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I blame Elon Musk for this shift in the meaning of "self-driving". It used to be a term that was only applied to driverless cars, but last year Elon announced
by akamaka 11y ago
I blame Elon Musk for this shift in the meaning of "self-driving".
It used to be a term that was only applied to driverless cars, but last year Elon announced that they plan to make the Tesla a self-driving car at the same time as announcing similar driver assistance features.
While Tesla's driver assistance features are much more advanced than these, it's not much of a stretch after Elon already fired the first marketing shot by shifting the goalpost of what it means to be "self-driving" so much.
- mikeash 11y agoWhen did he shift the goalpost? People are indeed quite confused about what current driver assist features are capable of, but Tesla has been quite clear about exactly what they offer now, what they plan to offer in the near term, and what they hope to offer in the longer term. The main problem I've seen people complain about is the use of the word "autopilot" to describe Tesla's features. And that's only because people don't understand what a real airplane autopilot does. I blame the general population for jumping to conclusions.
- akamaka 11y agoI agree with everything you say, and to me the goalposts shifted because he was purposely ambiguous in the way he announced autopilot at the same time as promising a fully self-driving car soon. So now a self-driving car isn't going to be a whole new product, but an accumulation of added features, one of which is autopilot. The implication is that cars with radars and lane detection are already self-driving cars that just need a few more upgrades to cover that other 20% of the time that you're not on the highway.
- lbenes 11y agoLanguage is organic and constantly changing. I used to insist on calling my drone, a remote controlled quadcopter, as drones were those autonomous military vehicles dropping bombs on weddings in the Middle East. But everyone now from the news to the FAA calls my little RC toy, a drone. Sure, it bothers me to watch words like self-driving and hoverboard lose their meaning. If someone as influential as Obama can't protect my favorite Egyptian god, Isis, there's no point in blaming anyone or trying to fight it.
- akamaka 11y agoWhen you put it that way, it's really interesting to think of it as a language shift rather than just a question of marketing honesty. If the average person describes the car he already owns as "self-driving", perhaps that will accelerate acceptance of real driverless cars.
- niccaluim 11y agoI wouldn't be at all surprised if these are the same people who call the picture on their desktop their "screensaver."
- other_herbert 11y agoThat and calling a forward slash a backslash....
- jmiserez 11y agoDon't forget "hacker": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_(term)#Hacker_definition_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_(term)#Hacker_definitio...
- noir_lord 11y agoand my favourite "coder" I'm not a coder, I'm a programmer, I lack the lumberjack shirt, skinny jeans and macbook.
- toomanybeersies 11y agoRelated to terminology of what people who write computer programs call themselves: http://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-programmer/ http://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-pro...
- api_or_ipa 11y ago