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Uber wants to turn its drivers into a sensor grid for self-driving companies

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Re: Uber wants to turn its drivers into a sensor grid for self-driving companies

#21

Post by rjmunro »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #14

I'm honestly surprised that Tesla never took advantage of all the cameras in all its cars to do some kind of mapping project. I always thought that was incredibly valuable data. Sort of an automatically crowd-sourced street view.

Some people would tell me that they do, but only for training their internal self-driving AI.

I'm not sure about the privacy implications. You say "all its cars" but you actually mean "all its customers cars". The relationship between Uber and the cars/drivers is fairly different.

Re: Uber wants to turn its drivers into a sensor grid for self-driving companies

#22

Post by Avicebron »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #17
kjkjadksj wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

There’s no “becoming” It’s here and it’s been here for decades - it’s just finally impossible to ignore or wave away Gig workers are self-chattelizing because there is no floor to the depravity that society will accept, and an endless supply of people who will chattelize themselves for a moment of pleasure

It's more productive to discuss and bring to light the floor's underwriters than it is to blame gig workers for "chattel-izing themselves for a moment of pleasure".

Re: Uber wants to turn its drivers into a sensor grid for self-driving companies

#23

Post by convolvatron »

kjkjadksj wrote: post #12
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #8

I asked an Uber driver, formerly a taxi driver in LA, how he felt about the fact that his driving data was being used to build his replacement. He said he “didn’t care and besides what was he going to do about it anyway, it’s going to happen no matter what” I asked if he had ever heard of collective bargaining or knew about unions and he said no. I think we’re only about another generation before the only purpose for…

[flagged]

this whole argument depends on the supposition that if brith rates ever drops below replacement rates, then that inexorably implies the extinction of the species. whether or not now is a good time, at some point growth has to stop. and there are plenty of conceivable social arrangement that are perfectly workable with a constant population size.

the only real argument for continued growth in to preserve the current structure of investment. that's your great filter, and it will result in economic collapse which isn't the same as extinction.

Re: Uber wants to turn its drivers into a sensor grid for self-driving companies

#24

Post by alex43578 »

chii wrote: post #11
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #8

I asked an Uber driver, formerly a taxi driver in LA, how he felt about the fact that his driving data was being used to build his replacement. He said he “didn’t care and besides what was he going to do about it anyway, it’s going to happen no matter what” I asked if he had ever heard of collective bargaining or knew about unions and he said no. I think we’re only about another generation before the only purpose for…

> I asked if he had ever heard of collective bargaining or knew about unions and he said no. collective bargaining or unions do not prevent technological progress, but merely retard it in the hopes that their members can benefit at the cost of progress for everyone else. Look at dock workers and how they tried to prevent automation with unions.

Surely if we smash all the spinning machines, everyone will be better off!

Re: Uber wants to turn its drivers into a sensor grid for self-driving companies

#25

Post by JumpCrisscross »

jcgrillo wrote: post #9
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #8

I asked an Uber driver, formerly a taxi driver in LA, how he felt about the fact that his driving data was being used to build his replacement. He said he “didn’t care and besides what was he going to do about it anyway, it’s going to happen no matter what” I asked if he had ever heard of collective bargaining or knew about unions and he said no. I think we’re only about another generation before the only purpose for…

I'm not too worried about it. Yeah, it's bad that people don't understand how labor organizing works. It's bad they're not willing to stand up to shitty employers and take a little risk to make life better. But in this particular case the fear is totally illusory. It's just another silicon valley conman selling some warped "dream" that probably won't actually materialize[1]. "Autonomous Vehicles" are nowhere near pro…

> Wake me up when a serious truck or car manufacturer starts rolling them out en masse, then I might start to get worried about it

I think enough people haven’t been in a Waymo to realise that the technology is basically here, and that we’re like 10 to 20 years of doubling away from AVs doing tens of millions of trips a day in America. By the time anyone has invested in true mass production of AVs, we’ll already be so far down that path that the policy deck will be dealt.

Re: Uber wants to turn its drivers into a sensor grid for self-driving companies

#26

Post by chimpanzee »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #17
kjkjadksj wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

There’s no “becoming” It’s here and it’s been here for decades - it’s just finally impossible to ignore or wave away Gig workers are self-chattelizing because there is no floor to the depravity that society will accept, and an endless supply of people who will chattelize themselves for a moment of pleasure

> an endless supply of people who will chattelize themselves for a moment of pleasure

Or perhaps they "chattelize" to survive?

There's not much pleasure to be had from gig work apart from the freedom to perhaps choose your own hours and perhaps be free of a human boss. Both of which are quite the opposite of chattelizing, in the short term.

Re: Uber wants to turn its drivers into a sensor grid for self-driving companies

#27

Post by Rebelgecko »

nerdsniper wrote: post #5

I feel like they should have done this 6 years ago. Most AV companies already have tons of their own data today. But how would it work to install expensive LIDAR sensors on privately-owned vehicles?

FWIW, a large fraction of Uber drivers aren't actually driving their own personal cars, at least around me nowadays. They're either rented or some sort of fleet vehicle (complete with TCP #)

Re: Uber wants to turn its drivers into a sensor grid for self-driving companies

#28

Post by jcgrillo »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #25
jcgrillo wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not too worried about it. Yeah, it's bad that people don't understand how labor organizing works. It's bad they're not willing to stand up to shitty employers and take a little risk to make life better. But in this particular case the fear is totally illusory. It's just another silicon valley conman selling some warped "dream" that probably won't actually materialize[1]. "Autonomous Vehicles" are nowhere near pro…

> Wake me up when a serious truck or car manufacturer starts rolling them out en masse, then I might start to get worried about it I think enough people haven’t been in a Waymo to realise that the technology is basically here, and that we’re like 10 to 20 years of doubling away from AVs doing tens of millions of trips a day in America. By the time anyone has invested in true mass production of AVs, we’ll already be s…

I've been to san francisco before, it doesn't even snow there

Re: Uber wants to turn its drivers into a sensor grid for self-driving companies

#30

Post by JumpCrisscross »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #17
kjkjadksj wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

There’s no “becoming” It’s here and it’s been here for decades - it’s just finally impossible to ignore or wave away Gig workers are self-chattelizing because there is no floor to the depravity that society will accept, and an endless supply of people who will chattelize themselves for a moment of pleasure

> for a moment of pleasure

The pleasure of being an Uber driver? Wouldn’t the better analogy be survival for most gig workers?

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