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A dream for pedestrians...

by c22 2y ago

xnx 2y ago
I'm guessing you're being sarcastic, but as someone who primarily walks and bikes it absolutely is my dream. Self-driving vehicles will obey all traffic laws, have super-human attention and focus, show absolute deference toward vulnerable road users, never road-rage, never "roll coal", and will probably honk only in the most unusual of circumstances.
- c22 2y ago
  I was being sarcastic. Perhaps in the future I'll have enough trust in autonomous digital systems (and their designers) to close my eyes and walk across a street while high-speed traffic seamlessly weaves around me, but the sum of my experiences to date don't give me confidence that these sorts of systems wont occasionally fail in extremely catastrophic ways. At least when I cross in front of a human driver I can ensure that they're looking me in the eye while they run me over.
  - xnx 2y ago
    > At least when I cross in front of a human driver I can ensure that they're looking me in the eye while they run me over. I think you would be lucky to get such a courtesy. Most drivers probably wouldn't notice they ran you over unless it showed up in the stream they were watching on their phone while "driving". I think you'll be surprised at how quickly you get use to self driving cars. They're technologically completely amazing, but about as exciting as an elevator in operation.
  - Cpoll 2y ago
    > At least when I cross in front of a human driver I can ensure that they're looking me in the eye while they run me over. I don't know at what level you're joking, but this happens to humans all the time, for a variety of (compounding) reasons. Perceptual blindness.
- panick21_ 2y ago
  Yeah that works exactly as long as you don't 'abuse' the AI and simply cross the road whenever you like. And then we are back in the 'jaywalking' logic. Why should AI cars break for you if you are braking the law. And eventually its either illegal or exactly like in the 30-40, some car people will start to build rails, so you can't cross the street whenever you want. Actually building safe infrastructure where bikes are save, is the actual solution. And we don't need fancy AI cars to it either.
  - 9dev 2y ago
    > Why should AI cars break for you if you are braking the law. Building technology that acts in the same space as biological beings obviously must acknowledge their indeterminate behaviour. Children, elderly, and pets exist and must be accounted for, a model of reality that assumes everyone following laws is flawed, all that. What you’re describing is obviously unrealistic and not what will happen.
    - panick21_ 2y ago
      What will happen is that you simply prevent people from getting on the road with physical barriers. This happened in some place in the 30s and even where it didn't, it was simply made illegal.

A dream for pedestrians...

by c22 2y ago

A dream for pedestrians...

xnx 2y ago

I'm guessing you're being sarcastic, but as someone who primarily walks and bikes it absolutely is my dream. Self-driving vehicles will obey all traffic laws, have super-human attention and focus, show absolute deference toward vulnerable road users, never road-rage, never "roll coal", and will probably honk only in the most unusual of circumstances.

c22 2y ago
I was being sarcastic. Perhaps in the future I'll have enough trust in autonomous digital systems (and their designers) to close my eyes and walk across a street while high-speed traffic seamlessly weaves around me, but the sum of my experiences to date don't give me confidence that these sorts of systems wont occasionally fail in extremely catastrophic ways. At least when I cross in front of a human driver I can ensure that they're looking me in the eye while they run me over.
- xnx 2y ago
  > At least when I cross in front of a human driver I can ensure that they're looking me in the eye while they run me over. I think you would be lucky to get such a courtesy. Most drivers probably wouldn't notice they ran you over unless it showed up in the stream they were watching on their phone while "driving". I think you'll be surprised at how quickly you get use to self driving cars. They're technologically completely amazing, but about as exciting as an elevator in operation.
- Cpoll 2y ago
  > At least when I cross in front of a human driver I can ensure that they're looking me in the eye while they run me over. I don't know at what level you're joking, but this happens to humans all the time, for a variety of (compounding) reasons. Perceptual blindness.
panick21_ 2y ago
Yeah that works exactly as long as you don't 'abuse' the AI and simply cross the road whenever you like. And then we are back in the 'jaywalking' logic. Why should AI cars break for you if you are braking the law. And eventually its either illegal or exactly like in the 30-40, some car people will start to build rails, so you can't cross the street whenever you want. Actually building safe infrastructure where bikes are save, is the actual solution. And we don't need fancy AI cars to it either.
- 9dev 2y ago
  > Why should AI cars break for you if you are braking the law. Building technology that acts in the same space as biological beings obviously must acknowledge their indeterminate behaviour. Children, elderly, and pets exist and must be accounted for, a model of reality that assumes everyone following laws is flawed, all that. What you’re describing is obviously unrealistic and not what will happen.
  - panick21_ 2y ago
    What will happen is that you simply prevent people from getting on the road with physical barriers. This happened in some place in the 30s and even where it didn't, it was simply made illegal.