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The United States is structurally incapable of large-scale public works projects. There are a lot of reasons for this and they aren’t particularly partisan, rat

The United States is structurally incapable of large-scale public works projects. There are a lot of reasons for this and they aren’t particularly partisan, rather reflect how decisions are made. My guess is places like China and Singapore will have the first true deployments of self-driving, because they’re actually capable of building road infrastructure to support it when it isn’t fully level 5.

xiphias2 6y ago
I vote for China, as they have the political strength to allow it even at a stage when it's not yet safer than an average driver. I believe that's not good enough for Singapore or U.S.
- chillacy 6y ago
  I’ve taken a cab in Shanghai and it was terrifying. If they can make autonomous cars drive there then they can drive anywhere...
krainboltgreene 6y ago
Have you really forgotten the Hoover Dam?
- MagnumOpus 6y ago
  The Hoover Dam was 85 years ago, the moon landing program was 50+ years ago, the interstate buildout was 40-60 years ago. The disfunctionality of the US at large-scale projects emerged in the 80s, possibly to do with both the creation of the modern Republican agenda by Ailes (divisive populism over bipartisanship, and preference of tax cuts over maintaining infrastructure), and the acceptance of the environmental movement by the Democrats. Maybe also by the illusion that the the demise of the USSR meant the "end of history" and the focus can turn from trying to get the US to be #1 to prying to get a bigger slice of the pie domestically...
  - koheripbal 6y ago
    If it only emerged in the 80s, then it's hardly insurmountable.
    - pas 6y ago
      Naturally, but it'll still take time (and money). See "This Is Why Your Holiday Travel Is Awful: The long, sordid history of New York’s Penn Station shows how progressives have made it too hard for the government to do big things—and why, believe it or not, Robert Caro is to blame" https://www.reddit.com/r/gwern/comments/ez0l93/this_is_why_your_holiday_travel_is_awful_the_long/ https://www.reddit.com/r/gwern/comments/ez0l93/this_is_why_y... Of course the elephant in the room is money. The public doesn't seem to have enough money to do projects. Why? Because structurally things cost a lot more than they used to do. ( https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/06/10/book-review-the-prices-are-too-dmn-high/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/06/10/book-review-the-prices... -- http://rationallyspeakingpodcast.org/show/rs-236-alex-tabarrok-on-why-are-the-prices-so-dmn-high.html http://rationallyspeakingpodcast.org/show/rs-236-alex-tabarr... ) One big takeaway point - IMHO - is that there's no scale, no growth in construction. So there's no big market, no new frontier for optimizing it. Sure, there are always a few startups, but that's peanuts. Where are the trillions of dollars allocated to get good at building things in this century/millenium? Umm, nowhere. (Or basically spent on iPhones, housing and healthcare.) So it's no surprise that everything is custom made, challenged in court, takes forever and costs all the funds available and some.

xiphias2 6y ago

I vote for China, as they have the political strength to allow it even at a stage when it's not yet safer than an average driver. I believe that's not good enough for Singapore or U.S.

chillacy 6y ago
I’ve taken a cab in Shanghai and it was terrifying. If they can make autonomous cars drive there then they can drive anywhere...

krainboltgreene 6y ago

Have you really forgotten the Hoover Dam?

MagnumOpus 6y ago
The Hoover Dam was 85 years ago, the moon landing program was 50+ years ago, the interstate buildout was 40-60 years ago. The disfunctionality of the US at large-scale projects emerged in the 80s, possibly to do with both the creation of the modern Republican agenda by Ailes (divisive populism over bipartisanship, and preference of tax cuts over maintaining infrastructure), and the acceptance of the environmental movement by the Democrats. Maybe also by the illusion that the the demise of the USSR meant the "end of history" and the focus can turn from trying to get the US to be #1 to prying to get a bigger slice of the pie domestically...
- koheripbal 6y ago
  If it only emerged in the 80s, then it's hardly insurmountable.
  - pas 6y ago
    Naturally, but it'll still take time (and money). See "This Is Why Your Holiday Travel Is Awful: The long, sordid history of New York’s Penn Station shows how progressives have made it too hard for the government to do big things—and why, believe it or not, Robert Caro is to blame" https://www.reddit.com/r/gwern/comments/ez0l93/this_is_why_your_holiday_travel_is_awful_the_long/ https://www.reddit.com/r/gwern/comments/ez0l93/this_is_why_y... Of course the elephant in the room is money. The public doesn't seem to have enough money to do projects. Why? Because structurally things cost a lot more than they used to do. ( https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/06/10/book-review-the-prices-are-too-dmn-high/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/06/10/book-review-the-prices... -- http://rationallyspeakingpodcast.org/show/rs-236-alex-tabarrok-on-why-are-the-prices-so-dmn-high.html http://rationallyspeakingpodcast.org/show/rs-236-alex-tabarr... ) One big takeaway point - IMHO - is that there's no scale, no growth in construction. So there's no big market, no new frontier for optimizing it. Sure, there are always a few startups, but that's peanuts. Where are the trillions of dollars allocated to get good at building things in this century/millenium? Umm, nowhere. (Or basically spent on iPhones, housing and healthcare.) So it's no surprise that everything is custom made, challenged in court, takes forever and costs all the funds available and some.