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Thread: House "fast tracks" and green lights self driving car legislation, and preempts states

  1. #1

    Exclamation House "fast tracks" and green lights self driving car legislation, and preempts states

    This we can get.

    Fast track, green light, unanimous support, bypassing existing rules, full speed ahead.

    Can't get a tax cut.

    Can't get ObamaCare repeal.

    Can't get a waiver from air bag fatwas to disable the Takata brand claymore mine inches from yours, and millions of other Mundane's, faces.

    Nothing else in government moves this fast.

    But the self driving cars...like whale $#@! through an ice floe.

    Does anybody care why, or finds this, if nothing else, strange?



    House to vote on self-driving car legislation next week

    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-us...-idUSKCN1BB2BT

    David Shepardson 31 Aug 2017

    (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives will vote Wednesday on a sweeping proposal to speed the deployment of self-driving cars without human controls and bar states from blocking autonomous vehicles, congressional aides said.

    The bill, which was passed unanimously by a House panel in July, would allow automakers to obtain exemptions to deploy up to 25,000 vehicles without meeting existing auto safety standards in the first year, a cap that would rise to 100,000 vehicles annually over three years.

    Automakers and technology companies including General Motors Co and Alphabet Inc’s’ self-driving unit Waymo have been pushing for new federal rules making it easier to deploy self-driving technology. Meanwhile, some consumer groups have sought additional safeguards.

    The bill will be voted under fast-track rules that do not allow for amendments. A bipartisan group of U.S. senators has been working on similar legislation but has not introduced a bill.

    “Self-driving vehicles stand to make our transportation system safer and more efficient. Advancing this technology to road-ready requires government policy that encourages continued testing and development,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Republican, said in a statement. “This formula is the foundation for what makes America the most innovative country in the world.”

    The Alliance of Automobile Manufacters, a trade group, said in a statement that “Congress can bring a host of benefits to Americans by helping to bring self-driving vehicles to our roads as quickly as possible.”

    Republicans Representatives Greg Walden and Robert Latta said in a joint statement the “vote will pave the way for the safe testing, development, and deployment of self-driving cars across the U.S.”

    The issue has taken on new urgency since U.S. road deaths rose 7.7 percent in 2015, the highest annual jump since 1966.

    (Road blocks, blood draws, insane mad mothers, militarized cops hut hutting about everywhere, safety fatwa upon safety fatwa...and it still is not enough. Nope. You are too stupid to drive anymore, and we're going to take the human element out of it all together. Oh, you;ll be under total surveillance, but you'll be safe. And Mrs. AF gives me a hard time when I say the AmeriKunt people hate freedom and do not want it.- AF)

    Automakers and technology companies believe chances are good that Congress will approve legislation before year end. Current federal rules bar self-driving cars without human controls on U.S. roads and automakers think proposed state rules in California are too restrictive.

    The measure, the first significant federal legislation aimed at speeding self-driving cars to market, would require automakers to submit safety assessment reports to regulators, but would not require pre-market approval of advanced vehicle technologies.

    Initially, authors proposed to allow automakers and others to sell up to 100,000 vehicles immediately. Representative Frank Pallone, a Democrat, said the phase-in period was essential so “millions of exempted cars will not hit our roads all at once.”

    Manufacturers must demonstrate self-driving cars winning exemptions are at least as safe as existing vehicles.

    Under the House proposal, states could still set rules on registration, licensing, liability, insurance and safety inspections, but could not set self-driving car performance standards.

    Consumer advocates have sought more changes, including giving the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration quicker access to crash data and more funding to oversee self-driving cars.
    Another mark of a tyrant is that he likes foreigners better than citizens, and lives with them and invites them to his table; for the one are enemies, but the Others enter into no rivalry with him. - Aristotle's Politics Book 5 Part 11



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  3. #2
    Unsafe cars on the roads while it is considered too dangerous for us to talk on the phone or not wear a safety belt?

  4. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Anti Federalist View Post
    Manufacturers must demonstrate self-driving cars winning exemptions are at least as safe as existing vehicles.
    Idiot. The more automated a car, the less "safe" its going to be, but any car can only ever be as safe as it's driver (or circuits).

    They've made a straw man to startle the public, and their friends have enough time to buy shares and directorates. This is just more Congressional cynicism.

  5. #4
    The whole House.

    Not a single dissenting vote.

    Nobody.

    Not even on the grounds of federal overreach in pre-empting states from writing their own rules.

    Not. A. Single. Nay. Vote.



