Driverless cars in New Zealand

Forums › Transport (cars, bikes and boats) › Driverless cars in New Zealand - thoughts?

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#1793119 1-Jun-2017 14:24

bluedisk:

Some things should never be connected to the internet like cars, fridges. ovens etc. Look at what happened to BA this week, a fault in their massively engineered multi- backed up computer system completely failed costing millions of pounds and disrupted the travel of millions of people.

Are you saying that what happened to BA was because they were connected to the Internet? Because, from what little I know of it, that's complete BS.

I work in an industry where we also have an expectation of 24/7 availability, and consequently have "massively engineered multi- backed up computer systems". We have had a complete failure too. Turned out to be a misconfiguration by a person, which meant our duplicated systems actually all relied on a single device, which failed. Another aspect of this is that (like BA apparently) we hadn't ever actually tried turning off each of our devices to see if it was really configured properly. Poor planning, by people.

Basically we are being trained to accept technology taking over more of our lives and in the process doing away with heap of unskilled jobs.

You say that like you think it's a bad thing!

Actually, I don't think technology is taking over our lives. It is adding to our lives, allowing us choices we didn't have before. From my point of view, doing away with unskilled jobs is a good thing. I don't want a monotonous repetitive job that requires no thinking. Do you? Do you think anyone actually does?

scuwp

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#1793145 1-Jun-2017 14:40

I am sure that the people that hold those 'unskilled' jobs and rely on them to feed their family and provide for their children would disagree. As for the OP's question...it's inevitable, perhaps not in my lifetime but very likely my kids.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

Yabanize

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#1793149 1-Jun-2017 14:43

frankv:

bluedisk:

Some things should never be connected to the internet like cars, fridges. ovens etc. Look at what happened to BA this week, a fault in their massively engineered multi- backed up computer system completely failed costing millions of pounds and disrupted the travel of millions of people.

Are you saying that what happened to BA was because they were connected to the Internet? Because, from what little I know of it, that's complete BS.

I work in an industry where we also have an expectation of 24/7 availability, and consequently have "massively engineered multi- backed up computer systems". We have had a complete failure too. Turned out to be a misconfiguration by a person, which meant our duplicated systems actually all relied on a single device, which failed. Another aspect of this is that (like BA apparently) we hadn't ever actually tried turning off each of our devices to see if it was really configured properly. Poor planning, by people.

Basically we are being trained to accept technology taking over more of our lives and in the process doing away with heap of unskilled jobs.

You say that like you think it's a bad thing!

Actually, I don't think technology is taking over our lives. It is adding to our lives, allowing us choices we didn't have before. From my point of view, doing away with unskilled jobs is a good thing. I don't want a monotonous repetitive job that requires no thinking. Do you? Do you think anyone actually does?

But having these systems makes it possible to process the huge volume of passengers going in and out, it would be near impossible otherwise. Even if it goes down for a day once in a blue moon, it's still more valuable

MikeAqua

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#1793180 1-Jun-2017 15:17

When unskilled work was my only option I was happy to do it. Better than not working.

Mike

frankv

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#1793193 1-Jun-2017 15:33

MikeAqua:

When unskilled work was my only option I was happy to do it. Better than not working.

Yeah, me too. But it wasn't what I wanted.

frankv

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#1793199 1-Jun-2017 15:51

scuwp: I am sure that the people that hold those 'unskilled' jobs and rely on them to feed their family and provide for their children would disagree.

I'm not. They're there because they have to be, not because they want to be.

If people had better options, then no-one would care about robots taking unskilled jobs.

dafman

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#1793207 1-Jun-2017 16:24

dafman:

I wonder what the impact of driverless technology will be on society?

I wonder what the most popular job was in each state of the US (in 2014)?

3 million truck drivers in the US

6 million more directly support them (truck stops etc)

That's around 9 million to line up behind the car workers and coal miners in a few years time.

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frankv

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#1793236 1-Jun-2017 16:44

dafman:

dafman:

I wonder what the impact of driverless technology will be on society?

I wonder what the most popular job was in each state of the US (in 2014)?

3 million truck drivers in the US

6 million more directly support them (truck stops etc)

That's around 9 million to line up behind the car workers and coal miners in a few years time.

Don't forget the farmers and secretaries who'll be in the same line. Primary School Teachers should be OK, except for an aging population? And Software Developers will be OK, and probably increase?

bluedisk

226 posts

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#1793241 1-Jun-2017 17:00

frankv:

You say that like you think it's a bad thing!

