Weblog Awards
Best Canadian Blog
2004 - 2007
Why this blog?
Until this moment I have been forced to listen while media and politicians alike have told me "what Canadians think". In all that time they never once asked.
This is just the voice of an ordinary Canadian yelling back at the radio -
"You don't speak for me."
homepage
email Kate
(goes to a private
mailserver in Europe)
I can't answer or use every tip, but all are appreciated!
Katewerk Art
Support SDA
I am not a registered charity. I cannot issue tax receipts.
Want lies?
Hire a regular consultant.
Want truth?
Hire an asshole.
The Pence Principle
Poor Richard's Retirement
Pilgrim's Progress
Trump The Establishment
I can just hear the leftists, in say, 2030.
”There are just too many empty vehicles running around this city!! Total waste of energy!!”
Keeping in mind that most cars, by then, will have a higher IQ than the average human and the cars will be out there just having fun!
I’m probably the outlier here but self-driving cars will be beneficial in many ways. The elderly, people scared to drive, disabled people and others will increase their freedom and mobility. Even those like me who enjoy drving but have a tendency to get lost in unfamiliar areas might enjoy automated driving in certain situations. If you don’t feel like you are over .08 but you’re unsure if your last drink may have put you over, an autodrive is handy.
My objections are practical in nature. I’ve noticed that advocates aren’t really discussing the limitations and uncertainties of self-driving technology. What works in warm or mild climates with paved, well maintained roads will not work in extreme climates, bad weather, back roads and roads allowed to deteriorate due to funding cutbacks. If you start imposing a universal ban on human driving then your ignorance will cause a backlash. I can’t see self-driving car sensors being able to handle -20C or colder with snow and a strong but variable cross wind on a grid road yet. Then there’s the liability, responsibility issue: is it the car company or individual owner in self-driving mode? Privacy issues must also be debated, not imposed.
Self-driving cars must be seen as a convenient tool that’s optional instead of another moral crusade. I don’t see self-driving cars as a disaster unless (until?) politicians and other authoritarians get involved to remove personal choice and individual freedoms. The big question is how to keep those assholes from ruining the benefits. You can already hear the moralizing and arrogant preaching about mandatory this, ban that, new taxes, domestic security.
I’m with you on this. The vast majority of the time driving isn’t fun, it’s just a chore. It would be nice to live in the back of your motor home while it drove south for the winter, If we look at the pace of technological change any issues that exist now will likely be solved in short order. Right now the focus is on building cars that can drive themselves. I think that is the wrong approach to the technology. In the future I think we will see robots that are chauffeurs and area capable of driving the old fashioned cars we have now. And the same robot that you buy to drive your car for you will also cook, clean, do the laundry, take out the garbage and walk the dog for you.
Yepper LC Bennet.
being a Luddite when the number of Urban living People rises to an ultimate quantity and then, hopefully, steadily devolves to a sustainable level of world population living with a viable Social Contract in their specific geographic area doesn’t make much sense.
Get your classic cars while it’s still legal.
“Keeping in mind that most cars, by then, will have a higher IQ than the average human”
That won’t be because the cars got smarter.
I embrace technology as a tool. I’m also pro-natalist. I suspect that hat due to personality differences urbanization will plateau. A certain percentage of people don’t want to live in big cities, small cities, towns, suburbs or villages. Control freak planners and social engineers need to leave them alone, too.
