Uber Rolling Out Driverless Cars

[GHook93]

'We're just rentals': Uber drivers ask where they fit in a self-driving future

The technology is already there. They just need to beta test it and prove it is safe and reliable. Then the "expensive" drivers are cut from the cost margins. No thank you, no parting gift, no well wishes, no here is something to get by on since you made it possible for the company to make billions, NOPE it will be 'don't let the door hit your ass on the way out.' By 2018 it will start rolling out to every city across the globe.

There are 2 sides of the coin.
(1) The liberals will scream those poor uber drivers are losing their jobs to a greedy corporation, yet the reality is if uber didn't do this another company would have and then put them out of business. Think blockbuster refusing to change and Netflix innovations them out of the market place. So it would have occurred either way. Humans have been innovating and making things better since the dawn of time. Driverless cars were inevitable.

(2) The heartless conservative will say get a different job and cry on someone else's shoulder. Yes everyone loves innovation until it is their job automated out of existence. The reality is automation continues to grow the amount of jobs continue to shrink. Ex. The amount of people required to make a car has decreased 1000 fold in a just a few decades. The manufacturing and assembly sectors have been hit hardest, but won't end there. Low level service jobs are going to get hit hard. But it won't stop there, the medical field, legal field, accounting field, and really all white collar jobs will be reexamine and the list goes on and on. The number of people entering the workforce will only grow and the job market will only decrease.

What is going to be the solution? I don't know, but I doubt it won't involve less government intervention!

 

[GHook93]

Interesting no one sees the slippery slope of robots eliminating jobs.


I realize technology has always made many jobs obsolete in time, but a wave of robotics eliminating blue and white collar jobs might be the straw that breaks the camels back

 

[Al Azar]

We'll absorb this new phase of robotics as we've always done. New jobs maintaining the machines will created and the old, unnecessary jobs will disappear. ATMs, self-checkout, 100K miles between tune-ups, cell phones replacing pay phones,.. The list of downsizing and obsolescence is endless.

Short haul drivers will complain. Long haul drivers, that's when truckers are replaced, then there'll really be squawking.

You can't fight the tide of technology. Adapt or perish.

 

[GHook93]

We'll absorb this new phase of robotics as we've always done. New jobs maintaining the machines will created and the old, unnecessary jobs will disappear. ATMs, self-checkout, 100K miles between tune-ups, cell phones replacing pay phones,.. The list of downsizing and obsolescence is endless.

Short haul drivers will complain. Long haul drivers, that's when truckers are replaced, then there'll really be squawking.

You can't fight the tide of technology. Adapt or perish.

True, but machines are doing more and more. I don't think this phase will be business as usual.

 

[Al Azar]

We'll absorb this new phase of robotics as we've always done. New jobs maintaining the machines will created and the old, unnecessary jobs will disappear. ATMs, self-checkout, 100K miles between tune-ups, cell phones replacing pay phones,.. The list of downsizing and obsolescence is endless.

Short haul drivers will complain. Long haul drivers, that's when truckers are replaced, then there'll really be squawking.

You can't fight the tide of technology. Adapt or perish.

True, but machines are doing more and more. I don't think this phase will be business as usual.

I think it will be of the magnitude of the industrial revolution. It will change a great number of things, but the overall effect will better most people's lives.

 

[Divine Wind]

Interesting no one sees the slippery slope of robots eliminating jobs.


I realize technology has always made many jobs obsolete in time, but a wave of robotics eliminating blue and white collar jobs might be the straw that breaks the camels back

There's no slippery slope. If there are no jobs, if we have tens of millions of unemployed Americans (80 million of them being armed!), WHO'S GOING TO BUY THOSE FUCKING CARS?

 

[SYTFE]

Crowdsourcing individuals willing to use the cars they already have in exchange for a few bucks has always been short term thinking and opens Uber/Lyft up to all sorts of vulnerabilities in the coming years. Some of these valuations for companies that have little more than an app to their name are just out of control.

 

[peabody]

I like that driverless cars get to decide whether you live or die.

Why Self-Driving Cars Must Be Programmed to Kill

 

[BettyYeti]

I would love to have all cars driverless. It should make the roads just that much safer, until all the cars get hacked which is a risk all right.

You stare at your phone and the car handles the road. Good plan.

 

[Al Azar]

I foresee, look forward to, a day when I can summon an autonomous car as I'm getting dressed. It will arrive at my doorstep and recognize me as I approach, opening the door and asking my destination. Upon arrival, with the swipe of my hand, I confirm that the trip is over and approve the charge to my account.

When I leave, the same process. We won't need to own cars because we can summon one at any time. No insurance, no maintenance, no traffic woes because all the cars and trucks will move efficiently place to place, not the way humans drive. The only visible traffic signals will be for pedestrians and those on two wheels - car and truck traffic will be controlled electronically.

