Re: [Ebbc-Talk] SELF-DRIVING CAR

> This might make streets safer for cyclists.

=v= Or not.  The first publicity for the Google Car described
a test ride around Silicon Valley with a human operator to do
manual override.  It was claimed that the override was only
needed once, because a cyclist ran a STOP sign.  Naturally
this played out as danged cyclists, whaddyagonnado, amIright?

=v= So, after we let the laughter and recriminations subside,
if the company press release is correct and the human operator
wasn't suffering from observer bias, what we're left with is
a system that was supposedly able to anticipate for all the
motorist misbehavior in Silicon Valley -- a car-sprawl Hell
that is also the world's ground zero for early adoption of
distracted driving with cellphones, texting, and apps -- but
wasn't looking out for bikes.

=v= The system was patched, but the point is that it was an
afterthought.  How many other afterthoughts aren't Google's
suburban engineers having?

=v= There's also the matter of accountability.  One of these
gadgets caused a collision, and after a suspicious silence,
Google released a statement saying it was human error.  So,
who's going to be accountable when the operators of these
cars are individual citizens rather than a corporation?
    <_Jym_>
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