Tuesday, November 05, 2019
Thoughts on self-driving cars
AAA envisions a self-driving car reality and sees this as pretty much inevitable in the near future. I get their news magazine and they seem completely on board with this. I'm not. The level we're talking about here is not fully autonomous so a driver has to be behind the wheel at all times but then he/she mostly lets the car do its thing at least on open highways although I've seen other videos on YouTube showing folks driving cars with adaptive cruise control with the self-driving feature in slower stop-and-go traffic. I'd rather have a fallible self-aware human being in control of the car at all times instead of relaxing and letting advanced tech take over which can and will go wrong. I can probably come up with a list of other reasons why I'm against. What with ai robots and self-driving cars trucks and buses just around the bend and now flying cars on sale for the bored rich and some people on jetpacks (you can easily search all of these on YouTube) what can go wrong???
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The bots are starting their takeover. I still don't trust cruise control, never use it even at 10 hrs a day on the freeway. I'm sort of stuck at 1963. Service shops never ask what
ReplyDeletethe problem is "funny noise, sticky brakes?". They just hook up and download off the car's computer. Wife's car had a blinking warning - left front tire low-. They finally figured out is was the spare under the trunk. We are the victim of programmers, Z-Man.
When I broke down in Danbury CT the master mechanic did just that hooked up a device to my car and it automatically told him what the problem was. A sensor was out which I didn't know I had and then he said he had to reset the code or something. The who? I still remember the carburetor.
DeleteThe thought occurred while driving to work this morning with all this high-tech, quantum computers, ai, probing the boundaries of space and time there's no easier, better and less invasive way of doing colonoscopies? Can't they just send an algorithm up there?
ReplyDeleteThey probably could, but you would need a cubit chip in your brain. I recently traded in my big ol pickup for a smaller newer one. Been in the front seat since the time change trying to adjust the clock: it has some sort of feedback loop with the radio. Try to go back an hour and it switches to country western. I've heard 'There's a key in the mailbox-c'mon in' four times. High tech-is that the best they can do?
DeleteNo matter how high-tech we become the more things change the more they remain the same. In 100-200 years time when we finally colonize Mars and travel agents can direct you to the nearest wormhole and Dick Cheney is brought back to life it'll still be lie on your left side and pull your legs up.
DeleteThere is a new theory in theoretical science called Biocentrism. Basically when you die you shift to a parallel universe very similar to our own so even though you're dead you still get to pay taxes and have to get more colonoscopies (or is that hell?). I think Google is pushing this.
ReplyDeleteThey have been pushing robotic surgery lately. Medical data shows it turns out the same, but costs more. I'm thinking robotic colonoscopy is next. Probably a B92A multipurpose robot called PolyPeek, which does routine colon exams in mode A and roto-rooters toilets in mode B.
DeleteI'm not up on post mortem Biocentrism, but is sounds like
Heaven without the harps, ya know? When you die in the parallel universe do you go to another parallel universe and so on until you get back to the original some 1000 years later? Sounds a bit Hindu, without the Karma.
Like any theory it has its pluses and minuses. Manson coming to a reality near you. Scary.
DeleteThe parallel universe theory also has its supporters and detractors. Geeky calculations permit it but not a shred of proof has been found. We ponder that since Entropy seems to
ReplyDeleteprovide for symmetry, any other universes would be parallel.
But life itself reverses entropy (although life by eating and breathing continues the entropy process). Ergo, other universes might be non parallel - oblique or perpendicular say, or where time runs backwards. We earthlings are but a minor blip on the universal scale: even though we can make self-driving cars.
Quantum computing should over time be able to tell one way or another. I think many have a strong emotional aversion to the idea of a multiverse. It would raise some truly bizarre moral implications. Life is complicated enough ya know?
DeleteBack in my far youth, I used to wait all week for the Friday night 'Disney' with its "When you wish upon a Star" beginning.
