So there have been self driving cars in my state for a few years now, originally just going about their car lives driving on the road with no one in the car, but now part of a successful rideshare company used by thousands. Users sit in the back as the car drives them to their destination. Talked to people who have done it. Not sure how it compares to Uber or Lyft pricing
Well…while waiting for either these cars to accidentally mow down a group of people, or become self-aware and….choose to mow down a group of people, I had two recent interactions that piqued my interest
The first was on the way to work earlier this week a self-driving car clearly cut me off. I raised my fist in the air like Linda Hamilton from Terminator, ready to go to war on the machines for the micro-aggression. But alas, there was a shitty human being in the driver seat. Some fat balding man in the self-driving car cut me off. Hmm
But then it happened, I saw one of them spaz out. On the way home from my hike this weekend a self-driving car tried to change lanes. But there was some dude zipping by in the lane it was going to change to. So the self-driving car adjusted back to its original lane. And the dude was gone by then, far ahead. So the self-driving car went to change to the empty lane again, but this time it had itself a little robot temper tantrum. It put its signal on and did its original lane change it had tried to do. Then it signaled and changed back for no reason. Then signaled and back again. Then signaled and back again
At this point I was thinking there’s no way that’s a human in there doing that weird shit, so I zipped up to see. Sure enough, no one in the self-driving car. So apparently the programming isn’t infalliable…
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