In the least shocking development since Los Angeles spontaneously combusted once again, causing hundreds of thousands to be displaced by relentless wind-driven wildfires devastating the region. A self-driving car malfunctioned, leaving its time-strapped passenger attempting to make his flight with no self-troubleshooting go-to options on the fly. Perhaps the software engineers tasked with solving any potential mishaps with the autonomous vehicle, at the very least, need to install a reboot button that is easily accessible for its backseat co-captain. Or possibly an eject button, if the situation is a bit more dire than a driverless car continuously lapping a parking lot like a White House roomba vacuuming the Oval Office would. Even though getting 61% of Americans to agree about anything is nearly impossible these days. It appears the supermajority of the US public is still unlikely when it comes to being a willing passenger of a ghost-riding whip.
Now, if doing unauthorized donuts in a parking lot were the worst-case scenario for those affected by the autonomous vehicle industry. I would say where do I sign up for their fan club. However, that’s not the case at all. In fact, 4.8% of all accidents involving these emotionless cars are fatalities. Despite that and other alarming statistics, there are also the resulting clusterfucks that don’t even get calculated in all the data. Because algorithms don’t consider things like road rage and sleep deprivation suffered by the victims of their own incompetence.
The infamous “They” say that nearly 95% of car accidents are caused by Human error. But if people are only killing ourselves and others at a mere 0.66% clip. I will take that stat any day over the Uber-Bot (*Ubot (TM)) kill rate of 4.8%. I certainly can’t imagine the police are too happy about the possibility of these killing machines ruling the roadways. Especially since their entitled sense of authority doesn’t seem to carry the same weight when no one’s behind the wheel to answer for their violations. The imagery of a cop frustratingly calling tech support like the next of kin in the aftermath of a totaled driverless is maybe just the comic relief needed in our dystopian future. Sadly, tech companies feel the billions they plan to rake in not paying humans to work makes it all worthwhile. Even if it ends up killing potentially 285k people a year if accident rates stay at current levels. This might be the new normal in Elon Musk’s America as long as human error and defective AI technology cohabitate on the roads.
THE-ANTI-SOCIAL-MEDIA 