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Self-driving cars projected to reduce injuries by 90%, save $450B annually

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Re: Self-driving cars projected to reduce injuries by 90%, save $450B annually

#101

Post by ekianjo »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #98
ekianjo wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

relationship > You can't expect governments to do everything. And these countries used to be in authoritarian regimes, so don't blame the private sector, it didn't exist there until recently.

I agree, so we can't make any inferences about them at this point. The problem with the libertarian hypothesis is that it lacks any reasonable examples to support it. There are however plenty of examples of governments that do work pretty well; even the USA is not as dysfunctional as many would like to believe.

> even the USA is not as dysfunctional as many would like to believe.

Well, when you have 15 trillions of unpaid debt behind your door, I can hardly call that functional. If it were any private business they would have gone bankrupt 50 years ago. If you cut the money supply, the government stops in the hour.

Re: Self-driving cars projected to reduce injuries by 90%, save $450B annually

#102

Post by jballanc »

I think a lot of the objections/concerns in this thread would more-or-less melt away when you consider that we already have practically self-flying planes. Crashes? Contingency protocols? Hacking? Bugs? All these have and are continuing to be addressed by the airline industry.

In fact, while I don't know this for a fact, I would highly suspect that the number of airline accidents that are the result of a flaw in the automated systems is dwarfed by the number of accidents caused by humans overriding the automated systems.

(If you want a feel for just how automated flying has become, I particularly like this video of an A380 landing at SFO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3HKN-FWNq0 . Just look at how much the pilots aren't doing.)

Re: Self-driving cars projected to reduce injuries by 90%, save $450B annually

#103

Post by seanmcdirmid »

ekianjo wrote: post #101
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, so we can't make any inferences about them at this point. The problem with the libertarian hypothesis is that it lacks any reasonable examples to support it. There are however plenty of examples of governments that do work pretty well; even the USA is not as dysfunctional as many would like to believe.

> even the USA is not as dysfunctional as many would like to believe. Well, when you have 15 trillions of unpaid debt behind your door, I can hardly call that functional. If it were any private business they would have gone bankrupt 50 years ago. If you cut the money supply, the government stops in the hour.

You have no idea what it means for the USA to be a debtor of last resort and support the world's most popular reserve currency. Only in a libercrazian world, which is necessarily stuck in the stone age, would the USA go "bankrupt." But this is not the forum to discuss this, I suggest you hang out in reddit's /r/economics rather than /r/libertarian for a more realistic discussion about the American and world economies.

Re: Self-driving cars projected to reduce injuries by 90%, save $450B annually

#104

Post by mike_esspe »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #100
recursive wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A bicyclist must adjust his weight to handle the bike. That seems tough to automate away.

Gyros can do amazing things these days...i have no doubt we'll see something like this in our lifetime (I'm hoping for a self balancing unicycle).

It's called Solowheel: http://solowheel.com/

Re: Self-driving cars projected to reduce injuries by 90%, save $450B annually

#105

Post by glibgil »

jballanc wrote: post #102

I think a lot of the objections/concerns in this thread would more-or-less melt away when you consider that we already have practically self-flying planes. Crashes? Contingency protocols? Hacking? Bugs? All these have and are continuing to be addressed by the airline industry. In fact, while I don't know this for a fact, I would highly suspect that the number of airline accidents that are the result of a flaw in the…

The objections will melt away when my self driving car pulls up to the curb, I roll out of the bed I had installed in place of the back seat and I toss my martini glass into the bin. The person next to me will care fuckall for safety when they see all that comfort and distraction.

Re: Self-driving cars projected to reduce injuries by 90%, save $450B annually

#106

Post by ekianjo »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #103
ekianjo wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> even the USA is not as dysfunctional as many would like to believe. Well, when you have 15 trillions of unpaid debt behind your door, I can hardly call that functional. If it were any private business they would have gone bankrupt 50 years ago. If you cut the money supply, the government stops in the hour.

You have no idea what it means for the USA to be a debtor of last resort and support the world's most popular reserve currency. Only in a libercrazian world, which is necessarily stuck in the stone age, would the USA go "bankrupt." But this is not the forum to discuss this, I suggest you hang out in reddit's /r/economics rather than /r/libertarian for a more realistic discussion about the American and world economies…

Stop pretending you have the universal truth in the matter. Go and read Hayek for a change instead of Reddit, you will get a whiff of fresh air. Explain me who's going to pay the massive debt when China and others refuse to play the role of creditor in the future. And let's not pretend it's never going to happen.

