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Fantasy/sci-fi novels are there to caution us. I suppose '1984' was just 'phantasy?'

George Orwell wrote it as a warning.

The 737 MAX MCAS system was meant to automate flying. It instead automated crashing.
 
Fantasy/sci-fi novels are there to caution us. I suppose '1984' was just 'phantasy?'

George Orwell wrote it as a warning.

The 737 MAX MCAS system was meant to automate flying. It instead automated crashing.
A warning not based on reality. Again: the Boeing Software - as bad an idea as it was - had absolutely nothing to do with AI. Zero. So your whole argument is void
 
A warning not based on reality. Again: the Boeing Software - as bad an idea as it was - had absolutely nothing to do with AI. Zero. So your whole argument is void
An over-reliance on technology with no person-in-the-loop is not a "void argument". Especially to an engineer.
 
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The more I think about this… Ask yourself when has NHTSA ever removed a safety standard on a vehicle? They have only added them. The idea that they will now remove a mandatory steering wheel and pedals and by 2025? Yeah that’s not happening even if it has an autonomous driving system. I can 100% guarantee NHTSA will require manual controls consisting of a steering wheel and pedals that deactivate the autonomous system the second they are touched. Not much different then mandating cruise control be deactivated the second you touch the brake.
 
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An over-reliance on technology with no person-in-the-loop is not a "void argument". Especially to an engineer.
LOVE the quote! The Plato among tech arguments so far ;-)
But shouldn't the word "not" be left out?

Btw, all car AI related discussions on this forum show us that there is so much more ingenuity and contemplating going on, which is not confined to the inside-the-car-box thinking done at Apple. Sites and media like MacRumors should make use of that! Since most writers employed by them are stuck in just rehashing/summing up old notions and industry narratives...

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More likely if something went wrong the car would just auto pull over and call Roadside Assistance. That's the only way I can figure they'd allow something like this to exist. Kinda like how limp mode (the half-engine light) works on most cars today whenever the drive-by-wire throttle malfunctions.

Even power steering today is more a drive by wire system since if you lose the electronic assist you can barely strong-arm it over. There's another light for that as well, a steering wheel with exclamation point light.

A lot of cars today are drive-by-wire, and a computer pretty much takes inputs as commands. the pedals are just potentiometers. No cables anymore. Even golf carts, much as I despise having to work on those. I am a mechanic, not an electronic engineer.
 
A couple of years ago, Toyota presented this apple-green concept with outer airbags. Sleek enough to maneuver autonomously through dense traffic without risking pedestrians' lives like Tesla Model X would. https://www.motoroids.com/news/toky...oda-gosei-flesby-is-a-large-airbag-on-wheels/

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That is a good concept. I mean - it's ugly - but just the idea of it.

Transcend the notion of "automobile" and instead focus on "transportation"

How many big cars and SUV's have one person on board? Why is that?

It could make sense to make an extremely conspicuous, autonomous, one-passenger vehicle. It could go places larger vehicles might not be allowed as well, like near pedestrian sidewalks etc. Variations could be produced for carrying Pizza or UberEats deliveries.

Small, autonomous and pedestrian friendly. It's a valid starting point maybe.
 
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You know, maybe AI powered cars would take off if they had some sense of style, as Knight Rider did:

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AI powered car that speaks in the voice of William Daniels? sign me up!

Instead we'd likely get Demolition Man level results:

 
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That is freakin’ ugly.

Thats part of my issue with electric and even some hybrid car designs—they don’t look futuristically cool, just dorky and ugly.

That's the quintessence of it all:
1. carmakers are in the business of selling cars, not providing personal mobility,
noticing the many issues that haven't been solved (gridlock for instance)
2. the average car is maybe used 95% of the time
3. the car's average occupancy 1.2 person
4. still, cars have become bigger over the last two decades again
5. the bigger the car, the more difficult to maneuver autonomously
6. the bigger the car, the more kWh it requires

Is the challenge therefore to come up with a smaller vehicle that lends itself to self-driving and that's not uncool? Below: sleek maglevs in the SF film Minority Report.

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since 20 years ago, I've always joked about if apple did a car, it wouldn't have reverse, as Steve job's Apple is known for limiting its product "in favor of the simplicity" what gives, sometimes, too extreme decisions and limitations. (one click mouse is cool but forces you to work always with a finger near to CTRL, Fn keys love-hate relationship, lack of hardware "as OS is optimized" ahem…, ports, ETC

but removing steer wheel is going to far, I mean, google maps is far more precise than Apple maps and it makes too many mistakes

-"turn left here"
-yeah sure, against that wall!!!