    House unanimously approves sweeping self-driving car measure

    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-au...-idUSKCN1BH2B2

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House on Wednesday unanimously approved a sweeping proposal to speed the deployment of self-driving cars without human controls and bar states from blocking autonomous vehicles.

    The bill now goes to the Senate and would allow automakers to obtain exemptions to deploy up to 25,000 vehicles without meeting existing auto safety standards in the first year, a cap that would rise to 100,000 vehicles annually over three years.

    Automakers and technology companies, including General Motors Co and Alphabet Inc‘s self-driving unit Waymo, have been pushing for new federal rules making it easier to deploy self-driving technology.

  6. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Anti Federalist View Post
    The whole House.

    Not a single dissenting vote.

    Nobody.

    Not even on the grounds of federal overreach in pre-empting states from writing their own rules.

    Not. A. Single. Nay. Vote.



    House unanimously approves sweeping self-driving car measure

    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-au...-idUSKCN1BH2B2

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House on Wednesday unanimously approved a sweeping proposal to speed the deployment of self-driving cars without human controls and bar states from blocking autonomous vehicles.

    The bill now goes to the Senate and would allow automakers to obtain exemptions to deploy up to 25,000 vehicles without meeting existing auto safety standards in the first year, a cap that would rise to 100,000 vehicles annually over three years.

    Automakers and technology companies, including General Motors Co and Alphabet Inc‘s self-driving unit Waymo, have been pushing for new federal rules making it easier to deploy self-driving technology.
    Now that's a CAN DO Congress right there. Who says they can't get anything done?

  7. #6
    Fewer regulations? Good

  8. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by r3volution 3.0 View Post
    Fewer regulations? Good
    Yup, less regulations and roadblocks to putting the entire private transportation system under the control and watchful, benevolent eyes of the surveillance state.

    Huzzah!

  9. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by phill4paul View Post
    Now that's a CAN DO Congress right there. Who says they can't get anything done?
    That's what I'm talking!

    Where's @TheTexan at?

    I'm sure he'd be proud.



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  11. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by r3volution 3.0 View Post
    Fewer regulations? Good
    Hold the phone...it just occurred to me that you might be serious.

    Do you really think that the entire house unanimously voted for this because they have seen the light and in a spirit of bi-partisan liberty, decided to remove regulatory burdens hindering honest advancement?

  12. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Anti Federalist View Post
    Hold the phone...it just occurred to me that you might be serious.

    Do you really think that the entire house unanimously voted for this because they have seen the light and in a spirit of bi-partisan liberty, decided to remove regulatory burdens hindering honest advancement?

  13. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Anti Federalist View Post
    Do you really think that the entire house unanimously voted for this because they have seen the light and in a spirit of bi-partisan liberty, decided to remove regulatory burdens hindering honest advancement?
    I said nothing about their motives. I said if the bill removes regulations (which it apparently does), that's good.

    As to why they did it, I presume it was a result of lobbying by the driverless car manufacturers.

  14. #12
    This shouldnt come as a surprise - self driving cars is an easy win:

    -it'll become much easier to play candy crush during the drive to work
    -the $6 uber rides for a drive down a few blocks will get a lot cheaper
    -we can fit even more people in cities as wont need as much parking
    -improved safety except when cars accidentally run into things
    -improved quality of life for traffic cops
    -great for the economy assuming you don't drive a vehicle for a living
    -with all the people unemployed maybe we can finally get the UBI we've always wanted
    Last edited by TheTexan; 09-06-2017 at 07:15 PM.
    It's all about taking action and not being lazy. So you do the work, whether it's fitness or whatever. It's about getting up, motivating yourself and just doing it.
    - Kim Kardashian

    Donald Trump / Crenshaw 2024!!!!

    My pronouns are he/him/his

  15. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Anti Federalist View Post
    Yup, less regulations and roadblocks to putting the entire private transportation system under the control and watchful, benevolent eyes of the surveillance state.

    Huzzah!
    The government already tracks every move of people with a modern cell phone. Only those who refuse to upgrade their phones aren't being tracked - and those are precisely the type of person that should be tracked.
    It's all about taking action and not being lazy. So you do the work, whether it's fitness or whatever. It's about getting up, motivating yourself and just doing it.
    - Kim Kardashian

    Donald Trump / Crenshaw 2024!!!!

    My pronouns are he/him/his

  16. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Anti Federalist View Post
    The whole House.

    Not a single dissenting vote.

    Nobody.

