5 ms·

Humans "overreacting" is the reason why airplanes are so safe. This reaction (IMO "fair" not "over") is important for the development of the driverless cars tec

by soneca 10y ago

Humans "overreacting" is the reason why airplanes are so safe. This reaction (IMO "fair" not "over") is important for the development of the driverless cars tech. It will make them much, much safer and won't kill any innovation. "Underreaction"[1] is much more dangerous for society than overreaction. I would cite digital privacy as an example of this. [1] i'm not sure underreaction is a word or if i invemted it. Is underreaction so underreacted to that it is not even a word?

the8472 10y ago
From a utilitarian perspective one can invest too many resources in making specific things more secure. That happens when other causes of death dwarf the probability of incidence to cost of fixing ratio of a particular failure mode. If you're accounting for micromorts then we might be at the point where TSA checks destroy more human life-hours than terrorism and normal plane crashes combined. Simply reverting airport security to pre-9/11 levels could save more lives than infinite spending increases for airplane crash safety. So yes, at some point it becomes an overreaction when resources would be better spent on other ways of saving lives. I'm not saying that we're there yet with self-driving cars. We probably are with planes.
- ams6110 10y ago
  The things we could do to improve air safety at this point are not technology related. If we want to spend money on air safety, paying pilots more, spending more on their training, and reducing their work hours would make the biggest difference.
- rtpg 10y ago
  Didn't there used to be a huge amount of plane hijackings in the 60s? That doesn't seem good for the reliability If you look at AWS and the like, or services that tout "5 9s", you could make similar arguments. But reliability is itself a feature of a system. If airplane crashes were more frequent, less people would rely on it (if you think it's hysterical now...). Public Transit and package delivery are other things where reliability is super important. Not just public perception, but in a real way. If you have to change trains twice, you can't have both be late right? Also, death isn't just "subtract the man-hours from this person's society"....
- aianus 10y ago
  This is how I feel about car insurance in Ontario (think $5000 a year for a teenage male). On one hand, it's great that if I get in a crash I get crap loads of money for physical therapy and what not. On the other hand I wasted 2h every day of high school waiting and sitting on the bus and so did everyone else. Hours I'll never get back. Would rather have taken my chances :/

by soneca 10y ago

the8472 10y ago

From a utilitarian perspective one can invest too many resources in making specific things more secure. That happens when other causes of death dwarf the probability of incidence to cost of fixing ratio of a particular failure mode. If you're accounting for micromorts then we might be at the point where TSA checks destroy more human life-hours than terrorism and normal plane crashes combined. Simply reverting airport security to pre-9/11 levels could save more lives than infinite spending increases for airplane crash safety. So yes, at some point it becomes an overreaction when resources would be better spent on other ways of saving lives. I'm not saying that we're there yet with self-driving cars. We probably are with planes.

ams6110 10y ago
The things we could do to improve air safety at this point are not technology related. If we want to spend money on air safety, paying pilots more, spending more on their training, and reducing their work hours would make the biggest difference.
rtpg 10y ago
Didn't there used to be a huge amount of plane hijackings in the 60s? That doesn't seem good for the reliability If you look at AWS and the like, or services that tout "5 9s", you could make similar arguments. But reliability is itself a feature of a system. If airplane crashes were more frequent, less people would rely on it (if you think it's hysterical now...). Public Transit and package delivery are other things where reliability is super important. Not just public perception, but in a real way. If you have to change trains twice, you can't have both be late right? Also, death isn't just "subtract the man-hours from this person's society"....
aianus 10y ago
This is how I feel about car insurance in Ontario (think $5000 a year for a teenage male). On one hand, it's great that if I get in a crash I get crap loads of money for physical therapy and what not. On the other hand I wasted 2h every day of high school waiting and sitting on the bus and so did everyone else. Hours I'll never get back. Would rather have taken my chances :/