The Swamp

Building a robot that dispenses gasoline is child's play next to building a self-driving car.

Looks like yes. The windows (do we still need those?) would be washed and oil checked. But wouldn't your car go handle that biz without you at 3am?

People seem to be going nuts over the fatal crash yesterday involving a Tesla on autopilot.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/01/busin ... ation.html

The things I've read though seem to be glossing over the fact that a tractor trailer turned left in front of speeding oncoming traffic. Yes, the autopilot failed to stop (or even slow down, apparently), ostensibly because the truck was all white against a white sky. But would a human driver have done much better? It sounds to me that barring some damn quick reflexes and good brakes, it was going to be a nasty crash no matter what. If we're laying blame here, I'd put it about 98% on the truck driver.

That sounds about as automation-related as if a meteor fell on the car. We all know the day is coming when an autonomous car kills someone that a person most likely would not have.

Shirley wrote:People seem to be going nuts over the fatal crash yesterday involving a Tesla on autopilot.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/01/busin ... ation.html

The things I've read though seem to be glossing over the fact that a tractor trailer turned left in front of speeding oncoming traffic. Yes, the autopilot failed to stop (or even slow down, apparently), ostensibly because the truck was all white against a white sky. But would a human driver have done much better? It sounds to me that barring some damn quick reflexes and good brakes, it was going to be a nasty crash no matter what. If we're laying blame here, I'd put it about 98% on the truck driver.

Yeah, sometimes when a truck turns into your path, there's not much you can do ...

How would you know? oh waitnevermind…

That statement seems eminently reasonable and better than some PR nonsense.

Agreed. (Though I'd be fascinated to know the stats on how many drivers die in accidents per hundreds of millions of miles for a comparison).

Google says like 1.08.

it was written by a bot.

I know one of the Relations guys at Tesla. They run incredibly lean, so they probably don't scrub their public comments as much as many other companies.

mister d wrote:
That statement seems eminently reasonable and better than some PR nonsense.

Totally agree. Sounds like it was written by a lawyer and a scientist.

The 600 series had rubber skin. We spotted them easy, but these are new. They look human... sweat, bad breath, everything. Very hard to spot. I had to wait till he moved on you before I could zero him.

It doesn't know a basketball from a soccer ball, what a relief

Update:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/01/07 ... 3795705927

I've had an Alexa for quite some time. I have not ordered anything from it. These days you can link Domino's pizza, Uber, and other things to it. It's really cool. But...the fear of being charged lots of money for something I ask it to order has made skittish.

Rex wrote:Update:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/01/07 ... 3795705927

That's hilarious.

brian wrote:It'll take decades, but eventually it'll happen. If nothing else, once people realize the potential insurance savings. Imagine a world with almost no traffic accidents. Insurance policies would more or less only have to cover theft and damage incurred in non-traffic situations (a tree hits your car in the driveway, etc.)

I'm an early adopter by nature, but I'd be all over a self-driving car. I hate flying for anything shorter than a 8 or 9 hour car ride as it is. I'd love nothing more than to get in my car, program it to drive to San Diego and read a book and take a nap and get there in five or so hours relaxed by not having to take my life in my hands in Cajon Pass.

I think driverless cars would be such a great innovation for safety reasons. I was curious about Cajon Pass and does indeed look very dangerous as well as other roads that fall in the construction mode. Obviously, you would need to have decent roads to support 70 MPH speeds, but with the savings incurred with this type of transportation, having good roads and bridges should be a better situation than they are currently.

This video of Cajon Pass wore me out just watching it.

Johnnie wrote:I've had an Alexa for quite some time. I have not ordered anything from it. These days you can link Domino's pizza, Uber, and other things to it. It's really cool. But...the fear of being charged lots of money for something I ask it to order has made skittish.

I really have to ask - what is the upside to having a device like this in the home? I'm curious as to what it does that makes up for the intrusive nature of having a corporation monitoring your actions.

Not being a (Phillip K.) Dick, I just don't get it.

LewP wrote:I think driverless cars would be such a great innovation for safety reasons. I was curious about Cajon Pass and does indeed look very dangerous as well as other roads that fall in the construction mode. Obviously, you would need to have decent roads to support 70 MPH speeds, but with the savings incurred with this type of transportation, having good roads and bridges should be a better situation than they are currently.

This video of Cajon Pass wore me out just watching it.

Having driven that stretch probably a dozen times in both directions, I am still waiting for the "chaos".

Pruitt wrote:

Johnnie wrote:I've had an Alexa for quite some time. I have not ordered anything from it. These days you can link Domino's pizza, Uber, and other things to it. It's really cool. But...the fear of being charged lots of money for something I ask it to order has made skittish.

I really have to ask - what is the upside to having a device like this in the home? I'm curious as to what it does that makes up for the intrusive nature of having a corporation monitoring your actions.

Not being a (Phillip K.) Dick, I just don't get it.