    Not even on the grounds of federal overreach in pre-empting states from writing their own rules.

    Not. A. Single. Nay. Vote.


    Don't need a weather man to know which way the wind blows

  17. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by TheTexan View Post
    This shouldnt come as a surprise - self driving cars is an easy win:

    -it'll become much easier to play candy crush during the drive to work
    -the $6 uber rides for a drive down a few blocks will get a lot cheaper
    -we can fit even more people in cities as wont need as much parking
    -improved safety except when cars accidentally run into things
    -improved quality of life for traffic cops
    -great for the economy assuming you don't drive a vehicle for a living
    -with all the people unemployed maybe we can finally get the UBI we've always wanted
    So... how to 'switch off'' our guns is the only 'digital' remainder to solve.
    Too bad they're purely a mechanical device.

  18. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by TheTexan View Post
    Only those who refuse to upgrade their phones aren't being tracked...
    ... a good enough reason for me to stick with ol' flippy.

    Don't need a weather man to know which way the wind blows



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  20. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by goldenequity View Post
    So... how to 'switch off'' our guns is the only 'digital' remainder to solve.
    Too bad they're purely a mechanical device.
    They thought they had that covered with Charlottesville, but the open carry crowd never fired. . .

    will they try it in Florida ?

  21. #18

  22. #19
    The Four-Wheeled Patriot Act

    https://www.ericpetersautos.com/2017...comment-669886

    By eric - September 7, 2017

    Whenever Congress does something unanimously (or nearly so) you can rest assured it’s in their interests, not ours.

    The USA Patriot Act comes to mind.

    Another is the Safely Ensuring Lives Future Deployment and Research in Vehicle Evolution Act – aka the SELF DRIVE Act – which was rubber stamped through Congress the other day. This is the law that exempts automated cars from the safety requirements that apply to autonomous cars – that is, the cars which are independent of government control and controlled by us.

    Just as the Patriot Act was written, not to “fight terrorism,” but to make it easier for government to terrorize us, by circumventing or simply ignoring the Bill of Rights.

    Same operating principle behind both.

    There is irony – and malevolence – here.

    Irony, because the same government that endlessly croons about “safety” – when it suits – is willing to back burner safety when it suits. If a car company dared to even suggest that it might be a good idea to install air bag Off switches in new cars (and it would be a very good idea, if safety is a concern, given how dangerous air bags are; not can be, but are) that company would be the focus of great abuse if not threatened prosecution.

    Meanwhile, the SELF DRIVE Act will exempt automated cars from the necessity – under laws that apply to autonomous cars – of having things like steering wheels and brake pedals and other controls by which a human might intervene to save himself in the event the automated car makes a mistake.

    It is presumed automated cars will never make a mistake, that their systems and technology are immune to defects, wear and tear and so forth.

    You know. Like air bags are.

    It’s not very “safe.”

    And yet, it slid through Congress like $#@! through a goose.

    It’s worth noting that no one is suggesting commercial airliners – which already have the ability to fly themselves, including take-off and landing – do so without human pilots standing by to step in just in case. Much less have cockpit controls removed and the now ex-pilots told to go watch a movie back in Coach.

    Why is it acceptable to do exactly that with machines that are more dangerous, en masse, than airliners simply by dint of numbers?

    There are only a few thousand airliners flying on any given day.

    How many millions of cars are out there?

    And the cars – the automated ones of The Future – will not be subject to the strict, FAA-style inspection and maintenance protocols that apply to airliners because it’s simply not feasible (leaving aside the money) to have millions of cars brought into a facility for close examination of all their critical bits and pieces, preemptively replacing many of them according to a specific time/mileage schedule as a necessary precaution against the inevitably increasing risk of a failure based on wear and tear.

    No one mentions this fact.

    Nor the fact that without some way for a human driver to assume control of the automated car when an inevitable failure occurs, whether from wear and tear or a defect or some other reason, the human will be utterly powerless to do anything to save himself.

    And we will have no choice but to get in and hope for the best – because vehicle automation will not be a matter of choice. Stevie Wonder can see what’s coming. Automated car technology will be mandated; the SELF DRIVE Act being the preparatory groundwork. It standardizes things at the federal level; gives the federal regulatory apparat the power to nudge.

    And malevolence?

    Well, there is the obvious malice of exposing people to a known risk, of a piece with air bags; the deliberate thwarting of any way to reduce that risk – as by not allowing the car companies to install air bag Off switches – and by passing a law that will permit manufacturers of automated cars to build them without any controls which could be used to control them, in the event they go haywire.

