I'm really mad at several college professors in the CS department at my undergrad who told us all "self driving cars are coming" and trusting them as authorities I quashed my many qualms and wasted a lot of time in otherwise important conversations about urban planning insisting that we account for the impact of this 'inevitable' variable.
"They will be safer than human drivers." tapped into my confirmation bias ... I hate drivers, after all. Of course every one could be bested by a machine. 1/
@futurebird The "they are safer than humans" argument is a prime example of cherry picking a limited set of criteria to extrapolate a fallacious conclusion. It is easy to cite several ways in which these robot cars work well so long as they are functioning properly. To conclude this makes them "safer" ignores all the edge conditions that actually make them death traps as this week's blocking of emergency vehicles demonstrates.
@futurebird Another fallacy is the "not their fault" argument. Human drivers avoid accidents all the time that would not be their fault. Take one case where there are 100 accidents, all not the robot car's fault, and another case where there are 10 accidents with 5 the being the driver's fault 5 not their fault and 90 avoided. Which is safer?
Bottom line, figures don't lie, but liars sure can figure. And these guys are big fat liars.
@futurebird One more. Apparently these robot cars don't work if they are disconnected from the internet. This is literally a Star Wars episode where all the droids are disabled by one strategic strike. We saw what happened when 2 robot cars blocked traffic. What happens when 1000 go offline all over the city at the same moment?
This is dangerous and irresponsible and the lunatics perpetrating this on us should be held personally liable for any death or injury.
@drahardja@futurebird Absolutely, all the statistics they are gathering are collected on very prescribed sections of roadway during favorable conditions. Toss in inclimate weather, construction and other common anomalies and the house of cards crumbles.
"Two autonomous Cruise vehicles and an empty San Francisco police vehicle were blocking the only exits from the scene... forcing the ambulance to wait while first responders attempted to manually move the Cruise vehicles..."
"The pedestrian later died of their injuries... linked to the delay in getting them to the hospital."