Uber Rolling Out Driverless Cars

[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.

One nuke and the savagery of manual labor will return...

There's that danger. Nature might have a way of keeping us from getting "too" technically dependent too fast. We just might blow ourselves up on some pretext and return to the stone age and Mother Nature will just nod.

 

[Al Azar]

Just because they have driver-less autos doesn't mean people will use them..

True. Some will never set foot in one.

But that won't last long. The people here today who refuse to touch a computer are dying off every day, and the people behind them can't imagine life without a computer with them 24/7. Changes like this are resisted by some, but that resistance lasts only as long as they do.

 

[Silhouette]

Uber Rolling Out Driverless Cars

Yea! Automation kills even more jobs!

Do these cars pay taxes every month, buy homes, sundries or go on vacation? Just wondering how dangerous they are for the economy; let alone the road....

 

[Al Azar]

Uber Rolling Out Driverless Cars

Yea! Automation kills even more jobs!

Do these cars pay taxes every month, buy homes, sundries or go on vacation? Just wondering how dangerous they are for the economy; let alone the road....

We're going to have to sort that out, because there's no stopping technological progress. We're going to have to learn to look at a lot of things differently and do a lot of things differently.

And that will lead to friction.

That's what I meant when I brought up the Industrial Revolution. Lots and lots of changes and a lot of complaining.

 

[Divine Wind]

Good question. There will always be jobs, but there could be less of them.

Less of that type, but not jobs. If there is a problem, as the colonialists used to say, "The natives will become restless". It means protests and, if no resolution, riots or even revolution.

 

[Divine Wind]

Uber Rolling Out Driverless Cars

Yea! Automation kills even more jobs!

Do these cars pay taxes every month, buy homes, sundries or go on vacation? Just wondering how dangerous they are for the economy; let alone the road....

Luddites are a bigger danger. "Who wants to fly? Those fucking things are dangerous!!!"

"Landing on the Moon is impossible"

"Mr. Gates, it's the hardware. No one cares about the software".

 

[Divine Wind]

I have. Very enjoyable activity. Not practical for work. I will still NEVER ride in a driverless vehicle.

So have I. It depends on where you work. You choice. There's always bicycles.

 

[Anathema]

So have I. It depends on where you work. You choice. There's always bicycles.

29 miles, highway, each way. Twice a week lugging a 25 lb. bag of martial arts gear. Not practical.

 

[Divine Wind]

So have I. It depends on where you work. You choice. There's always bicycles.

29 miles, highway, each way. Twice a week lugging a 25 lb. bag of martial arts gear. Not practical.

Your choice. Both to be a Luddite and to live so far from work.

 

[Anathema]

Your choice. Both to be a Luddite and to live so far from work.

I work in a semi-urban area. I live in a more rural area. I will not live in that urban environment. It's antithetical to common decency.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

All those problems are understandable when the vehicle is rogue, i.e., not in contact with the other vehicles around it. If vehicles on the road were in constant communication with the ones in their vicinity (as mentioned in my previous post), there would be few surprises. All would know and process (in a manner appropriate for them) the same information that every vehicle gets from its sensors.

For example, if a human driver cuts in front of an autonomous vehicle, forcing it to abruptly slow down, all the other AVs in the vicinity would know that the human had just done that and would each react appropriately to the initial event, not just to the action of the AV most affected. Every AV in the area would react appropriately for itself to that movement because it would know why the first AV had to slow down.

That should smooth out changes in speed and direction as this information is constantly being processed by everyone in the area.

Well maybe in 50 years from now or so when most cars are that way.

But for now, I see a lot of danger in such cars. As far as computers go, many of them have faults. I've owned a cell phone for over 20 years, never owned one that didn't have some kind of problem. Same thing with computers, and I only use Macintosh.

The feds forced industry to manufacture trucks "greener." In order to operate all those pollution gadgets, it takes computers; not just one computer, but several that have to interact with each other all the time.

Sounds great when testing them, but once out on the road in millions of trucks, that's when you find the problems, especially here up north when temperatures get below zero.

Now trucks have problems constantly. 90% of the time, it's some environmental thing gone wrong or the computer that runs it. They are constantly in the shop. Years ago when I first got into it, there were no computers in trucks, and they started every morning. The only time you seen an engine light was when something was seriously wrong, and even then, you never had a problem with that under 100,000 miles.

Since the feds forced these computers into trucks, I've picked up brand new vehicles from the dealer and had to bring them back under 10,000 miles.

Until electronics becomes faultless, I foresee a lot of problems in our future with these cars.

 

[Al Azar]

There are a lot of bugs to be worked out and it will take time. But IMO it is inevitable. I don't think this is a fad. I foresee in my lifetime driverless ocean liners, trucks, trains and passenger planes. The movement will be driven not only by innovative fervor, but by its tremendous financial potential.

If we can manage our nuclear arsenal with computer systems, we should be able to operate an automobile safely.

 

[my2¢]

It'll be the auto insurance companies that'll decide if driverless cars fly or not.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

There are a lot of bugs to be worked out and it will take time. But IMO it is inevitable. I don't think this is a fad. I foresee in my lifetime driverless ocean liners, trucks, trains and passenger planes. The movement will be driven not only by innovative fervor, but by its tremendous financial potential.

If we can manage our nuclear arsenal with computer systems, we should be able to operate an automobile safely.

I agree. It will happen, it's just a matter of when.

I don't foresee a highway with mostly or even partially unmanned vehicles anytime in the next ten years or so. Price will be a consideration. I think they will be very expensive at first. When they first come out, I think there will be a lot of problems that come out as well.

When they do become practical, it may reduce a lot of accidents and deaths caused by drunken drivers. I know if I was a younger person today, I'd be saving my money now to buy one so I could go anyplace I desire and drink as much as I wanted where I wanted.

I was born at the wrong time.

 

[Maryland Patriot]

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

What if it was done in a different way.
What if for instance I bought a driverless car, I allowed UBER to use my car for a fee.
Uber could send the car out on runs and I could sit home and collect a percentage.
Same with other technology that will be coming up, send your own out to work instead of you going.
Would be much the same as the welfare people now, they send the responsible people out to work each day, while they sit home and take a percentage of what that person made.

 

[Al Azar]

It'll be the auto insurance companies that'll decide if driverless cars fly or not.

Maybe those cars purchased for personal use. There will be some of those, but I think companies providing AV on-call will be the bulk of the market, and they'll be of a size to bond their vehicles themselves.

 

[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

What if it was done in a different way.
What if for instance I bought a driverless car, I allowed UBER to use my car for a fee.
Uber could send the car out on runs and I could sit home and collect a percentage.
Same with other technology that will be coming up, send your own out to work instead of you going.
Would be much the same as the welfare people now, they send the responsible people out to work each day, while they sit home and take a percentage of what that person made.

In theory yes. But there aren't any full driverless cars. Tesla requires a driver to tap the wheel every 30 mins or so. They will have to build a fleet of their own off this tech they are designing

 

[Divine Wind]

And then when the police want to arrest you they will tap in to the system and override the car's inputs, causing the car to deliver you to the PD front doorstep.

As should happen to anyone too stupid to know what the "manual override" does or where the fuse panel is located.

 

[Weatherman2020]

'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!

Anyone have their PC do exactly what they want every time?
Siri always answers you accurately every Time? (Look what my auto spell just did!)

 

[Divine Wind]

Anyone have their PC do exactly what they want every time?
Siri always answers you accurately every Time? (Look what my auto spell just did!)

Yet PCs have taken a huge leap in just this century alone. Siri didn't even exist four years ago.