I would never, never, never get up on a car without steer wheel. no matter how advanced the future will, never trust on a "cheap" machine 100% (aren't we talking here about the 1M USD navigation system of Boeing isn't it? no, CHEAP navigation system of 100K USD cars, in a jungle of enemies, at least Boeing is a spoiled brat in a playground compared with driving in town.
 
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The push toward autonomous cars strikes me as something they want to solve as opposed to something that needs to be solved. The old adage just because something can be done doesn’t mean it should be done.

They are presently trying to sell us a future of electric autonomous vehicles where in many cases the vehicles are shared rather than owned by individuals.

Presently electric vehicles, on average, are expensive—too expensive for the average buyer without government subsidies. The infrastructure still has a long way to go to support vehicles with limited driving range compared to gas powered cars. A big elephant in the room everyone is ignoring is what to do with expensive batteries when they need to be replaced.

Hardly anyone really wants a self-driving car. We like having control of where we’re going and the idea of surrendering control and entrusting our lives to imperfect technology is a hard sell.

Shared vehicles are a form of public transit and few people really like public transit. Public transit is something people endure unless they can afford the alternative of private transportation. At present the idea of shared autonomous vehicles is to limit or eliminate our choices.
 
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I remember the old joke about Microsoft Windows in a car, but then we got SYNC a few years later and it became a reality, every bit as buggy as foretold! Frozen nav screens, menus coming up with the wrong options, the radio never turning off, etc. YouTuber MercMilan2006 had a ton of videos titled 'Ford Focus Frustrations' that made me chuckle. I won't own a modern vehicle anytime soon if ever. Closest I get is my 2006 RidgeLine or my 2005 Saturn ION. Again, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Limiting and elimination of our choices has become a reality everywhere else as well. Smartphones, laptops etc have been removing features since 2014. Even Android is going more towards an iOS closed route after Android 12. Also, people have become so used to everything being subscription based that they won't know anything happens until it's too late. It's become so gradual it's the 'boiling frog effect' all over again. I am probably the last person left who has his entire music collection stored on his phone, among videos and pretty much everything else. Oh well, when everyone around me is yelling about how they got no signal and can't enjoy their music, I'll be immune.
 
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I don’t stream music—I have it on my devices (three devices actually). I don’t stream television and movies—I have DVDs and BluRay discs.
We are an endangered species for sure!

I never trusted 'the cloud' either. Sadly that's where OSs are going whether I protest it or not. Companies these days don't seem to care what people like me think. We're too outdated to be worth caring about.
 
This is all very well and good, but when you also have human drivers on the same road, you have an unsolvable problem. Still to this day computers have an extremely hard time predicting what humans may or may not do.

Thanks, but I'll stick with my 1998 Landrover Defender TDi 300. That's a vehicle that runs on diesel with no electronics whatsoever. Hackers are welcome to try and hack into it...
 
We are an endangered species for sure!

I never trusted 'the cloud' either. Sadly that's where OSs are going whether I protest it or not. Companies these days don't seem to care what people like me think. We're too outdated to be worth caring about.
It’s control. Subscription and cloud based services are a way of exercising control over content and information.
 
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This is all very well and good, but when you also have human drivers on the same road, you have an unsolvable problem. Still to this day computers have an extremely hard time predicting what humans may or may not do.

Thanks, but I'll stick with my 1998 Landrover Defender TDi 300. That's a vehicle that runs on diesel with no electronics whatsoever. Hackers are welcome to try and hack into it...
There's another thing I miss. non-computerized Diesels. Those things ran forever and were cleaner than gas! You could lose the alternator and keep going, fully mechanical injection. No ignition system or carburetor either. Simple! Now there's such a thing as 'diesel exhaust' fluid and it's really just cat urine. Not sure what it's supposed to accomplish other than de-rate your ambulance on the way to the hospital!

it’s control. Subscription and cloud based services are a way of exercising control over content and information.

Something the World Economic Forum has been wanting since 2010. Sadly it makes me not want to live to see 2030. 'the masses' are all for it and we all know that the lowest common denominator is all companies/corps care about these days.
 
It’s control. Subscription and cloud based services are a way of exercising control over content and information.

Apple Music isn't controlling what I listen to, it is in fact 'learning' what I like and is then playing more of it. I have yet to be told I need to listen to Joe Rogan podcasts...
 
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