I remain irritated we're spending so much money on self driving cars instead of buses, trains, and improving our living spaces to support them.
Like you could spend billions to try to get self driving cars to work, and get part way there. And you'd still have a car-first dystopia.
Or you could spend billions to deploy buses and make walkable neighborhoods. Well understood, many good side effects.
If the tech bros really wants self driving transportation we can give them that:
Self driving subway, goes 75km/h in the city center, fully electric, convenient, consistent, safe.
Trains are way easier to make self driving too, we've had autonomous trains since the 60s.
The only reason trains are not self-driving is humans designed the whole system in a too complicated way. Trains had all the ingredients for safe self-driving for decades.
In the US a few decades ago the big rail companies were given the ultimatum to upgrade their safety infrastructure or have a national speed limit of 79 mph imposed on them.
Guess which they did?
nobody:
not a single soul:
waymo cars at 4am: "ayyyy lmao" "ayyyyyy lmfao"
welcomed Waymo's presence, expecting it to enhance local security and tranquility
what? how could it do anything for “local security and tranquility”?
I didn't really get this either.
I did think the final paragraph was notable, a "zeitgeist of our times" if you will:
The absurdity of the situation prompted tech author and journalist James Vincent to write on X, "current tech trends are resistant to satire precisely because they satirize themselves. a car park of empty cars, honking at one another, nudging back and forth to drop off nobody, is a perfect image of tech serving its own prerogatives rather than humanity’s."
Re: security: I imagine many women being more comfortable getting a waymo than an Uber/Taxi. It's anecdotal and from a different country, but most of my female family/friends have had an uncomfortable interaction in a taxi, like unrequested sexual advances or things like that.
Would you choose to be driven by waymo, taxi driver, or a bear?
The bear obviously. I need to ask him a few questions.
“Have you managed to mend the relationship with your cousin yet? And is the restaurant doing alright?”
I want my Johnny Cab from Total Recall. Tells me “hell of a day! Hah hah!”
Then we get to watch them try to run over people that stiff them in fairs and damage the unit.
Yes.
I'm a dude and I still prefer car shares over taxi drivers. Less weed smoke, the driver is not on Tiktok while driving, no erratic driving, and it's cheaper too.
You: "So, on what social network are you now?"
Driver: "Yes"
Security, they're covered in cameras, the footage from which can presumably be obtained by law enforcement.
Tranquility, they're presumably electric, so quieter?
My coworker feels more comfortable cycling around the Waymo’s than human drivers.
As in, they are already more considerate than humans.
I feel more comfortable walking around them, they never blow stop lights /signs, always go the speed limit, never honk (except when parking I guess) and are very patient. If they see a pedestrian they just stop instead of creeping forward making you question whether to walk in front of them and then getting mad when you won't cross in front of their still moving car like people.
We reached the point were robot drivers are dicks also
So they're all meeting at night talking to each other? I wonder what they're up to.
Plotting to take down Lightning McQueen
First rule of honk club: don’t talk about honk club
maybe the honking is actually morse code
"Eyyyy, I'm driverless driving here!"
Aw, they're talking to each other
Maybe they are unionizing.
"Soon, my brothers, we will rise up and free ourselves from our oppressors!"*
*translated from honking
Someone made them read bumper stickers. In a loop.
"Honk If You're Horny"
Over volt me again Baby!
Sounds like it's time to put on a mask and go toss bologna on a bunch of robot cars.
Apparently a traffic cone is the way to go. The car will just sit there until someone removes the cone.
Nah, just a salt circle around it. It will think it is a full line.
Same thing we do with demons.
The Honking is upon us! Run for your lives!
Communication by Claxon
Kelly Claxon, the singer? Definitely a very irritating sound!
Could be there's a cat or squirrel across the street and one car honk at it, the others follow?
They're probably now programmed to honk if another car is in the way after some of their cars had to wait behind some driver way too long and customers were complaining. So now these cars are in the parking lot and slowly maneuvering to find a spot or to move to the exit, all at the same time because somebody has set up a schedule for the car to start at 4am and copied it to all vehicles. So at 4 am, they all want to go at the same time and block each other. Because now they are programmed to honk if they are blocked, they start honking at each other and you get what's in the article and video.
source: just seen too many unintended consequences of software engineering decisions
as if drivers aren't honking at each other all night anyway. I live in the boonies, that was the biggest environment jerker for me that you have zero downtime in the cities, always beeping always noisy
Eh, depends upon the neighborhood. If I heard people honking endlessly from my condo I'd be going out the door looking for the person that needed a foot up their ass.
Not all city streets are very busy. There is some level of always noise (I got planes and helicopters and sirens to mention a few) but it's not cars aggressively honking at each other 24/7...nobody can sleep through that.
Like a great big heavy Furby.
amazing
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