Re: Self-driving cars projected to reduce injuries by 90%, save $450B annually

#107

Post by seanmcdirmid »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #103
ekianjo wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> even the USA is not as dysfunctional as many would like to believe. Well, when you have 15 trillions of unpaid debt behind your door, I can hardly call that functional. If it were any private business they would have gone bankrupt 50 years ago. If you cut the money supply, the government stops in the hour.

You have no idea what it means for the USA to be a debtor of last resort and support the world's most popular reserve currency. Only in a libercrazian world, which is necessarily stuck in the stone age, would the USA go "bankrupt." But this is not the forum to discuss this, I suggest you hang out in reddit's /r/economics rather than /r/libertarian for a more realistic discussion about the American and world economies…

China buys treasuries because its the only think they can do with their forex without destroying their economy; they basically lend us money at a negative interest rate after inflation is considered, and are very happy to do it. If we stopped borrowing money, that would be a big problem as we are a debtor of last resort.

I would love to argue more, but my Beijing to Detroit flight is boarding.

Re: Self-driving cars projected to reduce injuries by 90%, save $450B annually

#108

Post by cabalamat »

chaz wrote: post #48
nick007 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually I think this will kill insurance companies too. They will see their business fall inline with the cost of accidents.

People will still want and demand car insurance. Stuff still happens, and I want my car and injuries paid for. So they'll still be around. It may be a smaller industry, but it won't kill them.

> People will still want car insurance.

I wasn't aware they wanted it now. People buy it because they are legally obliged to.

Re: Self-driving cars projected to reduce injuries by 90%, save $450B annually

#109

Post by anonymfus »

smokinn wrote: post #99
thesash wrote: post #88

I can't wait to explain to my grandkids someday that back when I was young we used to let humans drive big hunks of plastic and steel at breakneck speeds, with nothing more than our laughably slow reflexes standing between life and death. They'll rightfully think it was barbaric and tragic that we let thousands of people died each year in accidents caused by distraction, drunkenness, exhaustion, and plain old human e…

Thousands is kind of downplaying it too. 32 thousand in the us alone: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_in... Probably in the hundreds of thousands globally. Self-driving cars can't come fast enough.

According to mentioned in neighbour Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-re... ) WHO report (http://www.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/78256/1/978924156456... , "Preface", page V), it's about 1.24 millions deaths in 2010.

Re: Self-driving cars projected to reduce injuries by 90%, save $450B annually

#110

Post by bolder88 »

thesash wrote: post #88

I can't wait to explain to my grandkids someday that back when I was young we used to let humans drive big hunks of plastic and steel at breakneck speeds, with nothing more than our laughably slow reflexes standing between life and death. They'll rightfully think it was barbaric and tragic that we let thousands of people died each year in accidents caused by distraction, drunkenness, exhaustion, and plain old human e…

Just to give a counterpoint (I know this opinion will be extremely unpopular on HN)

I'd explain how there was a time when we were free to drive our own cars, and make our own decisions. And simply hop in a car and drive.

Not like now where you get in the car and it asks you to download the latest software update, then it monitors your every move, sending back data to the car makers/NSA and showing you ads as you drive along at ridiculously slow speeds. It'll probably also drive you past a certain shop if they pay the car maker enough money! Oh no, the car has crashed. Better turn it off and on again and hope for the best. Nothing like putting my life in some low paid software engineers hands! Oh dear, the car maker has gone bust. Now you can't get any software updates, and the software has stopped working as it can't dial home anymore. Oh well, tough luck! You didn't really think you could buy a car to own and do what you want with did you? You can only pay subscription fees for cars now.

Freedom is certainly a double edged sword. With freedom comes responsibility. But taking away freedom isn't the answer. Making people more responsible is.

It's going to be pretty impossible to take away the peoples right to drive cars (Even harder than taking away the right to bear arms in the US!) Stop drinking the kool-aid. It's not going to happen.

I'm rooting for some massive disasters/scandals with self driven cars, to put the idea to bed. And you can be pretty sure there will be some big disasters if they ever get anywhere with it.

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