People Are Harassing Waymo's Self-Driving Vehicles (usatoday.com) 262
Waymo's testing dozens of self-driving mini-vans near Phoenix. Now the Arizona Republic asks why the vehicles are getting so much hate, citing "a slashed tire, a pointed gun, bullies on the road..."
"Police have responded to dozens of calls regarding people threatening and harassing Waymo vans." That was clear August 19, when police were called because a 37-year-old man who police described as "heavily intoxicated" was standing in front of a Waymo and not allowing the van to proceed. "He stated he was sick and tired of the Waymo vehicles driving in his neighborhood, and apparently thought the best idea to resolve this was to stand in front of one of these vehicles," Officer Richard Rimbach wrote in a report.
Phil Simon, an information systems lecturer at Arizona State University and author of several books on technology, said angst from residents is probably less about how the Waymo vans drive and more about people frustrated with what Waymo represents. "This stuff is happening fast and a lot of people are concerned that technology is going to run them out of a job," Simon said. Simon said it is hard for middle-class people to celebrate technological breakthroughs like self-driving cars if they have seen their own wages stagnate or even decline in recent years. "There are always winners and losers, and these are probably people who are afraid and this is a way for them to fight back in some small, futile way," Simon said. "Something tells me these are not college professors or vice presidents who are doing well."
Police used video footage from Waymo to identify the license plate of a Jeep that kept driving head-on toward Waymo's test car -- six different times, one in which the driver then slammed on the brakes, jumped out of their car, and demanded that Waymo get out of their neighborhood. Another local resident told the newspaper that "Everybody hates Waymo drivers. They are dangerous." On four separate occasions, people have thrown rocks.
A 69-year-old man was even arrested for pointing a revolver at the test driver in a passing Waymo car. He later told police he was trying to scare Waymo's driver, and "stated that he despises and hates those cars." He was charged with aggravated assault and disorderly conduct. The man's wife told reporters he'd been diagnosed with dementia, but the Arizona Republic calls it "one of at least 21 interactions documented by local police during the past two years where people have harassed the autonomous vehicles and their human test drivers," adding "There may be many undocumented instances where people threatened Waymo drivers..."
"The self-driving vans use radar, lidar and cameras to navigate, so they capture footage of all interactions that usually is clear enough to identify people and read license plates," the paper adds. (Waymo later cites its "ongoing work" with communities "including Arizona law enforcement and first responders.") When one local news crew followed Waymo vehicles for 170 miles to critique their driving, a Waymo driver eventually pulled into a police station "because the driver was concerned we might've been harassing them. After they learned we were with the media, they let us go on our way."
"Police have responded to dozens of calls regarding people threatening and harassing Waymo vans." That was clear August 19, when police were called because a 37-year-old man who police described as "heavily intoxicated" was standing in front of a Waymo and not allowing the van to proceed. "He stated he was sick and tired of the Waymo vehicles driving in his neighborhood, and apparently thought the best idea to resolve this was to stand in front of one of these vehicles," Officer Richard Rimbach wrote in a report.
Phil Simon, an information systems lecturer at Arizona State University and author of several books on technology, said angst from residents is probably less about how the Waymo vans drive and more about people frustrated with what Waymo represents. "This stuff is happening fast and a lot of people are concerned that technology is going to run them out of a job," Simon said. Simon said it is hard for middle-class people to celebrate technological breakthroughs like self-driving cars if they have seen their own wages stagnate or even decline in recent years. "There are always winners and losers, and these are probably people who are afraid and this is a way for them to fight back in some small, futile way," Simon said. "Something tells me these are not college professors or vice presidents who are doing well."
Police used video footage from Waymo to identify the license plate of a Jeep that kept driving head-on toward Waymo's test car -- six different times, one in which the driver then slammed on the brakes, jumped out of their car, and demanded that Waymo get out of their neighborhood. Another local resident told the newspaper that "Everybody hates Waymo drivers. They are dangerous." On four separate occasions, people have thrown rocks.
