I don't ride in robotaxis. Period. I don't care who makes them. The more you know about the failure modes, the more they should scare the hell out of you. The companies endlessly quote statistics claiming they are safer than human drivers, using the classic techniques described in Darrell Huff's "How to Lie with Statistics" -- first printed in 1954, still in print, and still a classic.
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"99% of the people who don't get injured in robotaxis don't get injured!"
@lauren I don't ride in robotaxis because I live across the street from a light rail station.
@lauren The argument I get all the time is that "Human drivers are the real problem, because they aren't paying attention, and do stupid things."
Uh, nope. Not even once.
And how is an AI ever going to be prepared for when that human driver does something stupid? It can't even *see* the problem, let alone anticipate it and avoid it.
And who pays when it's an AI vs. AI crash?
@lauren Hell, I feel uncomfortable in any car I don't drive myself. Quite ironic, as I've never owned one myself all my adult life and have possibly driven less than 20k miles in the last 40 years (drove 100k in an ambulance at 20 y/o though).
they are not programmed to avoid collisions with bicycles and pedestrians because adding those capabilities would be too much bother for the manufacturers.
and still, post-human politicians approve them. because, not being human anymore, they see human death as 'fresh meat!'
@lauren haha the last survey I did on Prolific was for likely Waymo or Tesla.
I had a problem getting temporarily suspended on there for seeing through the ad-speak and giving actual opinions, not necessarily the "tell us why you agree with our false premise" bs they wanted me to say.
My responses about robotaxi type services were extremely hostile to the grift of it being safe, and a luxury good marketed to poor disabled people.
@lauren if it is in a traffic accident, who gets a disabled person out of the vehicle when the locks are engaged and there are no door handles?
That's just the first fail-state concern off the top of my head, and that was before all the reports of stopping on train tracks, catching on fire, running over animals, driving on sidewalks, running off embankments, etc.
@lauren
It's secure for trains, but today they are forcing the things
@lauren
That begs the question who actually does take that ride.
@jerrej Most people don't have a clue of how actual technology risks work. Actually, most people are terrible at calculating risk of any kind. This is obvious throughout society. The Big Tech Billionaires are pushing the tech as part of their overall fascist plans with Trump. Always remember that photo of them all standing there with smiling Trump! All you really need to know about them.
I've always had a pleasant experience in Waymo taxies. And I actually feel safer in them than in some of the other rides I've taken over the years.
@kylo Good luck with that.
@lauren even if they were safe they're transfering ownership of your means of travel to a faceless corpo. with a regular taxi there's a goddamn human driving, whom you can talk to face to face, and that's a lot more important than it might seem
@matildalove @lauren
Also the company can remotely lock the doors and deliver you to the police, or anyone else.
I recommend "How to Lie with Statistics".
There are lies, dammed lies, statistics and US Corporate PRs.