    Which they will.

    Just like your smartphone or PC. Technology isn’t infallible; things wear out and break down. Exposure to heat and cold, to moisture and potholes jarring the works. What works fine today may not tomorrow – and one day, will not work fine.

    What then?

    But there is another layer of malice, a deeper cut.

    Leaving aside the outright reckless disregard for Our Safety, the SELF DRIVE Act – like the USA Patriot Act – is an outright attack upon ourselves.

    Upon our right to not be herded and tracked like the residents of an ant farm.

    Has anyone stopped to think about the information an automated car would collect – and store and transmit? It would know, for instance, when you go to work each day – and when you come home. Where you stopped along the way – and for how long. The route you took – and whether you took a different route last Thursday.

    It would, in brief, know every last detail about every movement you made that wasn’t made on foot. It will probably know who is in the car, too. There may be audio and video recording. We know this has already happened with smartphones and even “smart” home appliances such as “smart” TVs that listen in to our conversations and transmit them to . . . somewhere.


    The authors and promoters of the SELF DRIVE Act cross their hearts and hope to die that there will privacy “safeguards,” that we have nothing to worry about. Three words ought to throw water on that:

    USA Patriot Act.

    We were assured of its innocuousness as well; no worries! It was all for our – yes – “safety.”

    It is of course too late now, as before.

    The thing got passed hurriedly and with very little media coverage, which might have made a difference and which probably explains the lack of media coverage.

    When something important to them needs to get done, it gets done.

    Perhaps the “Moms” will say something. The ones who marinate in “safety,” who have made it the driving principle of our beaten down, submit and obey American culture. But probably not. Because “safety” has never been the issue, just the window dressing. The excuse to achieve the true objective.

    Which, by now, even Stevie Wonder can see.

  23. #20

  24. #21
    Quote Originally Posted by nikcers View Post
    They won't be drunk or on pills or on their smartphones.
    No they will be "on" Windows 10 etc. (not to mention viruses and hackers).
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  25. #22
    And yet, it slid through Congress like $#@! through a goose.
    ... like so much of their $hitty legislations.


    Don't need a weather man to know which way the wind blows

  26. #23
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    No they will be "on" Windows 10 etc. (not to mention viruses and hackers).
    Let the people that want to drive, drive, let people that want to take pills and drink alcohol, and play on their smart phone do that, but let them have the option of a self driving car. I know I would feel safer with a self driving car driving next to me then a drunk driver.

  27. #24
    Quote Originally Posted by nikcers View Post
    Let the people that want to drive, drive, let people that want to take pills and drink alcohol, and play on their smart phone do that, but let them have the option of a self driving car. I know I would feel safer with a self driving car driving next to me then a drunk driver.
    You are well and truly insane if you think the powers that be are going to allow that.



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  29. #25
    Quote Originally Posted by Anti Federalist View Post
    And the cars – the automated ones of The Future – will not be subject to the strict, FAA-style inspection and maintenance protocols that apply to airliners because it’s simply not feasible (leaving aside the money) to have millions of cars brought into a facility for close examination of all their critical bits and pieces, preemptively replacing many of them according to a specific time/mileage schedule as a necessary precaution against the inevitably increasing risk of a failure based on wear and tear.


    How will we survive?!

    Nor the fact that without some way for a human driver to assume control of the automated car when an inevitable failure occurs, whether from wear and tear or a defect or some other reason, the human will be utterly powerless to do anything to save himself.
    ...except not use driverless cars in the first place, thereby incentivizing producers to install the desired features.

    ...sort of like how there doesn't need to be a regulation requiring bikes to have seats.

    Wait, nevermind, markets don't work, we need regulations...

    Has anyone stopped to think about the information an automated car would collect – and store and transmit? It would know, for instance, when you go to work each day – and when you come home. Where you stopped along the way – and for how long. The route you took – and whether you took a different route last Thursday.
    Well, that has nothing to do with whether the car is driverless or not, but it doesn't matter.

    Robopocalypse is here.

    KILL THE MACHINES!!!

    Last edited by r3volution 3.0; 09-07-2017 at 03:43 PM.

  30. #26
    This belongs here:

    Quote Originally Posted by Brian4Liberty View Post
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  31. #27

    Senate “Bipartisan” Robot Car Bill Threatens Highway Safety, Consumer Watchdog Warns

    http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/news...watchdog-warns

    9/28/2017

    SANTA MONICA, CA – An autonomous vehicles bill introduced today in the U.S. Senate follows the dangerous route chosen by the House of Representatives when it rushed to pass a bill that threatens highway safety and leaves a regulatory void rather than enacting necessary protections and safety standards, Consumer Watchdog warned today.