A 69-year-old man was even arrested for pointing a revolver at the test driver in a passing Waymo car. He later told police he was trying to scare Waymo's driver, and "stated that he despises and hates those cars." He was charged with aggravated assault and disorderly conduct. The man's wife told reporters he'd been diagnosed with dementia, but the Arizona Republic calls it "one of at least 21 interactions documented by local police during the past two years where people have harassed the autonomous vehicles and their human test drivers," adding "There may be many undocumented instances where people threatened Waymo drivers..."
"The self-driving vans use radar, lidar and cameras to navigate, so they capture footage of all interactions that usually is clear enough to identify people and read license plates," the paper adds. (Waymo later cites its "ongoing work" with communities "including Arizona law enforcement and first responders.") When one local news crew followed Waymo vehicles for 170 miles to critique their driving, a Waymo driver eventually pulled into a police station "because the driver was concerned we might've been harassing them. After they learned we were with the media, they let us go on our way."
Massage that title a bit, please (Score:4, Insightful)
People Are Harassing Waymo's Self-Driving Vehicles
Self-Driving Vehicles Are Harassing Waymo's People . . . would be more interesting.
Self-Driving Vehicles Are Harassing Waymo's Self-Driving Vehicles . . . would be the pinnacle.
Re:Massage that title a bit, please (Score:4, Funny)
Alexa and Cortana were arguing about which route their Waymo should take...
Re: (Score:2)
Alexa and Cortana were arguing about which route their Waymo should take...
The Homie and Lexy podcast is pretty good:
https://homieandlexy.com/ [homieandlexy.com]
So... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:So... (Score:5, Insightful)
Why don’t communities vote on whether Waymo is allowed to drive in their town/neighborhood/street?
Because we live in a free country, and the public roads should be accessible to anyone obeying the laws. A vote should not change that, anymore than a vote should be able to censor a newspaper or shut down a church.
If you want to put restrictions on what others can do, the burden is on you to show they are harming you or infringing on your rights in a significant way.
How is a Waymo car harming you in a way that a human driven car is not?
Re:So... (Score:4, Interesting)
Are you saying that a vote shouldn't be able to change the law?
Re:So... (Score:5, Insightful)
Are you saying that a vote shouldn't be able to change the law?
Laws can be changed, But the regulations about travel on the public road are the purview of state authorities not your neighbors. Because laws restrict freedom there are constitutional safeguards against "tyranny of the majority" in our republic on what laws can limit or prohibit, and laws that excessively limit freedom are subject to scrutiny based on evaluation of the rational basis [wikipedia.org] or bonafide interest -- there are many laws about vehicle operation that are allowable as protecting safety; However, prohibiting all autonomous vehicles seems strictly discriminatory and not supportable under that rational basis, so the prohibition could very well be unconstitutional.
Access to the publicly owned roads that happen to run through a particular neighborhood cannot simply be arbitrarily restricted by residents of that neighborhood as if they were private property.
Blocking arbitrary members of the public or types of vehicles just because locals don't like them or feel uncomfortable about them isn't an acceptable proposition in a free society. Again, while voters can cause laws to be changed (If there are enough of them to persuade their state legislature to do so) there are limits on what laws are acceptable.
Re: (Score:2)
"Because laws restrict freedom there are constitutional safeguards against "tyranny of the majority" in our republic..."
There is no tyranny in restricting corporations. You might like the argument that corporations are people two, but they can't get killed on the highway.
Re: (Score:2)
There is no tyranny in restricting corporations.
Corporations are legal persons AND corporations also enjoy the same rights as natural born persons,
because they're just entities made up of people organizing for a registered purpose.
You might like the argument that corporations are people two, but they can't get killed on the highway.
The people who administer a corporation are just as vulnerable to such things as any other person is.
Re: (Score:2)
This is the ridiculous argument that corporate America got shoved down the throat of SCOTUS so that they could continue to unduly influence (bribe) our politicians. I say this as a life long conservative...it's one of the worst decisions SCOTUS ever made. A corporation will always be able to afford much more than the same number of individual humans, and thus has a far disproportionate influence. A corporation is made of of people, but it's only the leadership of it that gets that voice. It doesn't spea
Re: (Score:3)
How do you propose self driving vehicles meet these requirements?
For now they don't have to, because -- for now, the human safety drivers are the legal drivers of the vehicle who is to retain
ultimate control and responsibility for what the autonomous car does, and they will be a qualified vehicle operator possessing a legally valid driver's license.
