Self driving vehicle kills 40 G And some other questions that might be disputed or not

A Question to Ponder…. and an answer that is hard to dispute.

First…sorry  no blog entries for a week or so.  I was visiting  family and friends.  Yes, like your family, my family puts the fun back in dys(fun(ctional.  But seriously this provided great opportunity to discuss  automation and accessibility with a lot of folks  who aren’t  in my regular circle of life and  provided  a couple of prompts for the next couple of  blog entries .

The first of these is when are we going to see the  Headline 

#Self-Driving  Bus kills 40 people?

Well you see that is a reasonable question, yet it isn’t  the important question whatsoever.  

The important  question is “will competitive  industry  entities  (yes car makers are those)  see the benefits of  sharing safety  dataa, accessibility  successes, and overall human transportation effectiveness as more  or just as important as the race to deploy new and innovative transportation options?  

I  am going to make my bias completely  transparent right now.  I say full speed ahead….with this very important  bit of wisdom that I think  car makers are starting to  realize.  

TRUST IS THE CURRENCY OF ELECTRONIC AND AUTOMATED VEHICLES  

The companies that do the best in producing the safest, the fastest and show the most proof are going to win the hearts  and minds of the public.  

the companies that can write the headline #blind driver surpasses  million mile mark…or #driver with  one leg  crosses country independently is going to have a competitive  advantage like no other .  

Or the company that can truthfully claim our vehicles have contributed to 20 million drivers over 80 to  stay on the roads safely and continue living  at home.  Are going to grab  the most important  headlines in this  new car race.  

It would be great if all the automakers  would share successful  equipment and processes..but they may make progress  faster and more effectively  addressing these important  matters  independently.  

So the question becomes not when a vehicle accident will happen that really grabs a headline—it is are the right questions being honestly and openly debated  amongst the car companies and states who are facing the future with intelligence , consumer participation, and enthusiasm.  

Again this is a biased  statement and I believe I have always said I would indicate bias if I see it in my own assumptions.  so 

I BELIEVE THE “PLAYERS” IN THIS WORLD  IN MICHIGAN ARE DOING THIS RIGHT SO FAR…..

Would i like to see more discussion and more  #people with disabilities involved  in the process RIGHT NOW?  Yes!!

Okay  at the beginning of this I also said I would provide something hard to dispute.  Given the amount of data available  it is difficult foursome people to conclude that driver assisted vehicles  are safer that any other kind of  transportation option.  I agree we may still have an apples to oranges comparison set here (I believe that autonomous vehicles will far surpass  current  technology in safety  in the next few  years—again I will own my bias).  However if we are allowing apples to oranges comparisons here… I am going to throw in  a watermelon.

In the  actual reported  documented and truthful  history of tesla and others… We are looking at only a handful of fatalities in about sfive to six years  of various renditions of deployment.  No death is unimportant because no life  is unimportant so I am not discounting  these  people —however  READ THIS CAREFULLY

Sixty nine (69)  Americans (not counting any other countries)  are killed in lawnmower accidents every year.  

If 69  people were killed by autonomous  vehicles in the next  year that would likely  slow the progress  of transportation options for decades…yet an average of 69  Americans  killed in lawnmower  accidents each year  represents a 10 year average and and when have you seen a newspaper or google headline about this lately?  Are you afraid when your neighbor cranks  up the “lawnboy?”

I guess it’s all relative,however I think we need to  keep facts in the front of fear…even if fear sells more  papers or drives more clicks.

There is a new and productive industry  being born here.  There are some moral questions to be addressed and in the end  I am humbly  suggesting we promise each other  to use facts to show we care.  Use technology to bring together  humans rather that to  use technology -related status symbols  to create  even more  social divisions  Let’s use  trust and inclusion as the currency  of this industry and create an infinite number of solutions to the age old  question:

How do we give everyone  equality in  choice and instill the notion of personal responsibility related to those choices?  

We have a big opportunity  to tackle this question within the transportation sector.  Let’s get  to it. I am going i