    The bipartisan American Vision for Safer Transportation Through Advancement of Revolutionary Technologies (AV START) Act introduced today is scheduled to be “marked up” by the Senate Commerce Committee next week.

    “Bipartisanship is worthless when it produces a dangerous bill,” said John M. Simpson, Consumer Watchdog’s Privacy Project Director.

    The AV START Act, would leave a wild west without adequate safety protections for consumers, Consumer Watchdog said. The bill pre-empts any state safety standards, but there are none yet in place at the national level.

    “Pre-empting the states’ ability to fill the void left by federal inaction leaves us at the mercy of manufacturers as they use our public highways as their private laboratories however they wish with no safety protections at all,” said Simpson.

    "The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration needs do its job and Congress should give the agency the money to do it,” said Simpson. “The sad reality is that President Trump hasn’t even bothered to nominate a NHTSA administrator.”

    NHTSA’s latest autonomous vehicle guidance repeatedly reiterates the entirely voluntary nature of any reporting by automakers.

    “In fact, the new NHTSA robot car guidelines don’t require automakers to do anything at all,” said Simpson.

    The Department of Transportation has completely ignored a committee, the Advisory Committee on Automation in Transportation (ACAT) created by the Obama Administration to offer advice on autonomous vehicle policy. It has not met since Trump took office.

    Self-driving car developers claim to worry about a so-called state-by-state patchwork of conflicting safety regulations, that they claim would hamper innovation.

    “That’s nonsense. If NHTSA enacted Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards covering autonomous vehicles they would automatically preempt state safety regulations,” said Simpson. “The Senate bill is nothing more than show-boating that actually puts Consumers at risk.”

    Consumer Watchdog’s has released an in-depth study, “Self-Driving Vehicles: The Threat to Consumers.” Read the report here.


  32. #28
    Quote Originally Posted by Anti Federalist View Post
    The whole House.

    Not a single dissenting vote.

    Nobody.

    Not even on the grounds of federal overreach in pre-empting states from writing their own rules.

    Not. A. Single. Nay. Vote.



    House unanimously approves sweeping self-driving car measure

    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-au...-idUSKCN1BH2B2

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House on Wednesday unanimously approved a sweeping proposal to speed the deployment of self-driving cars without human controls and bar states from blocking autonomous vehicles.

    The bill now goes to the Senate and would allow automakers to obtain exemptions to deploy up to 25,000 vehicles without meeting existing auto safety standards in the first year, a cap that would rise to 100,000 vehicles annually over three years.

    Automakers and technology companies, including General Motors Co and Alphabet Inc‘s self-driving unit Waymo, have been pushing for new federal rules making it easier to deploy self-driving technology.
    You really have to wonder how much cash is behind this.
    Out of every one hundred men they send us, ten should not even be here. Eighty will do nothing but serve as targets for the enemy. Nine are real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, upon them depends our success in battle. But one, ah the one, he is a real warrior, and he will bring the others back from battle alive.

    Duty is the most sublime word in the English language. Do your duty in all things. You can not do more than your duty. You should never wish to do less than your duty.

  33. #29
    Quote Originally Posted by Anti Federalist View Post
    The Four-Wheeled Patriot Act

    https://www.ericpetersautos.com/2017...comment-669886

    By eric - September 7, 2017

    Whenever Congress does something unanimously (or nearly so) you can rest assured it’s in their interests, not ours.

    The USA Patriot Act comes to mind.

    Another is the Safely Ensuring Lives Future Deployment and Research in Vehicle Evolution Act – aka the SELF DRIVE Act – which was rubber stamped through Congress the other day. This is the law that exempts automated cars from the safety requirements that apply to autonomous cars – that is, the cars which are independent of government control and controlled by us.

    Just as the Patriot Act was written, not to “fight terrorism,” but to make it easier for government to terrorize us, by circumventing or simply ignoring the Bill of Rights.

    Same operating principle behind both.

    There is irony – and malevolence – here.

    Irony, because the same government that endlessly croons about “safety” – when it suits – is willing to back burner safety when it suits. If a car company dared to even suggest that it might be a good idea to install air bag Off switches in new cars (and it would be a very good idea, if safety is a concern, given how dangerous air bags are; not can be, but are) that company would be the focus of great abuse if not threatened prosecution.