The article is spot on. The only “self” ever driving my car will be MYself. The government approved and programmed overlord driver will have to pry the steering wheel from my cold dead hands. If you believe there should be no limitations on technology … and I am a “Luddite” for refusing my preprogrammed (pre-approved) driverless trip … then I suppose you are the ones who also cheer the grafting of male bits onto Chaz Bono. Yes, we can … but should we? We are rapidly ceding our spirits to machines. Ceding our inborn autonomy to automation. I cannot think of anything more DE-humanizing than allowing technology to supplant our own free will. Even the almighty God that I believe created us … did not take away our FREE WILL. And THAT is what makes life so (potentially) rewarding. But don’t be silly … a computerized pacemaker which drives failing heart muscle – good. All good. But replacing every AUTO on the road with a centralized preprogrammed driving dispatch office – bad. All bad. Take this past Thanksgiving holiday for example … how long will it be before the central office algorithm STOPS all driverless trips because the roads are too crowded? How long before the central office leaves you stuck at the onramp metering light, until traffic clears? How long before Jerry Brown’s more-Leftist replacement in our supermajority leftist State mandates that I take the “high speed” train in lieu of my driverless bubble car? Wherein the central office determines which mode of transport is “approved” at any particular time.
And let me remind the uninitiated that our local BART transit system was promised (in 1965) to have computerized trains that would allow for … well … RAPID (the ‘R’ in BART) … transit. However, the computer program has NEVER worked properly (even after multiple $$$ “fixes”) … and as a result … trains still halt suddenly all over the system sensing “phantom” trains. So we continue (in 2017) to be frustrated with anything BUT … “rapid” … let alone “reliable” transit. And every train has a semi-useful “driver” who “earn” 6-figure incomes and massive benefit packages … despite the glitchy computer doing the actual “driving” and stopping and “driving” and stopping and “driving” (haltingly) and stopping again and lurching forward and stopping and “driving” and lurching and … gawddammit … I’m driving MYself to work tomorrow.
I look forward to having robots. Freeing people from both drudgery and truly dangerous work is the reason for technology.
Every year cars are being made to dumb you down and reduce your ability to drive on your own. All the silly “conveniences” of the car telling you if cars are near you when changing lanes. Don’t bother looking around before lane changing.
Some guy backed into our car and ICBC wrote it off, pfft. Got to get those old cars off the road since people still need to know how to drive to drive them. For a couple days we have a rental until I buy a new old car for us. This stupid rental car cannot be started mechanically. Everything is garbage electronics. The parking brake isn’t even a lever anymore, it’s some stupid little switch.
Notice nobody makes a new barebones car that you can fix yourself and has very little electronics. Old cars you could be more self relient. Now you are dependent on service stations and the high prices they charge to fix any little thing because you can’t mess with these new cars that are way too complicated …on purpose.
I wonder when you will begin to wonder, if all these machines do all those things for you, what are you for? Our species evolved in struggle with the environment, other species, and others of our own species. We are at our best when we do things with some purpose, and at our very best when we are achieving difficult things. None of us are very good when we are sitting around being entertained and pandered to.
When I get that “drizzly November” feeling, I don’t hop in my muscle car; I hop in the airplane that I build myself and fly across the Country at 200 MPH.
The other night, I was walking through the shopping centre close to where I live. I passed by a spot that used to be a store and as now occupied by a local car dealer.
I went in and took a look. I spoke with one of the attendants and I was unpleasantly surprised he told me that a standard transmission is now considered an option.
I’ve driven cars with automatic transmissions and, on the whole, I found them to be under-powered. By comparison, I own and drive a 1991 VW Golf and it has a 5-speed manual transmission. It is quite nice to drive on the highway.
Since I’ve started settling my father’s estate, I’ve driven to the house several times. The terrain in NW Alberta has a number of hills and valleys. Often, I’d start up a slope in 5th but it doesn’t take long before I find it isn’t enough go all the way up. All I have to do is drop it into 4th and my car quickly comes up to speed again. Once I’m near the top, I shift back into 5th and continue.
Having a manual transmission also helps when going down those same hills. By dropping into a lower gear, the engine helps slow down my car and I don’t have to use my brakes so often.
My inheritance includes my father’s 4-wheel drive turbo diesel pickup truck. It has a 6-speed standard transmission and it has 2 4WD settings. (Unfortunately, it has a lot of electronic doodads that can be quite distracting while driving. All of that stuff draws a lot of current so I need to charge up the battery once in a while.)
