There’s a strong sense that engineers and companies working on perfecting the self-driving car don’t care much for driving at all. Thus, it leads to sour perceptions from enthusiasts and those who appreciate cars and driving. Recently, a Waymo engineer seemingly made a joke about the state of the auto industry, but it backfired in all sorts of terrible ways.
Vahid Kazemi, a software engineer on Alphabet’s Waymo autonomous car team, tweeted out a peculiar argument as to why humans shouldn’t drive cars at all. It read:
We can only imagine the engineer was joking, but the out-of-touch reality seems oh so real here with people outside of Silicon Valley. And, frankly, it sounds… spoiled? Privileged? It’s just a very peculiar statement to make in general.
Kazemi deleted the first tweet and then posted a follow-up response where declared “Bad jokes escalate quickly on Twitter. Note to self, only tweet exactly what you mean.” Users pounced on the opportunity for comedy with one user replying: “Get a computer to write better jokes for you.”
Comments
Never tell a joke that is not funny more than once is an old saying. In this case may want to not say it once at all.
I expect nothing less. This very typical out of touch elitism that thinks it’s California or nothing.
So I come here and every day commenters talk about how bad are:
Prius drivers
California drivers
Immigrant drivers
Taxi drivers
Tesla drivers
Etc etc etc
Then, as soon as somebody says “hey driving can be dangerous and some people really aren’t designed to do it” y’all cry foul. Yup, smelly all right… Let me help you with the spelling – H.Y.P.O.C.R.I.S.Y.
Got one name for y’all – Tracy Morgan. I bet he literally can’t wait for autonomous cars and trucks. Same for me. Sorry Tracy for the idiots who don’t get this.
Wasn’t he in some kind of bus accident?
He’s dang lucky he was in a bus, instead of a smaller car or a motorcycle. A truck driver asleep at the wheel on Wally Mart wages killed his BFF and permanently maimed him. Autonomous trucks don’t sleep, and Wally mart wages aren’t the issue with robots. And, if the robot gets it wrong, Morgan can sue the Wallys instead of being sidetracked into having only the driver to sue for staying “awake” for 28 hours.
If he had his seat belt on he would have walked away.
I saw the vehicle and he bounced inside like a ping pong ball,
There will still be accidents if we rely only on technology.
That is why we still have pilots. Even the auto landing system was done away with in the space shuttle because the genius scientist never accounted for a tail wind. The landing gear was set to come out at a specific air speed but the tail wind never let them slow enough and the came within seconds of belly landing.
My neigbor told me of it as he worked in the program and the book Forever Young by Astronaut and shuttle pilot on the flight James Young covers it.
When you make science your god you will lose every time.
So why do they still use automated planes? Why, after problems have been found as you describe, why do they continue to use and develop the technology? Because the overall statistics show quite clearly that human error is randomly repeatable but machine error is designed in and therefore can be found and designed out.
Proof? Radar detectors! Fast drivers learned not to trust their own instincts about police traps and as soon as a machine became available it was very popular and sold very well. The first ones were very poor yet still useful, and as time went on they were developed to very high levels of effectiveness until the mobile internet rendered them less useful than Waze etc.
If you are accustomed to driver assist features like back-up cameras and Lane-Departure/Lane-Change/Blindspot Warning, it can be very jarring to go to a car without those features. There’s not a positive reminder that the feature is missing… until you get into a near-miss situation.
All of these ‘Assists’ are no excuse for getting your head out of your ass. You get behind the wheel and your the captain of the ship and bear the complete responsibility for all actions or lack thereof.
I’m afraid that all of these wonderful assists are creating Zombies behind the wheel and with phones and digital displays we already have a huge problem. Get your head out of the car. Pay attention.
Almost correct> ‘Most Humans are not equipped to drive considerately and efficiently.’
Huge wasters of fuel and equipment(brakes etc) and inconsiderate polluters. All gas and all brakes.
How typical.
I think his tweet is totally reasonable if he rented a camaro and drove in reverse at any time.