Ultimately different laws will need to be developed by the legislature (or the courts) once the technology evolves further and safety drivers are no longer go
Re: (Score:2)
How is a Waymo car harming you in a way that a human driven car is not?
Constant surveillance, optimization algorithms that send heavy traffic through neighborhoods, algorithms that follow all speed limits and plug the traffic.
Re: (Score:3)
Can they read all road signs? What is their recognition rate - as in how often do they miss road signs.
And when are autonomous cars tested? There obviously should be tests but I've never heard of one being taken.
I'd love to see an autonomous vehicle try and pass UK driving license tests, both the practical and the theory and hazard perception tests. I'm sure they'd fail miserably.
Re: (Score:2)
Public roads weren't put in place for companies to test gadgets. Prove your tech first, then bring it forward. Many of us aren't ready to put our lives in the hands of unproven software.
Re:It got a waiver to the state driving test. (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't like Google Recaptcha either. But what in hell does that have to do with their cars?
What people don't like about automated cars is their scrupulously careful driving habits, which puts them in the way of garden-variety asshole motorists. The need for this will gradually go away as fewer and fewer human drivers share the road with them.
Re: It got a waiver to the state driving test. (Score:2)
...is their scrupulously careful driving habits
So "confused and indecisive" is now referred to as "scrupulously careful."
Duly noted.
Re: (Score:2)
You hate it when someone unfamiliar with the area is sharing the road with you, don't you?
Re: (Score:2)
Sorry, do you actually believe that, or are you just repeating some obscure meme?
"Scrupulously careful driving habits" do not begin to describe the problems with automated cars.
Re: (Score:3)
The law says a Driver must be in control of a vehicle at ALL TIMES. Waymo’s vehicles and inherently illegal.
It's really too bad that laws cannot be amended. Oh wait. They can be. And they have been:
http://www.ncsl.org/research/t... [ncsl.org]
Re: (Score:2)
So all accidents in traffic ever were deliberate and not because someone wasn't in full control?
Re: (Score:2)
But you can't smoke pot.
We can in California. It is legal here.
Re: (Score:2)
How is a peaceful citizen owning a fully-automatic weapon and thousands of rounds harming you or infringing on your rights in a significant way?
They aren't. What's your point? I have no objection to my neighbor owning an M16, or even an M60. Especially if he invites me to go with him to the gun range.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
If you want to put restrictions on what others can do, the burden is on you to show they are harming you or infringing on your rights in a significant way.
How is a peaceful citizen owning a fully-automatic weapon and thousands of rounds harming you or infringing on your rights in a significant way?
Like this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
They're not in the car with me sharing the same risk. Until they do, i don't want them programming my car's driving habits.
Re: (Score:2)
It is so weird to worry about this tiny 10,000 per year when the leading cause of death is heart disease and various cancers (100,000+ per year), both caused by metabolic syndrome. You heard me right: you're too fat! Which just reflects the lack of self control in the average US citizen. This lack of self control is a good thing if you're a corporation that profits off of it. Bad if you have any empathy for your neighbors though.
If only fat people got cancer and had heat attacks then we would have figured it out sooner. It might make some more likely or worse but it's not the cause. The fact is you're going to die of cancer unless something else kills you first, like those clogged arteries.
Re: (Score:2)
Says who? I mean, seriously most of us don't work in the transport industry. It doesn't take a lot of disgruntled workers - because we want to get rid of them - to clog the wheels. The more you're trying to cut machines out of the loop, the more likely you're going to be seen as the problem not the solution. Granted, I think they've gone too far to the other side and is trying to steamroll everyone but that's where we're at right now.
Re: (Score:3)
Why don’t communities vote on whether Waymo is allowed to drive in their town/neighborhood/street?
Because that is how a representative democracy works. You can't have people vote on everything.
And do you want that anyway? Could be embarrassing if there is a vote on whether gays are allowed in the community.
If the majority of people are really that bothered, not just a few Luddites, why wouldn't the politicians listen? Arizona problem?
Re:So... (Score:5, Insightful)
Because communities, subdivisions, etc. don't get to vote on who / what gets to drive on public roads that are maintained by public dollars.
