Waymo drives through Police Standoff.....

[YY1]

Coincidence?

 

[YY1]

Just announced last month-

Central FL (Auburndale) will be getting a test facility.

GREAT.

Remind me to steer clear of there.

 

[Don Frelier]

It would never work around my house.
You couldn't see the lines on the side of the road this morning (much less the road in places).
And I don't think GPS is accurate enough to keep the car on the road within the required distances.
(Perhaps I'm wrong there.)
We have dirt roads in places etc...

 

[autoxcuda]

No, I'm serious! I've never heard of such a thing.
Sounded like a grocery store. Bring way mo money.
im guessing its some self driving piece of ****. ABSOLUTELY should be banned completely!!!

It took me a while to realize it too. At first I thought they were Google cars taking pictures. Then my brother told me.

Look at the pictures I posted an see if you notice one. They are in dense metro areas: WLA, SM, beach communities that you see more taxis in. Maybe in Downtown Pasadena near you.

 

[Dennis H]

We got em. On the video, LEO’s were still in take down mode. No caution tape in place. I can see where ANY motorist may have snuck thru. I nearly got run over at an scene not properly protected.

 

[33 IMP]

It took me a while to realize it too. At first I thought they were Google cars taking pictures. Then my brother told me.

Look at the pictures I posted an see if you notice one. They are in dense metro areas: WLA, SM, beach communities that you see more taxis in. Maybe in Downtown Pasadena near you.

Nearest dense metro area to me is L.A.
I avoid it like the plague!
I notice a lot more taxis here in AZ than I do in my local CA area. Probably cause there is no bus service here to speak of. (Maybe senior med transport, but I haven't needed that yet)
I called a cab company to find out how much it would cost to take me to the Amtrak station...... I made my gf take me instead. The cab was nuts!

Edit: if I remember right, a ten mile cab ride cost WAY more than a 200 mile train ride. And ten times more than the fifteen mile follow-up train ride home.

 

[Detective D]

The more of this stuff that comes out, the more I am convinced technology of the last 25 years has both made life easier, and made life increasingly more miserable with less possibility for joy and freedom in various ways.
Very, VERY few books and movies or other fiction and semi-fiction have future worlds with super high tech and overwhelmingly happy citizens. Humanity seems determined to make any one of those futures into reality where tech and someone else decides our life for us and all we need to do is push a button. Isn't life easy? you may have little choice in anything that happens in your life or how you live it but all you have to do is watch screens and push a button once in a while. What a bright, sunshiny future to look forward to.

They can keep their robo cars in the big city. I will remain in BFE avoiding that crap as long as I can. I don;t understand who would want this. At no point in my life, even growing up with Star Wars and Back to the Future and all the other 80's sci fi stuff in literature and movies, at no point ever did I think to myself a self driving car would be cool. Quite the opposite, I couldn't wait to drive tractors or trucks or cars when I was as little as 4 years old. Space ships on auto pilot? WTF? Why would you want to do nothing when you could fly a space ship through outer space?( sci fi)
And yet here we are, millions being spent and people eagerly looking forward to letting a computer ship them to a location like mail so they have more time to stare at a screen.
Self driving cars turn people into packages. Pay the postage and the self driving car will pick you up and deliver you.
F that. I am not mail.

 

[OneWheelPeel]

The more of this stuff that comes out, the more I am convinced technology of the last 25 years has both made life easier, and made life increasingly more miserable with less possibility for joy and freedom in various ways.
Very, VERY few books and movies or other fiction and semi-fiction have future worlds with super high tech and overwhelmingly happy citizens. Humanity seems determined to make any one of those futures into reality where tech and someone else decides our life for us and all we need to do is push a button. Isn't life easy? you may have little choice in anything that happens in your life or how you live it but all you have to do is watch screens and push a button once in a while. What a bright, sunshiny future to look forward to.

