5 ms·
"These things will be fixed in time." ... and the solutions will be written in blood.
by rsync 9y ago
"These things will be fixed in time."
... and the solutions will be written in blood.
- civilitty 9y agoAs opposed to bunnies and in kittens like they are now?
- skybrian 9y agoYes, as happened with trains, automobiles, and airplanes. But I suspect that driverless cars will start out pretty safe and improve from there.
- rsync 9y ago"Yes, as happened with trains, automobiles, and airplanes." I think there is an interesting distinction that is worth discussing ... At the advent of train/plane travel, you could opt out of those novel risks by eschewing those modes of travel. However, you could be driving along in your driver-piloted car, minding your own business and find yourself involved in an accident caused by the software in a driverless car you are sharing the road with.
- resu_nimda 9y agoI don't think that is an important distinction because that is still very true of driver-piloted vehicles as well. Also people still die in train and plane accidents. You still have to eschew any form of travel to be safe from its risks.
- skybrian 9y agoConsider that trains cannot stop quickly or turn and safety consists almost entirely of making sure people get out of the way. And yet, lots of people (even kids) would walk along tracks, etc. And yet there are still urban areas with active train tracks running along surface streets, for example near Jack London Square in Oakland. Before cars, people routinely walked in the middle of streets. "Jaywalking" wasn't a concept. It was entirely up to early cars to stop in time, and they didn't have good brakes. Fortunately they weren't very fast. Also, early pilots, besides the obvious risks, were sometimes daredevils who would do things like buzz houses. I think the main point here is that society's attitude towards risk has changed; we take small risks much more seriously than they used to when earlier forms of transportation were introduced. Accidents involving driverless cars make the national news and manufacturers are being very cautious. With earlier attitudes towards risk, I expect they'd be in widespread use by now.
- megablast 9y agoWe are talking about cars, where over a million people die every year. We have already accepted a huge death bill for convenience is ok.