    Meanwhile, the SELF DRIVE Act will exempt automated cars from the necessity – under laws that apply to autonomous cars – of having things like steering wheels and brake pedals and other controls by which a human might intervene to save himself in the event the automated car makes a mistake.

    It is presumed automated cars will never make a mistake, that their systems and technology are immune to defects, wear and tear and so forth.

    You know. Like air bags are.

    It’s not very “safe.”

    And yet, it slid through Congress like $#@! through a goose.

    It’s worth noting that no one is suggesting commercial airliners – which already have the ability to fly themselves, including take-off and landing – do so without human pilots standing by to step in just in case. Much less have cockpit controls removed and the now ex-pilots told to go watch a movie back in Coach.

    Why is it acceptable to do exactly that with machines that are more dangerous, en masse, than airliners simply by dint of numbers?

    There are only a few thousand airliners flying on any given day.

    How many millions of cars are out there?

    And the cars – the automated ones of The Future – will not be subject to the strict, FAA-style inspection and maintenance protocols that apply to airliners because it’s simply not feasible (leaving aside the money) to have millions of cars brought into a facility for close examination of all their critical bits and pieces, preemptively replacing many of them according to a specific time/mileage schedule as a necessary precaution against the inevitably increasing risk of a failure based on wear and tear.

    No one mentions this fact.

    Nor the fact that without some way for a human driver to assume control of the automated car when an inevitable failure occurs, whether from wear and tear or a defect or some other reason, the human will be utterly powerless to do anything to save himself.

    And we will have no choice but to get in and hope for the best – because vehicle automation will not be a matter of choice. Stevie Wonder can see what’s coming. Automated car technology will be mandated; the SELF DRIVE Act being the preparatory groundwork. It standardizes things at the federal level; gives the federal regulatory apparat the power to nudge.

    And malevolence?

    Well, there is the obvious malice of exposing people to a known risk, of a piece with air bags; the deliberate thwarting of any way to reduce that risk – as by not allowing the car companies to install air bag Off switches – and by passing a law that will permit manufacturers of automated cars to build them without any controls which could be used to control them, in the event they go haywire.

    Which they will.

    Just like your smartphone or PC. Technology isn’t infallible; things wear out and break down. Exposure to heat and cold, to moisture and potholes jarring the works. What works fine today may not tomorrow – and one day, will not work fine.

    What then?

    But there is another layer of malice, a deeper cut.

    Leaving aside the outright reckless disregard for Our Safety, the SELF DRIVE Act – like the USA Patriot Act – is an outright attack upon ourselves.

    Upon our right to not be herded and tracked like the residents of an ant farm.

    Has anyone stopped to think about the information an automated car would collect – and store and transmit? It would know, for instance, when you go to work each day – and when you come home. Where you stopped along the way – and for how long. The route you took – and whether you took a different route last Thursday.

    It would, in brief, know every last detail about every movement you made that wasn’t made on foot. It will probably know who is in the car, too. There may be audio and video recording. We know this has already happened with smartphones and even “smart” home appliances such as “smart” TVs that listen in to our conversations and transmit them to . . . somewhere.


    The authors and promoters of the SELF DRIVE Act cross their hearts and hope to die that there will privacy “safeguards,” that we have nothing to worry about. Three words ought to throw water on that:

    USA Patriot Act.

    We were assured of its innocuousness as well; no worries! It was all for our – yes – “safety.”

    It is of course too late now, as before.

    The thing got passed hurriedly and with very little media coverage, which might have made a difference and which probably explains the lack of media coverage.

    When something important to them needs to get done, it gets done.

    Perhaps the “Moms” will say something. The ones who marinate in “safety,” who have made it the driving principle of our beaten down, submit and obey American culture. But probably not. Because “safety” has never been the issue, just the window dressing. The excuse to achieve the true objective.

    Which, by now, even Stevie Wonder can see.
    It also turns cars into weapons. While commentaries like the one above focus on the safety of the occupants of the automated car, they usually ignore how the cars can be used to "Hastings" the occupant -or- turn an automated car into a weapon to be used against someone operating their own car.
    "Let it not be said that we did nothing."-Ron Paul

    "We have set them on the hobby-horse of an idea about the absorption of individuality by the symbolic unit of COLLECTIVISM. They have never yet and they never will have the sense to reflect that this hobby-horse is a manifest violation of the most important law of nature, which has established from the very creation of the world one unit unlike another and precisely for the purpose of instituting individuality."- A Quote From Some Old Book



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