's idiotic) I'm fully of the opinion that if I'm actually free, then my life, my body, my choice of movement, & yes even my death, are at my discretion. That's what freedom is. I'm allowed to die any way I please, & once I have, you can feel free to scold me all you want
Besides, I can pity you all, but there's no chance that any technology will force me out of the driver's seat within the rest of my lifetime. After that, you can become a whole nation of children being told how to live by your parent state. I won't care. It's not the government's job to tell me how to live. Screw that. That's what I consider patriotism
It does. There's no danger to anyone else from a body boouncing around the pavement, any more than the rest of the vehicle... except to the drivers themselves. There's still places that don't have the law. Nor should they. Don't assume this means I don't wear one. I do, of course. I don't support your laws telling me I must. It's not the government's job to tell me how to live.And there's the fringe element who still refuse to wear motorcycle helmets. As if the "right" not to wear them somehow trumps the right not to have your head bounced off the pavement like Happy Fun Ball.
Hell, even a 10% reduction would be an achievement, about 4000 fewer people killed every year in the US alone. I'd take that.
We're so used to traffic accidents and deaths we don't even think about it, but manually controlled automobiles really have a pretty abysmal safety record. It's hard to imagine a technologically-controlled or -assisted system doing worse.
No but vehicles don't last forever. In the same way there are very few cars on the road today without center brake lights or airbags or ABS or other safety innovations, eventually technological control aids will make their way into the products. Either because the government mandates it, the insurance industry incentivizes it, or the consumer market just wants safer cars. It will become expensive to opt out.
In this case, I'd personally give more weight to people's liberty to not be endangered by large, fast-moving machines, if such machines could be rendered safer through proven technology.
The fewer riders who wear helmets, the more likely they are to get injured, which clogs hospitals and puts more strain on our health care system. That's the bottom line, really.