Actually, I don't think technology is taking over our lives. It is adding to our lives, allowing us choices we didn't have before. From my point of view, doing away with unskilled jobs is a good thing. I don't want a monotonous repetitive job that requires no thinking. Do you? Do you think anyone actually does?

Doing away with unskilled jobs is great if you have other options, but I suspect that many who are doing montonous repetitive jobs are not in a position to pay for upskilling/ retraining.

Life is a daring adventure or nothing at all...

bluedisk

226 posts

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#1793254 1-Jun-2017 17:09

frankv:

Are you saying that what happened to BA was because they were connected to the Internet? Because, from what little I know of it, that's complete BS.

I work in an industry where we also have an expectation of 24/7 availability, and consequently have "massively engineered multi- backed up computer systems". We have had a complete failure too. Turned out to be a misconfiguration by a person, which meant our duplicated systems actually all relied on a single device, which failed. Another aspect of this is that (like BA apparently) we hadn't ever actually tried turning off each of our devices to see if it was really configured properly. Poor planning, by people.

My comment is more about how much we completely rely on everything being connected all the time not only to the internet but also using software. Too much reliance on technology is a bad thing, even though most aircraft can basically fly themselves, you still need to have have humans taking over when things go pear shaped.

Life is a daring adventure or nothing at all...

BlinkyBill

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#1793268 1-Jun-2017 17:30

When they can implement driverless clapped out Nissan Bluebirds, lowered, with 'sports' exhaust and doof doof sound system, then I'll be interested.

But some challenges can't be solved with technology. So no driverless cars in Hamilton.

tdgeek

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#1793269 1-Jun-2017 17:32

Im in favour. @robjg63 's Youtube clip is a very good watch.

In short, a self drive car is driven by an excellent driver. Imagine if in your town, every driver was a great driver. As to danger situations, you would expect the code to make the car make the best decision for safety of pedestrians and cyclists. All it can do is brake and swerve, what a human would do. It will do that better. And it wont be speeding either. It has eyes everywhere, so as well as reacting faster, it will identify a risk sooner. I dint follow the issue with lower quality roads in NZ. If my car can be used on poor quality road, the self drive can too.

The only problem I see is pranksters. Painting signs, standing by lights at night and having green discs on sticks to fool the car and see what happens, that type of thing. So, I would want redundancy, via signage being part of the GPS feed.

Its hard to see many negatives IMHO, its just a far far better driver than all of us as it has eyes in the back of its head and its using all these eyes all the time.

Computer failure? At worst it would lose control of the wheel and accelerator, and glide to a stop, probably hitting something or someone. That happens now if a driver has a medical event.

tdgeek

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#1793272 1-Jun-2017 17:35

bluedisk:

frankv:

Are you saying that what happened to BA was because they were connected to the Internet? Because, from what little I know of it, that's complete BS.

I work in an industry where we also have an expectation of 24/7 availability, and consequently have "massively engineered multi- backed up computer systems". We have had a complete failure too. Turned out to be a misconfiguration by a person, which meant our duplicated systems actually all relied on a single device, which failed. Another aspect of this is that (like BA apparently) we hadn't ever actually tried turning off each of our devices to see if it was really configured properly. Poor planning, by people.

My comment is more about how much we completely rely on everything being connected all the time not only to the internet but also using software. Too much reliance on technology is a bad thing, even though most aircraft can basically fly themselves, you still need to have have humans taking over when things go pear shaped.

Self drive would no doubt include the mandatory driver in the seat. Say the car had 3 computer boxes. 2 powered by seperate batteries, charged by solar. One is borked, the other takes over. I feel there are a lot of ways that negative issues can be overcome.

frankv

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#1793274 1-Jun-2017 17:47

bluedisk:

frankv:

You say that like you think it's a bad thing!

Actually, I don't think technology is taking over our lives. It is adding to our lives, allowing us choices we didn't have before. From my point of view, doing away with unskilled jobs is a good thing. I don't want a monotonous repetitive job that requires no thinking. Do you? Do you think anyone actually does?

Doing away with unskilled jobs is great if you have other options, but I suspect that many who are doing montonous repetitive jobs are not in a position to pay for upskilling/ retraining.

In the end, the cost of retraining displaced workers needs to be included as a cost of replacing workers. Either that, or the cost of supporting out of work workers.

afe66

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#1793296 1-Jun-2017 19:46

"What self driving car see" NYT

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/25/automobiles/wheels/lidar-self-driving-cars.html?_r=0

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