Because my father didn’t put in a driveway in the front yard, I have to park in the back lane which, in winter, isn’t plowed. During my last trip there a few days ago, I found out that 4WD is a nice feature to have, considering that the snow there was knee-deep in places.
Now, can any techies prove to me that a self-driving car or, for that matter, one of Elon Musk’s heaps can do the same?
You might feel different if you were driving a modern car instead of one that is almost thirty years old. And “manual transmissions” haven’t been “standard” since the 50’s. Automatic transmissions have been “standard” for more than half a century. I have a Mazda 3 with a 6 speed manual transmission, and yes it’s fun to drive and yes, you arguably get better performance in some unique circumstances. However for the vast majority of people the driving experience stopped being fun 50 years ago. Now driving is stop and go traffic and a red light every 200 yards. A manual transmission in this environment is just a PITA>
Why would a self driving car only be able to go to government approved locations? My mates sail boat has an autohelm system and he can still pick and chose where he is going to go all by himself.
Self driving car? Where’s my flying car? They said any time now.
(fifty years ago)
There are many luddite things I do in my life for self fulfillment. Driving is not one of them. Driving is a chore and a total waste of time. Luckily I live close to work, so it only takes 15 minutes in light traffic to get there, but there are millions of people who spend hours every day sitting in cars in gridlock traffic trying to get to work. At various times in my life I have been one of them. I could quite happily spend ten hours a week sitting in the back seat reading a book and have someone else drive me to work than spend that time in stop and go traffic staring at someone else’s tail lights. When I want to travel for self fulfillment I go for a hike in the woods with my dog or ride one of my three bicycles.
good lord BA, you are one of the “can’t drive” fools I dread having to share the road will. My auto truck can be used in a similar fashion to a standard, and often is. Also automatics are rated for higher towing loads, and there is a good reason for that. Now my sports car is a standard, which I love driving. Thing is, most people either can just drive to a little better than that. There are very few good drivers on the road, so yes I support auto drive for these fools who can’t drive. As to 4X4, owned a few of those and love them, especially with the new technology.
BTW, my European girl friend is good at driving standard, as are most European people, it’s NA’rs that can’t shift for themselves:-))
And I love driving. So who should LOSE? You, who HATE to drive? or me who LOVES to drive? How about this compromise … (which I have heard NOBODY in government suggest) … you get into your own “driverless” lane like on Disneyland’s Autotopia … And we “real” drivers get the rest of the lanes? If we can create bike lanes, HOV lanes, Toll roads, etc. Then we can put all you mobile book readers into your own lanes. And I suspect our freeways will actually free-up quite a bit with all the “bored” drivers like you OFF the road.
There is no reason why anyone has to lose. I don’t see any reason why robot driven cars and human driven cars can’t share the road. Those are political decisions not technical decisions. I think by the time the technology is ready for prime time that won’t be a problem at all. Like I said earlier, with the current technology people are trying to make cars autonomous. I think as the technology develops we will go back to having cars like we have now and your domestic robot will add chauffeur to its cooking cleaning and sex slave tasks. If you look at how fast other technology has developed we will likely be there before we know it.
Self-driving transport is the biggest development outside the computer sector since the invention of the airplane. It is silly to think they shouldn’t be allowed.
good lord BA, you are one of the “can’t drive” fools I dread having to share the road will.
I prefer driving a vehicle in which I can feel and hear what it’s doing. I never got that with one that had an automatic transmission.
Automatic transmissions have been “standard” for more than half a century.
For passenger cars, I’d agree, but I was told that standard transmissions were an option on an SUV, something which can be used as an off-road vehicle.