A few years back I recall a subdivision put up a roadblock / gate across a back entrance to a subdivision because of all the through traffic that was utilizing it as a means to bypass heavy traffic on the main street. They tried every trick in the book including the infamous " Think of the children " bullshit. They got educated in the whole public vs private roads issue as well and that roadblock was removed with haste with a warning that if it happened again there were a whole list of laws that would turn into an expensive court fight waiting for them.
You want the final say so in who gets to drive on your roads ? You use private funds to install and maintain them on private property and you can have all the say so in the world. If you use public funding in any way to maintain your roads, you don't get to complain about who drives upon them as long as the vehicles are street legal.
Re: (Score:3)
Huh? I can think of a few neighborhoods who have successfully lobbied city hall to change the streets, speed bumps and even blocking roads, to limit who can drive on their roads, usually targeting through drivers, occasionally trucks.
Any neighborhood has the right to lobby city hall to get traffic changes in their neighborhood. In some countries, they can also use an envelope of money or campaign contribution to help their case.
They may not be able to actually stop individuals from using the roads, but they
Re: (Score:2)
They can do this... but ALL these measures are non-discriminatory. They affect all through traffic equally varying only where the vehicle started and ended their route, and possibly size/speed/construction of the vehicle; no matter whether the driver lives nearby or not.
Re: (Score:2)
Many subdivisions just made their streets into mazes, so only locals that knew the way could use the shortcut. Technology has broken that. They will all go to the single entrance mode.
Re:So... (Score:4, Interesting)
They got educated in the whole public vs private roads issue as well and that roadblock was removed with haste
Well, the roads in a subdivision are primarily for access and services to the residents typically very low-volume, often used by joggers for exercise and kids at play, not designed nor safe for through vehicle traffic, so occurences of Rat Running unreasonably high through traffic IS are definitely legitimate safety concerns, disturbance to the peace through pollution, noise, unexpected traffic jams, etc and may result in reduced property values also.
Blocking off through traffic IS a common solution.
Its just that some random activists with a private subdivision cannot arbitrarily take it upon themselves to install a private gate or blockade across a public roadway --- they need to get the DOT or other municipal authorities involved to prohibit certain routes (Such as Official No Through-Traffic signs), replace some of the roadway with cobblestone, install a permanent curb or concrete barriers limiting vehicle use of one of the former entrances or install traffic calming measures as commonly done such as chicanes (reducing to one narrow lane/making one-way), installing speed tables, curb extensions, additional stop signs, and Police-enforced "No Entry (during certain hours)".
Re: (Score:2)
You'd go to jail in the UK for doing that.
Re: So... (Score:2)
Re: So... (Score:2)
Because America is not a democracy (Score:2, Troll)
It's purposefully difficult to get a vote on things in most jurisdictions. The rules are complex and require a ton of manual labor in the form of signatures. Gene
Re: (Score:2)
Do you want Waymo to invest the time and effort into going from community to community (and there's a lot of them) to identify whether they should be able to drive there?
Or maybe... do you think if there's an issue where a community has issues with Waymo, they should assemble, vote and then raise the issue with their representative. This doesn't mean that Waymo will be stopped simply because the people who assembled are against them. What it means is that as
Re: (Score:2)
Why don’t communities vote on whether Waymo is allowed to drive in their town/neighborhood/street?
For the same reasons communities don't vote on whether to allow you to come and drive in their town/neighborhood/street. You don't need their authorization to drive on public roads. And I think you will agree that's a good thing (if not, please stay home until you've gotten all the votes arranged and have permission to go out).
Re:So... (Score:5, Insightful)
Guaranteed that if those lawyers' and politicians' own jobs were threatened by technology, there would be a whole lot more barriers to this automation craze.
Automation of legal research and legal document processing has been common for decades. Number of laws restricting progress in this area: 0.
Re: (Score:2)
The people the legal document processing automation has and may soon replace are paralegals and lawyers who aren't already partners in a politically powerful agency. It is to the benefit of the current partners to stifle the incoming competition and to cut the costs of paper shuffling.
Think more carefully about your suggestion. I expect automation of all middle management as quickly as is profitable. But not of upper management.
Re: (Score:2)
Because the stockholders have no direct voice unless they *ARE* upper management.