ReplyDeleteThese days I overwork the remote: 'Ancient Aliens Built Pyramids" [click] Comet Channel proudly presents "Morons from Outer Space" [click} Paranormal programming has "The Ghost in the House on 12th Street [click] Buy Our Perfect Silver Dollar and We'll through in a rare Penny [click] Sean Hannity explains... [click] and finally settle on the Weather Channel, lean back and puff my pipe. Is this progress?
I can deal with ancient aliens and Bigfoot but what's with all the crime on TV. 48 Hours, Dateline, 20/20 - TV journalism is now almost exclusively about true crime stories. ION television has the fictitious "Criminal Minds" and other crime shows all day long. Give me a good Brady Bunch.
DeleteThe only people that will be able to afford self driving cars will be the well to do and quite frankly I thi k they shouldn't be allowed to sleep while stuck in traffic. They should have to suck it up and be miserable like the rest of us.
ReplyDeleteAnd hey Z, I was expecting to see a post about Pachamama statues thrown into the River river at the Amazon Synod.
Yeah I haven't really been following the Amazon Synod. I saw something about it in a religious publication that it has some New Agey kind of feel to it.
ReplyDeleteNew Agey- historians that study the history of religious development note that aside from primitaive thunder Gods,
Deletethe Earth Mother was the prime deity until the Canaanite/Hebrew Baal/Jehovah concept. For whatever that is worth.
I haven't followed it either but the idolatry with the Pachamama statues inside of Catholic churches in Rome and then Alexander Tschugguel removing them and throwing them into the Tiber caught my attention. If you care to get a brief lowdown > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bSMK0ClDMg
DeleteGrass Roots stuff: way out here in gun country, some old retired hunter up in the woods has started a personal buy back of military style weapons. This week, a hunter from south Idaho
ReplyDeletecame by chasing elk and moose and turned in an AR-15 for $500,
then donated the $500 to the homeless. How about that Wayne LaPierre? Ya doesn't need a Bushmaster for mule deer. Just observing.
Maybe they think they're gonna run into a Sasquatch?
DeleteI'm thinking that in the future, flying cars, pilotless air travel and the internet will be replaced by teletransport (beam me up, Scottie), supersonic personal travel pods and telepathy.
ReplyDeleteBut colonoscopies and proctologies will remain primitive...
That's my whole point. Everybody would be like why are we still doing it this way?
DeleteWe can only hope that the colonoscopist robot has a pleasant bedside manner and obey the three laws of robots-
ReplyDelete1.A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2.A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3.A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws
-according to Dr. Isaac Asimov (but any loose wire, failing battery or backing into an MRI machine negates those)
The subject of robotic colonoscopies has not come up yet but perhaps Sophia the ai robot can address it in a future interview.
DeleteRobot or human...count me out.
DeleteAccording to Drudge sex robots are becoming the rage the world over. With ai I might be afraid something might go wrong. Chomping down you know what I mean? Better to be lonely.
DeleteThere's a song for that.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1z13iqZgsg
Why does every music awards program have to be about Taylor Swift? I'm not against her but still.
ReplyDeleteWho even watches them anymore?
DeleteUnless it's my imagination there's always a tribute to Dolly Parton thrown in.
DeleteWondering do doctors ever overeat on Thanksgiving?
ReplyDeleteThis is the least interesting impeachment hearings. I don't know anybody who's into it.
ReplyDeleteNot very entertaining. Too many lawyers (glad I'm too old to be called for jury duty anymore). Reminds me of the boring Andrew Johnson case - GOP president and GOP senate.
ReplyDeleteEver watch "Ice Road Truckers" BB?
ReplyDeleteYup. Also the Canadian wrecker shows about hauling semis off blizzard-sricken highways. I like 'Ice Pilots' best,
Deletethe one about the characters that fly ancient prop jobs out of Yellowknife in the NW territories. Adventure from
the comfort of the couch, ya know.
"Ice Road Truckers" -- I like the boss who sits in his nice warm trailer office behind his computer giving out the assignments. "Okay you'll be hauling 80,000 pounds of pipe up to Prudhoe Bay." Then there's "Swamp Loggers."
Delete..and those funny talking Cajuns that trap alligators and shoot them. I'm thinking that's a low income job? I had a
Deletegrandma that ran traplines, raised dogs and terrorized any
Jehovah Witnesses that came by. She would have been on if they had TV back then.
