Self-Driving Cars - Heaven or Hell

[pbrower2a]

(07-10-2018, 09:27 AM)David Horn Wrote:

(07-08-2018, 08:13 PM)Galen Wrote: ... it has nothing to do with liberal bunglers.  It is about whether or not someone else gets to control property that you paid for.  It is all about giving others power over your ability to travel because unless you control the software you do not control the car.  In the final analysis the programmer has ultimate control over the software and do you trust him and the people he works for?  Given the tendency of the human race to abuse any form of power this seems like a really bad idea.

Try thinking for a change.

This is less a concern than the more obvious desire to turn every vehicle into a marketing tool.  I'm sure some plot to do fiendish harm will be tried, and may even be successful on a small scale.  Using the vehicle as a way to get your money is more in line with modern capitalism, and more likely to occur than some terrorist plot.

...and this is a major point. If someone other than the driver or passenger controls the destination, then the car becomes a veritable prison because it can take someone where one does not want to go and stick someone there. So you really wanted to go to the Grand Canyon and ended up at a Las Vegas casino, and you have great objections to gambling casinos?  We have a problem there.

I can imagine other corrupt behavior. One might be that the program leads one to gasoline twice as expensive as alternatives.

Quote:In the long run, most passengers will be just that -- passengers, not owners and certainly not drivers.  Cars will be more like ubiquitous taxis than the cars we own today.  Assume that you will be a member of a transport service like Uber (capitalist model) or have a universal transport card (socialist model).  The vehicles will be owned by companies, contracted non-profits or directly by the government, and those entities will be responsible for everything: maintenance, safety, availability … you name it.

Owning and driving a car is an essential identity for the American middle and working class (except perhaps in New York City, where parking a car is more expensive than meeting the payments). Automobiles, motor fuels, vehicle repairs, and auto liability insurance together make a huge chunks the American economy. Giving up a car is about like giving up a kitchen.

We could see things so designed that the manner of getting a car no longer includes buying and holding a vehicle, You might be obliged to rent one in an ad hoc basis. There could be a veritable monopoly, and I would hardly be surprised that it would be easier to get a car to get to a high-cost venue (a gambling casino, a high-priced amusement park, or a retailer with extremely-high prices. You might be out of luck to get a vehicle whose destination is Yosemite National Park, but might find it easy to get to Disneyland. 

I may be cynical in expecting that maximal profit will be the objective of every business transaction, and that practically every human activity might become one. After all, this is Donald Trump's Corporate America, hardly something to engender human trust in Big Business, Big Government, or even technology.

Quote:In 50 years, the transport landscape will be totally foreign to you or me.  Cars are only one part.  Autonomous electric short-flight aircraft will be part of the landscape too.

Let's see -- fifty years ago, the Interstate Highway System was spotty, but patterns were already forming which hold to this day. Some of the roadside retailers have either completely disappeared (Stuckey's and Howard Johnson's) or largely disappeared (Texaco and Gulf used to be ubiquitous). Cars of fifty years ago were practically all rear-wheel drive.  You had AM radio, and not likely FM... and probably not even a cassette player.

Some of us have GPS to give us turn-by-turn instructions.

The workplace and household technology have changed more visibly. Transportation will change. If we get hovering vehicles, then we won't have to spend so much on highway repairs. In fact, you will not need paved roads. If you want to get from Lansing to Madison, you will take a course that includes a trip over Lake Michigan instead of through the traffic nightmare of Greater Chicago.

Economic models might change more than will technology. Maybe we will not own our personal vehicles, especially if we live in giant apartment complexes related to where we work. So the first floor is a grocery store and the store workers live within the skyscraper that includes the grocery store. Needless to say, the employer is the landlord, and employers have more control of workers who rent and do not have vehicles. Having a car with which to seek employment elsewhere? You can just imagine the concerns of privacy.

Getting away from the workplace and its environs might be seen as a special and (to management and ownership) a privilege to be offered rarely.  To get a car one might need to get permission from the employer, and taking it to a political rally (except for the Party or the employer's choosing) or a protest of policies that the employer endorses might be impossible. Getting schooling incompatible with the career path that an employer deems inapt (what do you mean, farm laborer -- you want to become an accountant? You horrible ingrate! Off to the corrective labor camp!) might be impossible. If you are thinking of farm laborers getting to live in single-family hovels, then think again -- they might live in one of the 'rationalized' housing complexes that forced communal living upon peasants in Romania under Ceausescu. Oh -- Ceausescu was a commie, and not a fascist?  His commie regime adapted much the same dehumanizing characteristics of fascism.

Reality after Donald Trump and the GOP have forced a transition of America into a fascistic Corporate State could be stuff out of a Flash Gordon serial.  Yes, the planet Mongo has a striking similarity to fascistic regimes of the 1930s (when the serials were made) except for more amazing technology. This said, no technology can redeem the awfulness of a fascistic nightmare.

We need to rediscover the merits of a humanistic democracy so that we can avoid a fascistic nightmare in America. Donald Trump demonstrates clearly that there is a fascist model tailor-made for every national heritage and national culture. Even ours! If you thought that American fascism would depend upon (KKK) ghostly robes, night rides, and cross-burning, and that we rejected the Klan back in the late 1920s as a national phenomenon... think of who we have as President. He does not need any ghostly robes, night rides, and cross-burning.

Even with technology -- technology for its own sake is a huge mistake. We need to pick and choose what is best for us and reject what is too dangerous, demeaning, or destructive.