The Last Ditch by Tom Paine

THE LAST DITCH

That Google Robot Car

Published by Tom

on

Google Robot Car: The Future of Cruise Control, Convoys, Car-Sharing – The Daily Beast.

Forget politics for a while. This is the best news ever. Google has developed a way to get all those tedious people who don't like driving off the road. Or at least into the passenger seat where they belong. I have long thought that driving is only a suitable activity for people who truly love it. Those who say that it's "just a matter of getting from A to B" don't get it and should never be allowed to block the path of those of us for whom it is a liberating, life-affirming activity.

When most cars on the road are driven by Google algorithms, will the rest of us be able to add something to our Google account (for a modest fee) that will make them respond to a flash of our headlights by moving back into the losers' lane to let us pass? Or if that doesn't appeal, just imagine being able to take a taxi without having the driver give you a distilled version of this morning's Daily Mail and Sun editorials.

Oh but wait; how will journalists find out what "the little people" think (or MI6 discover weapons of mass destruction in potential invasion targets) without taxi drivers? Perhaps Google can build in that functionality?

3 responses to “That Google Robot Car”

  1. Suboptimal Planet Avatar
    Suboptimal Planet

    I saw that story over at The Register, and was thrilled.
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/10/10/google_self_driving_cars/
    Flying cars would be nice, but robocars are possible with today’s technology (and on dedicated roads, possible for some time now).
    Some history here:
    http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/robotcars.html
    I wonder if we’d have seen them already if roads and towns had been planned and managed by the private sector?

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  2. Andrew Duffin Avatar
    Andrew Duffin

    Why is anyone thrilled?
    You just know, don’t you, that these things will proceed at a stately 35 mph or so (15 in built-up areas), and will be hedged about with so much Elf n’ Safety that “thrill” is the very last word you’ll be using.
    All it is, in fact, is a distant sight of the day when you won’t be allowed to drive at all; and given Moore’s law etc, that day will rush up on us.
    Enjoy Vittoria while you can, Tom.

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  3. Tom Paine Avatar
    Tom Paine

    I plan to, Andrew. When she is wrested from me, however, I expect it to be by cod-Green politicians, not technical innovators. Who cares if Googlebot cars obey the speed limits? So do the drivers of old Rovers in the West Midlands, but Googlebots will not (unless their algorithms are more human than I would expect) choose to do it in the outside lane of the M6 in order to express their envy.

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Tom is a retired international lawyer. He was a partner in a City of London law firm and spent almost twenty years abroad serving clients from all over the world.

Returning to London on retirement in 2011, he was dismayed to discover how much liberty had been lost in the UK while he was away.

He’s a classical liberal (libertarian, if you must) who, like his illustrious namesake, considers that

“…government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.”

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