Protest smarter (Score:2, Redundant)
There are much better ways of protesting than throwing rocks or pointing guns at the vehicle itself. Like marching in front of the city hall. This petty violence just makes them look bad and doesn't bring anyone to their side.
Automation is not going to go away no matter how they attack it. Other countries will develop it if the US doesn't. Besides, it's a tool like anything else and can be used for good or bad. If people have problems with it taking their jobs, then they need to either figure out something
Re:Protest smarter (Score:4, Insightful)
There are much better ways of protesting than throwing rocks or pointing guns at the vehicle itself.
They are not protesting. They are just venting their anger. It is only directed an Waymo because they aren't sure who else to blame.
Protesting only makes sense when you can articulate an alternative. That isn't happening here.
Automation is not going to go away no matter how they attack it.
Then what is the point in protesting? It is going to happen no matter what. That is why they are angry.
These are dumb and crazy people, frustrated with their lives, believing (correctly) that nobody gives a crap about them. Even voting for Trump didn't fix their problems. So now they are lashing out at a symbol of the world passing them by.
Re: Protest smarter (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Automation is not going to go away no matter how they attack it.
Then what is the point in protesting? It is going to happen no matter what.
They can vote for politicians to tax the benefits of automation and disseminate it among the public. They can ask their city to buy and own a self-driving taxi fleet, instead of letting the companies operate it themselves. They can require these cars to be repaired by mechanics within their city.
Automation happens because it makes things more efficient, which means there will be way more goods and services available at lower cost. All else being equal, everyone should have more after automation. The problem
Re: (Score:2)
All income is going to the top, leaving none for them.
They will get cheap, fast, and reliable transportation. This will help the people at the bottom of the economic ladder the most: The people now wasting hours everyday on slow and inefficient public transportation. SDCs will bring the convenience of cars to people that can't afford to own one.
Re: (Score:2)
One of the other sources for this news gave a quote by police who said the man with the gun pointed out that an Uber has recently killed a person. The quote along with that was quite funny: "It's like complaining to the CEO of Google when your iPhone doesn't work."
Re: (Score:3)
They're "frustrated" that they're not going to survive without a job and without a social safety net. They're being killed.
Unemployment rate in Phoenix: 3.5%, a 40 year low.
Re:Protest smarter (Score:5, Funny)
We set traps [nerdist.com] for them.
Re: (Score:2)
There are much better ways of protesting than throwing rocks or pointing guns at the vehicle itself.
He pointed a gun at the test driver, and was charged with aggravated assault and disorderly conduct.
Does a guy lose his gun license for that, or would it be considered "cruel and unusual punishment" in Arizona?
Re: (Score:2)
Does a guy lose his gun license for that, or would it be considered "cruel and unusual punishment" in Arizona?
Aggravated assault is a felony charge, so yeah, once found guilty they cannot possess a gun ever again their entire life.
Re: (Score:2)
"Does a guy lose his gun license for that,.."
You're not required to have a gun license to own one in most places. I've personally never had a gun license (other than an occasional hunting license), own four guns, and have lived in six states.
Re: (Score:2)
We still do that "innocent until proven guilty" thing, sometimes.
Fair enough. Requiring people to pass a test to show safety awareness and responsibility before buying a deadly weapon would be quite an imposition.
But Arizona still does require a license for more serious matters. [fishing.com]
Re: Protest smarter (Score:2)
The crazy part in my opinion (Score:2)
You will soon have laws that specifically protect these vehicles, essentially elevating them to a status similar to people. Obviously the rules change if there are people in them, but if there aren't then they are just property. And I should be able to hinder its progress as much as possible as long as it doesn't cause harm to property or actual people.
Re: (Score:2)
No no no... Waymo is a corporation and therefore a person... these autonomous vehicles are more like... limbs.
Re: (Score:2)
So, if Waymo is like a person, and the vehicle like a limb, then you're saying that my own car is like my limb? I think you need a better non-car analogy.
Re: (Score:2)
It's cute when kids tease robots though... (Score:2)
I saw this earlier today:
Locally made robots wait tables at Kathmandu restaurant [euronews.com]
Note the kids trying to block the robot (~0:26) and even better the little girl who yells at it to go backwards. Maybe if she were to yell just a little louder the robot would "hear" her.
