LIES, MORE LIES & SELF-DRIVING CARS
When I was a kid….a tablet was something Moses had carried down from the holy mountain to reveal the “new laws.” In the first dictionary I ever owned the definition for computer was —noun—one who computes.
Yet today these words carry with them altogether different meanings and my guess is that if I asked a majority of my children’s generation to provide a definition of these things they would not even come close to the cognitive image I had earlier in life.
The other part of what I would urge us all to think about….. do you remember for first cell/mobile phone? Could you shoot a movie with it? Could you deposit a check into your bank account with it? Could you send a photo across the room with it? I doubt it.
So question one: Why are we so fixed on setting a date when self-driving will be a thing, a real thing? Have we even really defined what that means? We have levels of “autonomy” set out so that a reasonable conversation can begin and that is a large step in the right direction.
Day after day I read surveys about how many people do not want self-driving cars and wonder if they have experienced any?—do they know about the levels of autonomy?—or are they thinking of a robot like the one in Lost in Space driving their car around? Do researchers ask if people like their current car as a part of the survey? Or even if the person owns a car… I think these surveys are sort of like asking if you like sandwiches? Well some I do..some I don’t. If you say do you like sandwiches or pizza—then I am more likely to say pizza, however, if you asked do you like veggie pizza or a ham sands which I’m saying ham sandwich every time.
I’m not yelling at the researchers so much as the headliners… the people who push the headline.
Ok…I think you understand my point about surveys regarding self-driving. Maybe there are 21% of the population who would still prefer outdoor toilets…when is the last time we have asked?
Now let’s talk about progress. Some companies (in the most recent round—Ford) has come out and said their “self-driving” cars will probably not be ready as soon as they once thought. Well which of the following questions did this raise for you?
- Was Ford lying to us when they make their first predictions?
- Has there been some really negative test results about their product?
- did Ford already lose the battle on this and is no3 slowing down?
- Well my question would be did ford finally decide to make access a bigger feature so that people with disabilities could use these vehicles? If that is true why aren’t other companies doing the same
What “progress” in other fields will create variations in the evolutionary timeline of self-driving? Will printable circuits on clothes change the safety equations? Will park and charge lot development change the public’s acceptance? Will making these cars more accessible to a person with a disability encourage a very smart young woman to attend college and then engineer the voice recognition receptor capable of hearing the tone of someone yelling stop at a sufficient volume to stop the car from hitting your little boy who chases a ball into the street? All this is possible and given the speed at which technology crosses the stream so to speak predictions to leaps forward, sideways, and even at times backwards are all fairly likely.
The best suggestion I have on this is to stop predicting the evolution of this technology and start working hard on the inclusion of variations so that work can begin on the expansion of capabilities. Build these things like Lego so the parts can be upgraded and modified….and keep including a wide range of stakeholders—-you know like anybody who needs to get anywhere, at any time.
Also take a look at the history of automobiles or televisions, or computers, or types of shoes and realize evolution always includes happy accidents and unpredicted failures.
When someone announces a change in a timeline treat it like a scientist needs a potty break not a massive social commentary.
I have a whole week scheduled tp discuss matters like this so enough for today…
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