4 ms·
The article tries to make it sound like this is some kind of a computer-age cyber-problem, but in fact, any face recognition technology, including the Mk. 1 hum
by yaakov34 15y ago
The article tries to make it sound like this is some kind of a computer-age cyber-problem, but in fact, any face recognition technology, including the Mk. 1 human eyeball and brain, is going to have a certain false positive rate. Actually, the article says the pictures are already reviewed by humans before it's decided there is a match.
The real problem, in fact the only problem in my opinion, is the "guilty until proven innocent" approach of the state. They are sending letters which state that the license has already been revoked! If they sent a letter saying "we strongly suspect fraud, you must verify your identity in 30 days", I would not have a problem with that, as long as they have a decent match.
Instead, we get talk about how "driving is a privilege". Guess what - working for the state is also a privilege, and people who abuse the citizens who pay their salaries should lose it.
- jseliger 15y agoPart of the problem is that the state controls the means of living anything resembling a normal life, and if it decides to abuse its power, its employees are seldom all that interested in your problem. Megan McArdle had a similar DMV snafu not too long ago: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2009/01/car-success/4548 http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2009/01/car-succ... .
- yaakov34 15y agoHopefully there will be some movement on increasing accountability for state workers. It is not impossible - I heard that New York City is ending its infamous "rubber rooms" in which bad teachers are paid to do nothing for years and years, because it's unrealistically difficult to get them fired.
- harshpotatoes 15y agoI think in this situation, more arguements should be made that driving is not a privilege, it is an unfortunate necessity of modern life. What percentage of Americans could work without a car?
- pavel_lishin 15y agoDon't most Americans live in cities, now? Dallas has awful public transportation, but hypothetically, you could use it to get to work - it would just turn your 30-60 minute commute into a 2.5 hour adventure.
- sheffield 15y agoPublic transportation would be faster, more effective and comfortable then cars if more people used it.
- danssig 15y agoI disagree. In Switzerland they have some of the best public transport in the world and I still tend to chose car fairly often. Public transport has the advantage that you can do something (e.g. watch movies, read books, etc.) while traveling while in a car that time is thrown in the trash. But the problem is that public transport goes near where lots of people want to go but doesn't go where any person actually wants to go. This means further traveling time after the public transport bit is finished. And probably connections as well. This means, for me, that public transport takes about twice as long to get anywhere. In my opinion the future is robot controlled cars. All the benefit of public transport with none of the inefficiencies, etc. Public transport is just an intermediate step.
- sesqu 15y agoThe best thing about public transport in cities is that you don't need parking space. Hunting for parking space can easily take more time than you save by getting directly to your destination, and public parking can be quite expensive. That said, many offices have reserved parking, which fixes this - though that real estate is valuable.
- danssig 15y agoWell if my idea comes to fruition the automatic car service would only need parking for "overflow" cars when not in use. Some percentage of the system would always be in use so the cars would only not be in use when they were being repaired/upgraded/whatever.
- arthurgibson 15y agoThe RMV in MA is basically their own governing body, they have no attachment to the courts and can and will do as they please. Many of the decisions solely rest on whether or not the person you talk to is having a good day.