Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Progress

Here's a recent article about self-driving cars. I'll admit up front that I didn't read the entire article, but I read enough of it to know that it didn't answer my questions. What I want to know is, why are we developing these things in the first place? Where is the demand for a self-driving car coming from?

I hate other drivers as much as the next person - probably more. But I'm not sure that being on the road with other cars - cars that have nobody driving them - is some kind of an improvement.

I can't help thinking that this entire thing is a part of the self-check-out cash register mentality. It's one more way to eliminate the low-wage human factor. Is Uber or Lyft behind this? Maybe we're trying to reduce the cost of shipping by eliminating the cost of truck drivers.

There are few thoughts that are less disturbing to me than imagining the day when I'm driving down the highway with an eighteen wheeler riding my butt - and when I look in the rear view mirror, I see that there's nobody behind the wheel.

2 comments:

Ben Clibrig said...

Yep. The future is a Spielberg movie on endless loop, starring Dennis Weaver as Herajasa being chased down by a 1960 Peterbilt 281 tanker truck.

Herajasa said...

Wow, you're exactly right (like usual)!

Wish I had thought of that, then I could have posted this clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MtAMc4i8OA

(If you took the tanker truck out of this clip, this would pretty much be my typical morning commute.)