It seems a lot of people around here have those doorbell cameras. This time of year, package thieves dash up and take
ReplyDeletestuff that UPS left on the porch. So the local TV news has some
interesting video. One young girl in a miniskirt swiped a big
box and was arrested minute later. She was furious that anyone
would have a door bell camera! One person who had no camera left a nicely wrapped box of dirty diapers, which seemed to work
pretty good too. It bugs me that when they talk of technology it
is all about consumer crap, apps/gps/drones/smartwatches. There is more to technology in the world of science: gene splicing/biotech/drugs/forensics/lasers/transplants etc. My
wife's car has smart tires: led diagram said 'right front low'.
It looked fine to me, but she took it to the tire place. The only low tire was the spare under the rear frame. ..and we want
to let a car do our driving?
And as someone once said colonoscopies and proctologies will remain primitive.
DeleteMy guess is that in the future they will implant a 100 billion
ReplyDeletegigabyte quantum chip at the base of the infant's skull. Monitors all functions. The detailed record of physiological
states is stored next to your real memories. You go to the clinic, they do a download and the chip tells them more than the
inconvenient scopes and fingers..probably even reveals that
waitress up in Dobbs Ferry...
Seems to me the fasting and the crapping the day before should now be a thing of the past. There's gotta be a perv doctor or two out there and your anus winds up on YouTube.
DeleteEvery cooking show these days is the same thing. They all use cilantro and know how to overcomplicate a hamburger.
ReplyDeleteThe 'reality' shows make everything a contest: baking, tuna fishing, children chefs etc. "You got one minute left to frost your cake, weigh your rish, relish the dish..Then the judges kick some poor soul off the show. Where's the joy? My Mrs. should enter "who can crash the
Deletecomputer quickest?"
My oldest girl lives 150 miles west and reported that on New Years eve, the highway across the river from their place was
ReplyDeleteattacked by Tumbleweeds California has its landslides, earthquakes, floods and wildfires, but we in the NW feel pretty safe (now that the Sasquatch are under control) but the common
western tumbleweed has only been a bouncing nuisance until
2020 came in. How would a driverless car handle this?
We got a warning notice from the City of Yonkers for putting our garbage out for pickup on the wrong morning two days after Christmas. Holiday Schedule you know. Have they never heard of an honest mistake. Also you have to wait 'til after the sun goes down on the previous night to put your garbage near the curb. Code Enforcement. Yonkers has become a very technical place to live.
ReplyDeleteI guess it's technical everywhere: we have a gray bin for
Deletegarbage, a blue bin for recyclables and a green bin for yard waste. They all have wheels and sit on the back deck. Garbage goes every Wednesday, recyclables go every
other Wednesday and yard waste goes each Wednesday from
March until November. Everyone has a chart for their neighborhood, including the off day holiday schedule.
The drivers drive like ex NASCAR pilots but only operate
two days a week. Some yards of full of junk, refrigerators, old cars, kids swings which they don't pick up and which have sat there for years.
Technicalities. Sometimes a manager at work will tell people they can't recharge their phones here. A kind of rule in the food industry. My thing is this. I think it's more important you have enough juice in your phone when you leave work. Say you drive into a ditch or have to make a call to save your own life and it says "Connect Your Charger" all because you have an anal boss.
DeleteWhat a dumb policy. Must have come from corporate headquarters. The Mrs. and I were out to dinner last night
Deleteand I ran into a guy that worked for me years ago. Chatted a bit (he finally retired, long after me). Then his wife came by and told me I was the best boss the guy
ever had. Sort of felt good, then thought maybe he just had a chain of crummy bosses? Funny, my landline never needs recharging....
Many times when you buy a product there's a warning label on it. Why is everything in California known to cause cancer?