They can keep their robo cars in the big city. I will remain in BFE avoiding that crap as long as I can. I don;t understand who would want this. At no point in my life, even growing up with Star Wars and Back to the Future and all the other 80's sci fi stuff in literature and movies, at no point ever did I think to myself a self driving car would be cool. Quite the opposite, I couldn't wait to drive tractors or trucks or cars when I was as little as 4 years old. Space ships on auto pilot? WTF? Why would you want to do nothing when you could fly a space ship through outer space?( sci fi)
And yet here we are, millions being spent and people eagerly looking forward to letting a computer ship them to a location like mail so they have more time to stare at a screen.
Self driving cars turn people into packages. Pay the postage and the self driving car will pick you up and deliver you.
F that. I am not mail.

I agree with most of that and have watched a ton of sci fi. I’d rather drive myself but still think having KITT would be cool. But even in the show the guy preferred to drive most of the time.

 

[BSB67]

This stuff has been on the road for at least 10 years. It’s not going away. Gal was killed in Arizona several years ago. Slowed down the pace a bit.

It’s not some conspiracy of government control. It’s capitalism at its finest. It’s what people want. The big money is in trucking. And, they are on the road already too.

I’m investing in it.

 

[torredcuda]

I don`t like being a passenger in anything - car, train, plane etc. as I don`t like the feeling of not being in control myself even if I know and trust the driver. Hopping in a self driving taxi - NO frikkin way! We all know there are plenty of bad drivers on the road - distracted, texting, drunk etc. but computers will never be able to think and reason like humans when they encounter a situation such as that, and that is scary and dangerous.

 

[Detective D]

I agree with most of that and have watched a ton of sci fi. I’d rather drive myself but still think having KITT would be cool. But even in the show the guy preferred to drive most of the time.

I mean KITT is a spy car, so some of it made sense. But ITT was a turbo charged Supercharged V8 with turbo boost. Who in their right mind would sit behind the wheel and stare at a phone?
KITT driving itself was not what I was drawn to. Talking cars that could do jumps and were bullet proof had a lot more impact. It also had the same steering wheel as the Big Wheel I grew up with

 

[Cranky]

For people too stupid and lazy to drive themselves.Sometimes i feel there is no hope if this is what some people think they want.

Couldn't agree more.... Since I got my license I've always enjoyed driving, look forward to it... Rarely want to let someone else drive me... Trust a driverless car??? Oh Hell No!!!! Are you insane????

Exactly. Driving is one of the greatest parts of freedom I enjoy.

Lots of times people go out to party and are too drunk to drive so they call an Uber. Lots of those driver's are looking to do 'things' to drunk people. Then you have the older folks and younger ones too who can't drive anymore due to health issues. The list goes on and on. Night time driving is more difficult for me, especially with the newer messed up LED bull crap the manufacturers are using. Whether or not consumers want it, it seems to be something that's being forced on us. I sure don't care about riding in one!!

 

[Cranky]

The more of this stuff that comes out, the more I am convinced technology of the last 25 years has both made life easier, and made life increasingly more miserable with less possibility for joy and freedom in various ways.
Very, VERY few books and movies or other fiction and semi-fiction have future worlds with super high tech and overwhelmingly happy citizens. Humanity seems determined to make any one of those futures into reality where tech and someone else decides our life for us and all we need to do is push a button. Isn't life easy? you may have little choice in anything that happens in your life or how you live it but all you have to do is watch screens and push a button once in a while. What a bright, sunshiny future to look forward to.

They can keep their robo cars in the big city. I will remain in BFE avoiding that crap as long as I can. I don;t understand who would want this. At no point in my life, even growing up with Star Wars and Back to the Future and all the other 80's sci fi stuff in literature and movies, at no point ever did I think to myself a self driving car would be cool. Quite the opposite, I couldn't wait to drive tractors or trucks or cars when I was as little as 4 years old. Space ships on auto pilot? WTF? Why would you want to do nothing when you could fly a space ship through outer space?( sci fi)
And yet here we are, millions being spent and people eagerly looking forward to letting a computer ship them to a location like mail so they have more time to stare at a screen.
Self driving cars turn people into packages. Pay the postage and the self driving car will pick you up and deliver you.
F that. I am not mail.

