California Uber Alles redux

[eflatminor]

Any Dead Kennedys fans? You might recall the band had a minor hit in 1980 with California Uber Alles, a scathing review of then California governor Jerry Brown:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quLqEu4mUOU]California Uber Alles (Dead Kennedys) - YouTube[/ame]

A few years later, Biafra re-wrote the song for Ronald Reagan:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfH263OAG0A]Dead Kennedys - We've got a Bigger Problem Now - YouTube[/ame]

I thought I'd write a version for 2012. Hope you like it.

I am tax and spend Barack Obama
My speeches soar and I killed Osama
Still, nobody can pay their rent.

Individuals will soon go away
I am now your god today
Now I command all of you
Now you’ll pray to me in school
Or I’ll call you a racist too!

California Uber Alles
Uber Alles California

EPA will control you
And reading bills is unnatural
Killing towel heads for the new world race
What a smile, what a face!

You closed your eyes, is Bush still here?
Timmy Geithner’s cash is near
Communists won’t come back you say
Fly the flag and you will pay
Fly the flag and you will pay!

California Uber Alles
Uber Alles California

Welcome to 1984
Are you ready for the new world order?
You too will meet the PC police
They’ve come for you and your teabagging niece

Come quietly to nice camp
Where freedom dies for the good of man
Don’t you worry it’s for a cause
Feeding global entitlement claws

Die on drugs, obese and full of gas
With Obamacare shoved up your ass
Making money from unionization
While socializing the entire nation

California Uber Alles
Uber Alles California

 

[waltky]

Ride a Uber, get a ticket...

Uber’s Driverless Cars Hit San Francisco Streets
December 14, 2016 | Ride-hailing service Uber has rolled out driverless cars in San Francisco, the second American city the company has targeted.

Uber tested autonomous cars earlier this year in Pittsburgh, but on a limited scale. The San Francisco rollout is expected to be larger. Uber users in San Francisco will be the first to have a chance to ride in the company’s self-driving vehicle, which is a Volvo XC90 SUV equipped with LIDAR, a radar-type system that uses lasers as well as cameras and computers to navigate. “The promise of self-driving is core to our mission of reliable transportation everywhere for everyone,” Anthony Levandowski, Uber’s vice president of self-driving technology, said in a blog post. Several tech companies have been or are exploring driverless cars, but Uber appears to have the advantage now.

Earlier this week, Alphabet, the parent company of Google, said it was spinning off its effort into a company called Waymo, a possible indication the cars are nearly ready to be tested in the real world. Tesla, Lyft and others are also working on autonomous cars. While the Pittsburgh launch was limited to a few frequent users within a small area, Uber says in San Francisco any passenger choosing an UberX ride, one of the cheaper options, could be picked up by a driverless car. The customer will have a choice to accept a driverless car or a regular driver. As in Pittsburgh, an Uber employee will still be in the car in case of malfunction.

According to The New York Times, it was not clear if Uber legally could test driverless cars in San Francisco as it was not listed as a company holding a permit from the California Department of Motor Vehicles. An Uber spokeswoman told the paper the company was “compliant with applicable federal and state laws.” “We are not planning to operate any differently than in Pittsburgh, where our pilot has been running successfully for several months,” wrote Levandowski. “Second, the rules apply to cars that can drive without someone controlling or monitoring them. For us, it’s still early days and our cars are not yet ready to drive without a person monitoring them.”

Uber’s Driverless Cars Hit San Francisco Streets

See also:

Uber Driverless Cars Reportedly Run Red Lights in San Francisco
December 15, 2016 | Ride-hailing service Uber reportedly encountered a snag Wednesday after two autonomous vehicles appeared to run red lights during the company's rollout of its driverless car.

Video of one of the company’s self-driving Volvo SUV's running a light was recorded by a camera mounted on the dashboard of a nearby car, according to a report from the local CBS station. The incident occurred just hours after Uber launched the driverless service in San Francisco, the second city in which the new technology is being tested. The company first tested driverless cars on a very limited scale, in Pittsburgh, earlier this year. Another incident was reported later in the day when Twitter user Annie Gaus said she witnessed a driverless car run a red light and snapped a photo.

Uber's self-driving cars hit a snag in San Francisco.​

As in Pittsburgh, Uber’s driverless cars still have a human on board should anything go wrong, and in a statement about the incidents, Uber said the issue was with the driver. “This incident was due to human error,” the statement read. “This is why we believe so much in making the roads safer by building self-driving Ubers. This vehicle was not part of the pilot and was not carrying customers. The driver involved has been suspended while we continue to investigate.”

Uber’s ability to test the autonomous cars in California was controversial as it was unclear if the company needed a permit. According to The New York Times, it was not clear if Uber legally could test driverless cars in San Francisco as it was not listed as a company holding a permit from the California Department of Motor Vehicles. An Uber spokeswoman told the paper the company was “compliant with applicable federal and state laws.” On Wednesday, state regulators said Uber should suspend driverless service until it has the proper paperwork.

Uber Driverless Cars Reportedly Run Red Lights in San Francisco

 

[owebo]

I remember seeing them in concert on South Street in Philly back in the day.....

 

[waltky]

Uber stops California self-driving cars test...

Uber halts California self-driving cars test
Thu, 22 Dec 2016 | Ride-sharing firm Uber suspends its self-driving cars pilot in San Francisco after regulators say it needs a special permit.

Ride-sharing firm Uber has suspended its test of self-driving cars in San Francisco after regulators revoked the registration of the vehicles. Passengers had recently been given the option of a booking a self-driving vehicle. But authorities had threatened legal action if Uber did not obtain a special permit to test the cars.

Uber Volvo​

Uber argues that because they came with a safety driver and are not fully autonomous, the permit was not needed. "We're now looking at where we can redeploy these cars, but remain 100% committed to California and will be redoubling our efforts to develop workable statewide rules," Uber said. San Francisco is Uber's second trial city for the new technology. In Pittsburgh, the company has been running its driverless trial since September and has not required special permits.

Not yet fully autonomous

Although the cars are promoted as "self-driving", they must constantly be monitored by an actual driver who can take control any time the software should fail. Uber says its technology is not sophisticated enough to have cars continuously drive by themselves - and therefore the permit demanded in San Francisco is not needed. According to the regulators though, 20 other companies testing self-driving technology in California - including Google, Tesla and Ford - do so with the special permit which requires the firms to report any accidents to the authorities. This potentially undermines the company's reputation, as the reports are available to the public.

Just before the city's Department of Motor Vehicles threatened Uber with legal action over the missing permit, a video of an Uber self-driving vehicle running a red light in San Francisco had been uploaded to YouTube. The trials are designed for the firm to identify flaws and glitches in the technology behind the autonomous driving.

Uber halts California self-driving cars test - BBC News