Well now, you are very limited in your “auto” knowledge. My F 150 , has town mode, which gears down when I take the food off the loud pedal. I tow a lot of trailer, so want a vehcle that is good for that, and an auto F150 is good for that. Also it has a select toggle, and M (driver shift) mode. I used the toggle a lot for down gearing, and down hill. Then there is the M 350 I just sold, had paddle shitting, as do other expensive trucks, and truck like vehicles. You can also get paddle shifter in el-cheepos now. So you can damn near drive most cars in similar fashion to a standard, IF YOU OREDR THEM EQUIPED PROPERLY FOR THAT. Having been involved in racing, you find out that no human can shift as fast as an auto on the quarter mile run.
Rowing the sucker (standard) is nice game for pleasure, that’s why my sporty is standard.
Even many taractor trailers today are autos, you just can’t beat them. If you can’t “feel or hear” you vehicle, it would be a driver thing, nothing else.
I drove a Dodge Ram 1500 for 10 years, V-8, standard. I also drove to places like Fort Nelson BC & points between with it, both east & west of the Alaska highway for work. I preferred the standard over the auto in mud (on the flats or on hills up & down) that reached to the axles or higher. There’s a “touch” you get driving standard in mud, that auto doesn’t seem to reach, but gets close.
Any other situation, snow & crap, I found an auto F-150 vs even the Dodge to be what most people will experience. Adequate handling for most road conditions & that is what these vehicles were designed for.
If I would do it all again, I’d get an robot-controlled hover craft to get to where I want to go. Dial in the GPS location & lie back & snooze, while Mr Robot figures out which route to take. Pure comfort in one of those.
Once the socialist post national utopian system is in place in most civilized former countries there will be big changes forthcoming. That self driving car that will drive you to work or the shopping mall won t belong to you. You will summon it on your state of the art government approved personal communicator, PC for short. It will arrive in a timely fashion at your requested pick up location and you will begin your voyage to your destination. However you will soon discover that you will not be the only passenger as the computer will immediately enter efficiency/environmental mode and identify other customers wishing to go to similar or locations that are close to your destination. In reality you won t be riding in a self driving car that is parked in your driveway and available as your personal means of transportation, you will be riding in a self driving bus. This is the ultimate goal of the Environazis and Control freaks that are convinced that only they can save us from ourselves.
Well now, you are very limited in your “auto” knowledge.
I’ve been driving with standard transmissions for most of my life. I can’t imagine using anything else.
Both of the cars I’ve owned had them.
My father’s first two trucks (the first one a Fargo Transiline and the other a Dodge Tradesman) had automatic transmissions. Then he bought a Land Cruiser, which had a standard, as did his last two trucks, both Dodge Turbo Rams.
I had to learn to drive standard when I was younger. During my undergrad summers, I worked in an oil refinery and, after I finished my B. Sc., I was at a gas plant. The trucks at both of those places had standard transmissions.
There’s a “touch” you get driving standard in mud, that auto doesn’t seem to reach, but gets close.
I find the same thing driving through deeper snow.
Once the socialist post national utopian system is in place in most civilized former countries there will be big changes forthcoming. That self driving car that will drive you to work or the shopping mall won t belong to you.
Of course. The abolition of private property is one of the left’s objectives.
Exactly right, the self driving car is just the bait on the hook to lure the LIV s into their accustomed complacency. Its just so easy when you can convince supposedly intelligent people that the government can solve all societies problems. All it takes is a compliant media and people trying to vote themselves into prosperity via government largess. As Margaret Thatcher said eventually you run out of other peoples money!
trains run on tracks and still require a human at the controls even automated controls.
Right on..! I get all that….but damn, a VW Golf…TDI perhaps..?, even better. I too own a 2006 Diesel truck..yea it has electronics, but none of it connects via WiFi or BT and wont ever be. No Emissions controls (all deleted), cause very simply, my mileage is now better than ANY 8cyl SUV on the planet…and for good reason.
But am with you on std Trans….at some point I am going to purchase an olderJetta tdi with a 5/6 spd and love the daylights out of it….hopefully one under 400k kms 2001-2004…ya baby..!!
Driverless cars.? not for me thanx….ever