I'm no spring chicken, but I think I'll live to see the day with this is the norm. I also hope to see the day when schoolchildren ask, "Teacher, did we really used to burn irreplaceable fossil fuel for personal transportation?"

 

[Divine Wind]

I foresee, look forward to, a day when I can summon an autonomous car as I'm getting dressed. It will arrive at my doorstep and recognize me as I approach, opening the door and asking my destination. Upon arrival, with the swipe of my hand, I confirm that the trip is over and approve the charge to my account.

When I leave, the same process. We won't need to own cars because we can summon one at any time. No insurance, no maintenance, no traffic woes because all the cars and trucks will move efficiently place to place, not the way humans drive. The only visible traffic signals will be for pedestrians and those on two wheels - car and truck traffic will be controlled electronically.

I'm no spring chicken, but I think I'll live to see the day with this is the norm. I also hope to see the day when schoolchildren ask, "Teacher, did we really used to burn irreplaceable fossil fuel for personal transportation?"

That's a good scenario, but much more likely in cities than rural areas.

 

[NYcarbineer]

Interesting no one sees the slippery slope of robots eliminating jobs.


I realize technology has always made many jobs obsolete in time, but a wave of robotics eliminating blue and white collar jobs might be the straw that breaks the camels back

Government funded supplemental income for the unemployed, working poor, and underemployed will just keep increasing.

 

[Divine Wind]

I like that driverless cars get to decide whether you live or die.

Why Self-Driving Cars Must Be Programmed to Kill

Thanks for the article. Robot ethics goes back to the 1950s when scientists/science fiction writers like Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke began postulating future events such as this technology.

It's a technical problem which will be resolved. The good news is that such scenarios will be very rare since most of the programming will be to avoid such scenarios. Ten people magically appearing in front? Unlikely. Sensors along the road can be fed to all cars detailing the movements of pedestrians. Programming in the cars will tell them to slow down prior to it becoming a problem.

 

[Divine Wind]

Government funded supplemental income for the unemployed, working poor, and underemployed will just keep increasing.

You mean the standard LW solution of "Let's just print more money!"?

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

This is just history repeating itself. There has always been a certain portion of the population that resists progress and technology because it hurts their bottom line and they aren't willing to adapt to the changes of time. Buggy whip makers demanded the government bail them out when the automobile started going mainstream. Candlestick makers weren't thrilled about the invention of electricity. Video killed the radio star and now you have taxi companies and union backed politicians all over the country trying to stop rideshare because it's infringing on their monopolies.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

 

[NYcarbineer]

Government funded supplemental income for the unemployed, working poor, and underemployed will just keep increasing.

You mean the standard LW solution of "Let's just print more money!"?

No I mean that low income people get the same number of votes as you do.

If you have viable solution to putting people to work in good paying jobs in the face of automation and low wage foreign competition,

then you should post it.

 

[IsaacNewton]

This driver-less car idea isn't going to work. The technology to make it near flawless is two decades away at least. People will die and they'll have to stop using it until technology is invented that actually works. We're talking about two tons of steel hurtling down the road at up to 70 mph and no one in control? The easiest example, a dog runs out in front of one of these cars and it swerves to miss it or hits it causing a fatal pile up. The list of these potentially deadly occurences is endless. Jesus adult human beings paying attention to what they are doing die in car crashes, you think there is any software that is even close to what a 3 year old child would do in such a situation?

Automated aircraft are possible because the air is strictly controlled, aircraft rules keep aircraft seperated, and you don't have to worry about killing someone every single moment your vehicle is in motion. In a car you do, you come across thousands of possible disasters every time you get in your car. And yes there are very small numbers of aircraft collisions, almost all are due to pilot error. Landing an aircraft is, relatively speaking, not that difficult. If the aircraft holds proper speed and descends at a prescribed rate and angle it will invariably contact the runway on it's own. Automatic systems CAN do this already.

It won't work with cars for a very long time. Too many variables.

The OP's point about less jobs and more people is a good one though. At some point all human societies are going to have to go away from the "you don't work you don't eat" philosophy as there just will not be enough jobs. I think companies will in fact be forced to forego some automation and keep people employed as they are the ones who will have to pay these people whether they are working or not.

 

[SYTFE]

And by the time driver-less cars have been perfected, we'll have flying cars, so it will be pointless anyway.

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

If you have viable solution to putting people to work in good paying jobs in the face of automation and low wage foreign competition,

then you should post it.

It's up to each one of us to pave our own path in life. If you're going to wait around for someone else to do it for you then you're probably going to fail.

 

[NYcarbineer]

If you have viable solution to putting people to work in good paying jobs in the face of automation and low wage foreign competition,

then you should post it.

It's up to each one of us to pave our own path in life. If you're going to wait around for someone else to do it for you then you're probably going to fail.

So you would blame the mass poverty in a place like Africa on all those poor kids not showing some initiative?