ReplyDeleteThey must uber test everything there. Last year my pipe tobacco, Prince Albert, started having a huge California
Deletecancer label wrapped around it. Since I have been puffing
it going on 62 years, I must be a little tougher than the poor California lab rats that got soaked in it for 6 months? We get a heck of a lot of fruits and vegetables from CA, which must pass their stringent tests. Presumably, we won't have any fruits and vegetables when
the Latino immigrants are forded out. I kind of like Brussel sprouts, Lima beans and spinach, which my wife
complains is just crazy..but she consumes half the US ouput of potato chips, ya know? The one label I would like to see in it's entirey is that of the common hotdog:
Soylent Landfill?
I like this pipe tobacco from Lewis pipe Co. In Minneapolis called But Let Velvet. But alas I don't smoke frequently and as of late when I do it's been an Arturo Fuentes 8-5-8.
ReplyDeleteVeggies...Brussels sprouts are good. Asparagus is up there too.
Friigin spell check...
DeleteTobacco is called burley velvet
I've always had trouble keeping the pipe lit. Too much work then ya gotta clean everything out. I go with cigars the mild kind.
DeleteAre tennis balls on walkers really that necessary? I think some entrepreneur came up with the idea just to make money. I also think only rich folk can afford stairlifts.
ReplyDeleteThese robotic vacuum cleaners that clean the house while you're watching TV. Seems to me you or a family member could trip over one and wind up in the hospital. Technology.
ReplyDeleteSaw a YT video where there were 2 of those and they squared off against one another (each armed with a knife and an inflated balloon attached).Red vs. Blue.
DeleteA metaphor for US politics I suppose.
Maybe there will be ward in the hospital for robot vacuum
Deletetripping victims..and those people who tried a self-driving Segway.
The modern car now has what is called a Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) and your manual even has a required Federal Explanation of it. So basically yeah when the tire symbol lights up on your dash it tells you if the air in one or more of your tires is significantly low but people now tell me and even my manual says cold weather can affect tire pressure so this light may come on more in the colder weather and it may not be all that important. At that point you don't know if you have a real problem or whether it's just weather-related and it's just an annoying glitch on your dash. Of course you can inspect the tires visually but like many of these modern aspects on modern cars should you worry or not? Is it important and major or just minor and annoying? Lately I kind of find myself hearkening back to the older cars I've had.
ReplyDeleteThe good old 'check engine' light. Could be loose wire, bad bulb, catalytic converter, stuck valve..or entire motor replacement. Last time I tried to 'check engine' I had to read the manual to figure out how to open the hood.
DeleteProgress..its like that over computered Boeing jet that shuts of the human pilots and crash dives. I am one of the stubborn 25% of the people in the world that refuses to upgrade from Windows 7. I've tried Windows 10 but everything it does takes 10x longer..I think it takes that
long to drain every single drop of personal information into their spook cloud so they can pepper you with ads...
check out the obituaries and a pop up offers a sale on caskets. Bah humbug.
Getting back to the TPMS every time say you inflate your tires you have to recalibrate the system. The manual recommends cumulative driving of around 30 minutes at speeds of between 30-60 mph. So basically all I have to do is say drive from Yonkers to Peekskill for a pack of gum.
DeleteHey BB how 'bout making your pickup self-driving? Take a load off but I don't trust it.
ReplyDeleteThat's almost as terrifying as riding with my wife!!
DeleteEvery so often, we get tumbleweeds blowing around, some as big as 6ft in diameter. These are frightening when they
Deletecome down the highway at you, but only weigh a pound or so and bounce right off. Would the SmartCar swerve into the ditch, thinking it was confronted with a boulder?
Better check with Elon Musk.
DeleteLast I heard, Elon was over at SpaceX training robots for
Deletehis planned Martian community
Help I've fallen and I can't get up. Everything has its critics. Life Alert I hear costs a lot and you have to fill out forms. Since everyone has a smartphone plastered to their bodies it's easier they say to just call 911 and they come in five minutes or do you feel compelled to use the service?
ReplyDeleteSecond thing. Single use plastic bags are being banned in NY State starting March 1. Just came back from the liquor store. They have a sign saying you will have to bring your own bag once the law goes into effect. That's weird and if someone buys a bottle and doesn't bring a bag and they leave the store with the bottle can they be arrested?
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