Reminds me of the movie, RoboCop.

 

[68BabyBlue]

There was an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal last week, discussing the appeal or lack of such with self driving vehicles. The author predicted a future with a 50-50 mix. Those who prized convenience would embrace self driving vehicles. Those who valued individuality and flexibility would continue to drive. Easy to guess which camp those of us on this forum fall into.

 

[YY1]

Most science fiction stories are warnings about what happens when tech becomes our master.

 

[68 Sport Satellite]

What I still haven't heard about and thought all along should have been mandatory is for legislation to be evaluated and put in place FIRST and then put it to public voter approval BEFORE letting these things on public roads. It seems all of this was skipped. There should be mailers on public education - what to do if your car is in an accident with one of these cars, your rights as a passenger, etc. How is this legal when all of the safety considerations have not been properly vetted? Even then, they should have had these in a large mock up "test city" for a year to work out the bugs, not just the development centers and parking lots.

Other companies are working on autonomous flying machines and others want to do drone Amazon and food delivery. Where's the voter approvals on these?

 

[68BabyBlue]

What I still haven't heard about and thought all along should have been mandatory is for legislation to be evaluated and put in place FIRST and then put it to public voter approval BEFORE letting these things on public roads. It seems all of this was skipped. There should be mailers on public education - what to do if your car is in an accident with one of these cars, your rights as a passenger, etc. How is this legal when all of the safety considerations have not been properly vetted? Even then, they should have had these in a large mock up "test city" for a year to work out the bugs, not just the development centers and parking lots.

Other companies are working on autonomous flying machines and others want to do drone Amazon and food delivery. Where's the voter approvals on these?

My daughter gave me a book entitled "Why We Drive," which addressed these issues. I can't quote from it in a general forum post, but it makes great reading. On a side note, in 1998, my corporate employer got caught up with the tech mania of the dot.com era, and the CEO, who had never driven a truck or performed mechanical work, decided to be the first in the tank truck business to spec 100 new Macks with automated manual transmissions, no test mules first. I was a naysayer, but quickly shut my trap when I could see myself being labeled as a dinosaur for not "embracing change." The company lost $3 million on the experiment, finally converting all of the trucks to conventional manual transmissions.

A generation later these transmissions are mainstream, and the bugs of the originals have been largely worked out. However, that fiasco led my former employer into bankruptcy, and ended my corporate career. Similar phenomenon may well affect the progress of the self driving vehicle industry, as well potential product liability litigation.

 

[68 Sport Satellite]

and at the expense of public safety. Chaos has ensued!!

 

[OneWheelPeel]

Most science fiction stories are warnings about what happens when tech becomes our master.

I agree, I watch and read a lot of sci-fi and even the most positive show about that future, Star Trek, had many episodes where the tech backfires on them. Either because of faulty programming or it created a vulnerability a bad actor could take advantage of.

 

[Detective D]

I agree, I watch and read a lot of sci-fi and even the most positive show about that future, Star Trek, had many episodes where the tech backfires on them. Either because of faulty programming or it created a vulnerability a bad actor could take advantage of.

There are two officers sitting at consoles in Star Trek "driving" the ship. They don't ask Alexa to take them to the neutral zone at warp 5. Turns out the most positive future tech sci fi show written has people driving the space ship.

"Easy" or worst of all "for safety" has brought innovation but cost us so much. It is all small things, but it adds up. Complex tech makes life complex. For all the "safety" stuff, life expectancy hasn't shot up like a rocket, it has moved maybe a year or two up in 30 years, and you have to include medical practice for a lot of that. All the fear of being "unsafe" and the restrictions put on us and stuff like this self driving car BS are not going to make us happy, not going to make us wealthier, and certainly not going to make us live longer. In fact, I suspect two out of three will actually decline from this technology for the average citizen.

Of course, you have to have lived through better times to realize there were better times. I suppose when I am gone some day, the kids of that era won;t know the difference. It's weird to think about people not knowing what they don't know in that regard.