Hopefully those kids will grow tired of it before they grow into adults.
Re:It's cute when kids tease robots though... (Score:4, Insightful)
Hopefully those kids will grow tired of it before they grow into adults.
They will grow tired of it in about an hour. People rapidly adjust to new things. Some people rag on self-driving cars, but nobody is complaining about self-driving elevators and phones that no longer need human switchboard operators. Certainly no one complains about the automatic looms that riled up the original Luddites.
They only complain about the "new" thing, and stop when it is no longer new.
No Surprise (Score:3)
I'm surprised this kind of thing hasn't been considered before; it has a huge potential to damage the viability of automated vehicles. This report is just about people being annoyed but you're going to have criminals targeting unmanned vehicles to steal them and/or their cargo. Automated vehicles will be seen as softer targets when they have no people aboard. I expect driverless taxis to suffer much the same issues that things like automated bike hire systems already do. "This is why we can't have nice things."
Re: (Score:3)
They're not necessarily soft targets for (non-professional) criminals, because criminals don't like getting caught -- and these things Video Record Everything and collect other data; to use an Automatic taxi you'll probably have already had to identify yourself before you even get into the vehicle --- it doesn't take much more to stream footage in real-time or automatically upload it the moment something suspicious is detected.
Re: (Score:2)
but you're going to have criminals targeting unmanned vehicles to steal them and/or their cargo.
You're going to have criminals targeting vehicles which are not emotional and therefore can't be threatened into turning something over all the while pointing 360degree cameras in every direction and recording in realtime?
Good. I hope more stupid criminals target these vehicles. We could do with less criminals on the road.
Re: (Score:2)
Cover them with cameras and make harsh examples out of those caught vandalizing them. Simple countermeasure.
Google versus Americans (Score:3)
Don't call it harassment, call it "advertising". Don't call it stalking, call it "targeted attention placement". Don’t call it hostility, call it "active engagement".
If the people at Google don't treat regular Americans with respect, then why should regular Americans treat Google's robots any better?
Re: (Score:2)
If the people at Google don't treat regular Americans with respect
Did Google point a gun at you? Or are you saying a you volunteering some anonymised data is the equivalent of actual harassment requiring police intervention here. Get some perspective.
Re: (Score:2)
Did Google point a gun at you? Or are you saying a you volunteering some anonymised data is the equivalent of actual harassment requiring police intervention here. Get some perspective.
Since when did activists ever have to "get some perspective"? Does Anitfa have to "get some perspective"? How about SJWs? Should they "get some perspective"?
You want people to start acting civilized, then end the double standards. People with "perspective" get treated like shit while censors and violent assholes get rewarded. That's the new "perspective" that we're all seeing.
Re: (Score:2)
Since when did activists ever have to "get some perspective"? Does Anitfa have to "get some perspective"? How about SJWs? Should they "get some perspective"?
Errr yes. Hyperbole an extremism is the reason those idiots don't get taken seriously.
Re: (Score:2)
Errr yes. Hyperbole an extremism is the reason those idiots don't get taken seriously.
They are getting what they want. (Hint: it's not to be "taken seriously" by you.)
Who's gonna buy? (Score:3)
Safe as a human (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Do we not all want these cars to act human and therefore come close to being as safe as one?
Shit no. We want them to act better than humans, so that they are much safer. Drivers are dying out there in droves.
Re: (Score:2)
But they don't currently, so people don't like them. Do we not all want these cars to act human and therefore come close to being as safe as one?
I agree. They should implement a random number generator so half of the time the indicators aren't used, 10% of the time they change lanes suddenly with a little swerve, 5% of the time they don't yield at giveway signs, and 1% of the time they run the red light to save a few seconds from their trip.
Humans are sooooo much better.
Not just Waymo (Score:5, Informative)
I used to ride a bike to school in a suburb of Phoenix. Occasionally drivers would yell or throw stuff at me as they passed.
Later, I delivered pizza in another suburb. I stopped putting on the car topper because people would yell and honk at me. So you see, Phoenix drivers are intolerant of anything on their road that falls outside the norm.
