Autonomous cars — Blog

Must protect number one

I’ve noticed amongst people I know from out of town that when they visit San Francisco, they are eager to take a Waymo autonomous taxis. It’s almost a tourist attraction in it of itself. That is, until it proliferates into other cities and regions. I myself have yet to hail a Waymo ride, just like I’ve yet to take a ferry to visit Alcatraz island.

As a person of introverted proclivity, I am on paper a big fan of autonomous taxis. To not have another stranger (the driver) there at all - never mind interacting with them - is serene music to my ears. But as with everything in life, there are tradeoffs.

Robots may be predictable, but humans are definitely not. On public roads there are multitudes of negative potentialities you must account for. And I don’t see how a driver-less taxi is capable of handling those situations. For example: what if a gang of dudes walks over to your stopped Waymo in a menacing fashion? If I were driving, the law gives me protection to mash the gas and get the hell out of there by harmful means.

Would a robot do the same? Has Waymo put into code calculations of when it is appropriate to run people over? There’s got to be a hierarchy of which life is more valuable, right? Perhaps the person paying for the autonomous ride should be supreme. If the outside world is threatening the occupant(s) inside a Waymo car, stopping and locking the doors cannot be the only option!

You can bet that I too would run over a gang of bikers in my Range Rover, if so provoked. Would an autonomous car do the same? I would like to know the answer before getting into one.

Why autonomous cars?

I was listening to The Smoking Tire Podcast with guest Missy Cummings, an expert and professor in autonomous technology. At one point, host Matt Farah asks a really poignant question: why the need for autonomous cars? Why are companies spending billions on chasing this technology? The answer is simple: to save time.

Or rather, take back time. The countless hours stuck in traffic on a commute could be better spent doing something else, if the car is able to drive itself without any user input. Take a nap, perhaps, or read a book. What would I do in the hypothetical reality where autonomous cars are possible? Cook and eat a really nice meal. Induction, naturally. Open flame in a moving car just spells disaster.

Anyways, the want to regain the time lost in traffic illuminates an obvious solution that’s far easier than figuring out self-driving cars: get rid of the commute. One of the best things I've done last year was move within walking distance to work. Never again will I have to sit in traffic to and from the campus. The reason a sizable amount of people are clinging to the work-from-home lifestyle even as we are opening back up? (Delta variant notwithstanding) There’s no commute working at home!

We are lucky to even have this discussion. The entire service industry don’t have the option of telecommuting. Though it seems some teachers unions are keeping on the Sisyphean fight to the end.

It’s sitting in traffic for hours that really sucks the soul. Instead of waiting for autonomous technology (one that may never materialize in cars) to save us from our misery, employees can and will instead opt to work for companies that allow remote work indefinitely. Or, they can move closer to work as I did. Either which way, the solution is there. It’s better for the planet, too, with less cars on the road during peak hours.