Playing the numbers game and no one can win

THE NUMBERS GAME — No one can WIN

Well in the past week self-driving  news has beenfull of  remarkable numbers.  Unfortunately, this  isn’t vegas baby! and no one will win if we keep framing  our information in ways specific  companies choose.  

Let’s take Tesla—well you can’t exactly take Tesla unless you have a lot of cash—however by making  statements that fit on a calendar is an attempt  say “we’re way aheadinthis game trust us.”  WAYMO puts the 1,000th passenger on their  vehicle and they make a claim about  its functionality. GM talks about the BILLION with B  ehey are committing electronic and accessibility  friendly  vehicles and hw much money  they have raised to  pursue  their  aims.  So  theres three different companies who are defining the self - driving  into three different categories, and lo and behold each of the companies looks  pretty good when viewed  through the lenses  provided from that automaker.  

So folks in marketing  know this numbers game all to well.  If you aren’t the leader in your category—make  up a new category.  

Well here’s my opinion—these categories  ignore  three basic questions and I want the answers(and I believe others do too.)

How  much time has  the industry spent evaluating  gaps in transportation availability, accessibility, and affordability?   Beyond this, I wor,nder how much attention is being given to  rural transportation demands and consequences of inadequate transportation options? When might hold the answers to such questions?  The seniors and people with disabilities  might beard spot start learning about the answers to these questions.  Also, is government  responsible  for using this  new  mode of transportation  effectively and efficiently  to provide services  to anyone with a mobility impairment.  We  will be  changing roads and traffic patterns based on the vehicles so I think the government  already  needs to be playing an important  role.

Finally when  are magazines like the AARP  bulletin going to start asking these sorts of things  to the car makers instead allowing them to  run the numbers racket?  

People with disabilities already  get defined in public in enough ways will the availability or ability  to use one of these vehicles become just one more  line of definition and division?  

When  are journalists  going to  uncover  that each car  maker is  redefining what to count and  how to count it so that one  or another of these  companies  can be declared a winner.  If  we don’t increase public accountability and inclusion we are going to end up in a place where the companies  get declared the winners and the  people who could  benefit from all this new technology are  going to be left behind again.  

In short we need to get away from the  numbers  games  being run by each of these companies and  turn to the  solutions games where  each company is given a variety of  social  challenges to solve and standards  by which they are  solved determined by the people  who need them solved.  Is this the role of the media and government?  Yes… and advocates too.  Oh yes and  any manufacturer  who claims to to be  creating  an evolutionary new  transportation  product… We are all responsible —but the rotating numbers game will not produces the winners  we  may need so let’s  quit spinning the wheels of publicity and  start spinning the  real wheels of social change.