Well, I got it for cheap., so I didn't want to pass it up.

But I use it mostly for a Bluetooth speaker and since it's linked to my Prime account, I have it play music instantly whenever I want.

But I have yet to link anything to it besides my Pandora account, which was completely eclipsed by realizing Prime Music is a thing. So it's mostly here for the eventuality of when I find something worth using it for. I have not bought anything on Amazon via using it yet. And I kinda don't want to just in case it messed up.

So it's not some crazy intrusion like it may seem.

Well that makes sense.

Maybe it's because I have been watching Black Mirror, but I am increasingly concerned about the way people (including my family members) willingly surrender what should be private moments and personal information to technological creations.

The older I get, the more Kaczyinski I seem to have in me.

I completely understand. I'm now turning away from that stuff too. It's what makes people like Zuckerberg rich and powerful. Hell, just log out of Facebook when you surf the net. That alone makes a world of difference.

I had my security clearance reinvestigated after the normal 10 year period and my security manager was like, "Note that social media can get you in trouble. It won't hold up your clearance, necessarily, but just get rid of it. Not worth having." My accounts are locked down, but after the election when I nuked Facebook I realized that this shit is just getting worse. I feel better having relieved myself of that bullshit.

And sidenote: have a very, very elaborate password for everything you use. The more characters the better. All of mine are at least 19-22, pending the website allows them to be that long.

Gonna be embarrassing when Alexa shares your domino's history with the world.

mister d wrote:Gonna be embarrassing when Alexa shares your domino's history with the world.

Bacon, mushroom, green chile. The worry is real.

Johnnie wrote:I completely understand. I'm now turning away from that stuff too. It's what makes people like Zuckerberg rich and powerful. Hell, just log out of Facebook when you surf the net. That alone makes a world of difference.

At dinner on Friday, I reiterated my stance that I would never get a smart phone and that texting was unnecessary in my life. (Which is the truth).

My wife finally agreed with me and when I hinted that she was addicted to texting, updating her status etc., she became really pissed off.

And obviously, 10 minutes later she was on instagram.

I absolutely have that constantly on problem too, be it news/twitter or checking work or texting friends, but if you compare it to like 10 years ago or whatever, it just means my television time is way down. So its not good, but its also not ruining the world by taking the place of some incredible altruistic pursuit. (And it probably keeps a lot of people much more connected. I never called friends, sometimes emailed, but texting is quicker and more direct. No idea how this applies to younger people still forming their friendships. Probably negatively.)

mister d wrote:I absolutely have that constantly on problem too, be it news/twitter or checking work or texting friends, but if you compare it to like 10 years ago or whatever, it just means my television time is way down. So its not good, but its also not ruining the world by taking the place of some incredible altruistic pursuit. (And it probably keeps a lot of people much more connected. I never called friends, sometimes emailed, but texting is quicker and more direct. No idea how this applies to younger people still forming their friendships. Probably negatively.)

Yeah, a lot of the old curmudgeons who bitch about folks on their phones spend a ton of their own time on the tv and newspaper. Not much difference. Either way, you're tuned out from the people around you.

mister d wrote:(And it probably keeps a lot of people much more connected. I never called friends, sometimes emailed, but texting is quicker and more direct. No idea how this applies to younger people still forming their friendships. Probably negatively.)

I was listening to a podcast the other day, Serious Inquires Only formerly Atheistically Speaking, and the topic was about internet trolling but involved internet culture and connectedness in a greater context. One of the guests on there discussed how his kids have grown up with something like Skype and can be "connected" with friends whenever - even if they aren't talking and they're just doing homework. Whereas when he was a kid, it was common that something like summer break meant you never saw a person for 3 months until school began again. Is that negative? Maybe, maybe not. But you're never disconnected from friends these days as we all were growing up.

Johnnie wrote: I had my security clearance reinvestigated after the normal 10 year period and my security manager was like, "Note that social media can get you in trouble. It won't hold up your clearance, necessarily, but just get rid of it. Not worth having."

When I started at my current gig, a huge part of the background check was the "Social Media" portion. I was told it was mostly looking out for "PETA Sleeper Cells", since we have a huge amount of lab animals here.

First-ever electric, autonomous shuttle in U.S. history deployed in downtown Las Vegas(albeit only temporarily though possibly permanently this summer)

Selfies With The Dead?

Sounds like the start of a Black Mirror episode.

Hard to argue with that.

an apt description of the typical William Jennings Bryan voter

The Amazon Echo's updated app can import your contacts and now call, via voice command, your contacts with an Echo.

The video one that tells you if you're stylish is way more terrifying.

My Google-fu is coming up short, but I swear I saw an interview with Jeff Bezos in 99 or 2000 where he mentioned "in the future you'll just be able to be connected to everyone. You'll be able to say 'hello' and you'll get a response back immediately." Or something to that effect. I'm having trouble finding it, but this Echo function is basically that.