4 ms·

Your original assertion that I took issue with was that "self driving cars are not important other than for a few exec egos." I'll happily admit there are prob

Your original assertion that I took issue with was that "self driving cars are not important other than for a few exec egos." I'll happily admit there are problems with autonomous vehicles today, and that is not what I dispute. What I dispute is that autonomous vehicles are not important. And of course they are. They would free up more human time than any other invention on the horizon. However, to the non sequitur point about safety, we are not designing a system from scratch. The existing system has two million crashes per year in the US alone. If the new system has one million crashes, that's a massive improvement. > There is basically no meaningful difference between a self driving Tesla and a train. The only explanation for why you don’t hear people discussing the myriad times that commuter trains veer into traffic or otherwise behave in dangerous and unpredictable ways must be collective ignorance and hypocrisy. Once again, you've quickly switched the point to something different. The question was if an astronomically expensive train that carries a mere 3,000 riders a day is also worthy of derision, since few people use it, and all it does is replace walking, freeing them up to play Wordle during their commute.

jrflowers 3y ago
I like how you began this thread by saying that a person could not possibly believe that self driving cars aren’t very important, which is a statement about the nature of reality and the limits of human rationality, and are now sort of saying that you think that self driving cars are important, which is a different topic. I also liked how you brought up trains and then said I’ve switched the point when I responded to your point about a train. I concede that your point about San Francisco’s train ridership is unassailable proof that self driving cars are as important as water treatment and germ theory. Since it is the only train in the world and has less than stellar ridership, it is proof positive that the very concept is worse than a car that drives itself into oncoming traffic. It is a shame that the author of the article did not take a moment to consider ridership numbers of the San Francisco rail project as his car was attempting a u turn on the freeway. A small minded person could find themself thinking about impending death and not specific train projects worthy of derision.

jrflowers 3y ago

I like how you began this thread by saying that a person could not possibly believe that self driving cars aren’t very important, which is a statement about the nature of reality and the limits of human rationality, and are now sort of saying that you think that self driving cars are important, which is a different topic. I also liked how you brought up trains and then said I’ve switched the point when I responded to your point about a train. I concede that your point about San Francisco’s train ridership is unassailable proof that self driving cars are as important as water treatment and germ theory. Since it is the only train in the world and has less than stellar ridership, it is proof positive that the very concept is worse than a car that drives itself into oncoming traffic. It is a shame that the author of the article did not take a moment to consider ridership numbers of the San Francisco rail project as his car was attempting a u turn on the freeway. A small minded person could find themself thinking about impending death and not specific train projects worthy of derision.