Phoenix is also one of the road rage capitals [theautochannel.com] of the USA. So it isn't just Waymo.
Other implications (Score:2)
“The self-driving vans use radar, lidar and cameras to navigate, so they capture footage of all interactions that usually is clear enough to identify people and read license plates”
And of course Google/Waymo discards all those photographs and videos as soon as it’s no longer needed for navigation... right?
Re: (Score:2)
You haven't been on Google Maps for a few years I take it?
gender? (Score:2)
I am fairly certain that all those people are men...
I remember reading something a while ago (maybe it was in Wired?) about how AI may displace disproportionately male jobs, as women tend to have service jobs that are harder to automate.
Doesn't this show a flaw in automated vehicles? (Score:2)
Ignoring their discontent for av's, in a scenario where someone is approaching your vehicle with a weapon coming head on.
Human driver: You might freeze and panic, or you might hit the gas and get out of there, even if getting out of there means hitting the assailant.
Automated driver: The car will just sit there even though your life is being threatened.
It's human nature (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Just like in the past (Score:2)
When trains and steam-driven spinning mules etc were invented, there were also Luddites who couldn't cope with progress.
Pissed (Score:2)
Rich people mad at poors (Score:2)
what? (Score:3)
The man's wife told reporters he'd been diagnosed with dementia
what kind of excuse is that? if he's got dementia, he shouldn't even be allowed to be near a f-ing gun. And that's why regular people shouldn't have guns..
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I think we found one of the car harassers here.
Re: What a pompous fuck (Score:2)
Re:Yay! Cancer! (Score:5, Insightful)
To wit, has anyone considered the fallout to occur from thousands of radar units blasting people with small amounts of radiation, every day?
Yes, they have, and it's negligible.
You want to know what blasts people with large amounts of harmful radiation every day? The sun. It causes skin cancer in everyone who doesn't die of something else first. If you want to worry about radiation damage, start there.
Re: (Score:2)
> It causes skin cancer in everyone who doesn't die of something else first.
Technically, everything kills everyone who doesn't die of something else first.
Re: (Score:2)
Getting "blasted" by non-ionising radiation repeatedly in the same spot still makes it non-ioning radiation and still has no effect on your DNA.
But given you're worried about ABS emissions maybe you should put the tinfoil hat away and go checkin to a hotel where the staff have white coats and the walls are made of pillows.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm less than convinced that radio waves have no effect on cancer frequency...but so do lots of other things, and it can't be a strong effect.
Also there's a question as to whether lidar may contribute to cataract formation. Probably not, and it certainly isn't a strong effect at measured levels, but perhaps over time....
Low level effects are really difficult to detect, particularly as they often only appear when multiple instigators are combined over a long period of time. But they also *usually* aren't t
Re:Dumbasses (Score:5, Informative)
No, they were doing a news report on how well the Waymo cars actually drive, which is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. You can see a summary (including the police stop) here [youtube.com]. The basic summary: they're good at stopping for threats, but they suck at lane changes and some turns. Despite being in a tightly geofenced area (aka, the cars are "trained to the test"), they found one left turn which the cars could never manage to take without human intervention.
It's understandable that people would be upset if they see the cars as bad drivers. You don't have to invoke motives that people see them as a "threat to their future" when the people are literally telling you that they're upset with how the cars drive.
Re: (Score:2)
I certainly hope that the person got his licenses revoked.
Licenses? We don't need a license to own a firearm in the USA. We can be legally prohibited from owning them, and in some states we are required to get a license to buy them, in some we are required to register our ownership of some of them, and AFAIK in all of them we are required to register our ownership of automatic weapons. But in none of them are we required to do anything special to receive them from a family member, not even here in Californy.
Re: (Score:3)
"... in all of them we are required to register our ownership of automatic weapons"
Automatic weapons actually do require a federal license.
Re:If you can't take the heat, stay off the street (Score:5, Insightful)
Sorry, but you need to read about the protests against cars when horses started being replaced. This is one (of a number of) normal human reaction(s) to unforeseen changes. And that they didn't foresee it tells you about the kind of person they are.
Re: If you can't take the heat, stay off the stree (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Surveillance Convenience as a forced necessity (Score:2, Troll)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: There is no journalistic integrity anymore (Score:2)