4 ms·

> with car owners loosing the control to pick the shortest route in order to be allowed to use the roads in the city Positively dystopian to me.

rootusrootus 4y ago
> Positively dystopian to me. Indeed. Sure is interesting to hear some folks talk about all the things they'll do to other people when given the authority. Of course, in their head it's all justified for the greater good. What is it they say about the path to hell...
belorn 4y ago
I expect people to feel like this (and the downvotes was thus expected). In concept it is no different from getting into a bus or taxi. You specify your destination and choose when to drive, but the passenger do not decide the exact route. A FSD is in concept no different from having your own personal taxi chauffeur. City engineers often uses one way roads to spread traffic out on multiple roads. By preventing people from using the shortest route they can force traffic to spread out and thus reduce congestion. An other common trick is to prevent left or right turns, so that the shortest route become artificially longer and thus force some part of the traffic to use alternative routes which is less congested. When there is some really nasty recurring congestion there is also other more extreme tools that get deployed to really discourage drivers from all choosing the same road, like excessive road tolls or speed bumps. Cities has a long history of using hostile design to shape traffic in order to address congestion. Naturally giving cities more direct control to shape traffic is something that will create new problems, among the biggest being privacy. The car has also very long been the symbol of freedom, so reduced congestion will likely take a while if people choose to do that trade. It is a steep price but the rewards are less congestion and replacing hostile design (which often also cost money to construct) with software.

rootusrootus 4y ago

> Positively dystopian to me. Indeed. Sure is interesting to hear some folks talk about all the things they'll do to other people when given the authority. Of course, in their head it's all justified for the greater good. What is it they say about the path to hell...

belorn 4y ago

I expect people to feel like this (and the downvotes was thus expected). In concept it is no different from getting into a bus or taxi. You specify your destination and choose when to drive, but the passenger do not decide the exact route. A FSD is in concept no different from having your own personal taxi chauffeur. City engineers often uses one way roads to spread traffic out on multiple roads. By preventing people from using the shortest route they can force traffic to spread out and thus reduce congestion. An other common trick is to prevent left or right turns, so that the shortest route become artificially longer and thus force some part of the traffic to use alternative routes which is less congested. When there is some really nasty recurring congestion there is also other more extreme tools that get deployed to really discourage drivers from all choosing the same road, like excessive road tolls or speed bumps. Cities has a long history of using hostile design to shape traffic in order to address congestion. Naturally giving cities more direct control to shape traffic is something that will create new problems, among the biggest being privacy. The car has also very long been the symbol of freedom, so reduced congestion will likely take a while if people choose to do that trade. It is a steep price but the rewards are less congestion and replacing hostile design (which often also cost money to construct) with software.