6 ms·

After seeing the movie Logan, I was curious if the movie was taking a jab at the autonomous vehicle trend by portraying them as a danger to ma & pa drivers on t

by Pigo 9y ago

After seeing the movie Logan, I was curious if the movie was taking a jab at the autonomous vehicle trend by portraying them as a danger to ma & pa drivers on the highway. It showed a crowded highway full of shipping containers pushing a truck hauling horses off the road. It seems the message was not that the technology can't be courteous, but that once it's accepted, corporations will abuse the roads to help their bottom line. It makes me wonder if that is a valid concern.

hart_russell 9y ago
By all accounts, autonomous vehicles will be much safer than human drivers. Companies will be sued up the ass if they program their vehicles to take risks and end up killing people.
- swiley 9y ago
  Only if it can be proven. That's why vehicle firmware should be open source, so the public can know exactly what kind of risks they take.
  - joshuamorton 9y ago
    I'm curious, under this train of thought, vehicle hardware should also be open source, right?
    - swiley 9y ago
      It's a lot harder to hide weirdness in mechanical things. Because of that I don't think hardware needs to be open source.
  - hart_russell 9y ago
    You can request to view source code as part of a lawsuit.
- ghaff 9y ago
  Define "taking a risk." Every time we get in a car, we're taking calculated risks based on our evaluation of the physical environment, how we expect other drivers to behave, and expected behaviors of pedestrians/bikes/etc. At least up to the point where you create a traffic hazard, there's always the option to take things slower and more conservatively.
dmix 9y ago
> but that once it's accepted, corporations will abuse the roads to help their bottom line Those evil corporations, being all corporate-y! I haven't seen the movie Logan but the gist is that you think BigCorp will modify their cars so they drive dangerously fast, threatening the other non-AI cars on the road? And they will risk killing people or damaging vehicles in order to improve shipping time? And you think this will be prevalent? There won't be economic, legal, hiring, or social consequences from police, shareholders, politicians, employees, and the AI companies? Because they're big corporations run by greedy CEOs who get away with anything?
- Pigo 9y ago
  That was what I gathered from the movie, though I wrong apparently, as someone explained. No where did I put it that I felt that way. I do find a lot of people's desire to take everyone's keys away puzzling, but I don't foresee any cartoonish supervillainy on the highway. It is odd how hyperbolic everyone gets whenever any concern is expressed, you'd think people who've seen the piss-poor code many companies run on would be a little more cautious about completely surrendering to them. It will be a great tool, but Johnny Depp hasn't transcended yet.
  - dmix 9y ago
    > you'd think people who've seen the piss-poor code many companies run on would be a little more cautious about completely surrendering to them. Someone brings this up every self-driving car thread. But has there been any incidents caused by code released too early? Google has been working on this for almost a decade and hasn't released anything. Tesla released what is basically a glorified cruise control and deployed an advanced sensor package that is disabled by default. I'm not seeing this recklessness that everyone is so worried about. Again, the bar is a system better than current human drivers - as we know for a fact that driver error is one of the leading causes of accidents (over 1/3 of accidents).
kwhitefoot 9y ago
Of course it is valid. I doubt that any major company will countenance literally forcing people off the road but they will probably lobby have the law do it for them.
churn1 9y ago
While that came about as a form of corporate abuse, the scene in the movie was less about corporations abusing public roads to improve bottom line, and more about a specific corporation trying to kill a specific farmer to take his land! Source: http://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/movie_script.php?movie=logan http://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/movie_script.php?mov... CTRL+F for "So they were on highways today on those trucks" The whole scene is about Big Corn trying to take a specific plot of land whose owner would not sell. In that situation, it's less about the dangers of autonomous vehicles, and more about corporations are willing to murder others. The next scene involves guns and fighting.

by Pigo 9y ago

hart_russell 9y ago

By all accounts, autonomous vehicles will be much safer than human drivers. Companies will be sued up the ass if they program their vehicles to take risks and end up killing people.

swiley 9y ago
Only if it can be proven. That's why vehicle firmware should be open source, so the public can know exactly what kind of risks they take.
- joshuamorton 9y ago
  I'm curious, under this train of thought, vehicle hardware should also be open source, right?
  - swiley 9y ago
    It's a lot harder to hide weirdness in mechanical things. Because of that I don't think hardware needs to be open source.
- hart_russell 9y ago
  You can request to view source code as part of a lawsuit.
ghaff 9y ago
Define "taking a risk." Every time we get in a car, we're taking calculated risks based on our evaluation of the physical environment, how we expect other drivers to behave, and expected behaviors of pedestrians/bikes/etc. At least up to the point where you create a traffic hazard, there's always the option to take things slower and more conservatively.

dmix 9y ago

> but that once it's accepted, corporations will abuse the roads to help their bottom line Those evil corporations, being all corporate-y! I haven't seen the movie Logan but the gist is that you think BigCorp will modify their cars so they drive dangerously fast, threatening the other non-AI cars on the road? And they will risk killing people or damaging vehicles in order to improve shipping time? And you think this will be prevalent? There won't be economic, legal, hiring, or social consequences from police, shareholders, politicians, employees, and the AI companies? Because they're big corporations run by greedy CEOs who get away with anything?

Pigo 9y ago
That was what I gathered from the movie, though I wrong apparently, as someone explained. No where did I put it that I felt that way. I do find a lot of people's desire to take everyone's keys away puzzling, but I don't foresee any cartoonish supervillainy on the highway. It is odd how hyperbolic everyone gets whenever any concern is expressed, you'd think people who've seen the piss-poor code many companies run on would be a little more cautious about completely surrendering to them. It will be a great tool, but Johnny Depp hasn't transcended yet.
- dmix 9y ago
  > you'd think people who've seen the piss-poor code many companies run on would be a little more cautious about completely surrendering to them. Someone brings this up every self-driving car thread. But has there been any incidents caused by code released too early? Google has been working on this for almost a decade and hasn't released anything. Tesla released what is basically a glorified cruise control and deployed an advanced sensor package that is disabled by default. I'm not seeing this recklessness that everyone is so worried about. Again, the bar is a system better than current human drivers - as we know for a fact that driver error is one of the leading causes of accidents (over 1/3 of accidents).

kwhitefoot 9y ago

Of course it is valid. I doubt that any major company will countenance literally forcing people off the road but they will probably lobby have the law do it for them.

churn1 9y ago

While that came about as a form of corporate abuse, the scene in the movie was less about corporations abusing public roads to improve bottom line, and more about a specific corporation trying to kill a specific farmer to take his land! Source: http://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/movie_script.php?movie=logan http://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/movie_script.php?mov... CTRL+F for "So they were on highways today on those trucks" The whole scene is about Big Corn trying to take a specific plot of land whose owner would not sell. In that situation, it's less about the dangers of autonomous vehicles, and more about corporations are willing to murder others. The next scene involves guns and fighting.