This pretty much sums up my take on it, but it's definitely not an intuitive viewpoint to say that letting an known-imperfect version out in public saves more lives than waiting for a better one....
In a 2017 study for Rand Corp., researchers Nidhi Kalra and David Groves assessed 500 different what-if scenarios for the development of the technology. In most, the cost of waiting for almost-perfect driverless cars, compared with accepting ones that are only slightly safer than humans, was measured in tens of thousands of lives. “People who are waiting for this to be nearly perfect should appreciate that that’s not without costs,” says Kalra, a robotics expert who’s testified before Congress on driverless-car policy.
[...]
Over time, the machine works out its own rules for interpreting what it sees. The more experiences they have, the smarter these machines get. That’s part of the problem, Kalra argues, with keeping autonomous cars in a lab until they’re perfect. If we really wanted to maximize total lives saved, she says, we might even put autonomous cars on the road while they’re still more dangerous than humans, to speed up their education.
This pretty much sums up my take on it, but it's definitely not an intuitive viewpoint to say that letting an known-imperfect version out in public saves more lives than waiting for a better one.
I think the real philosophical and ethical point of interest (which the article only touched on very briefly) centres on control, or at least the illusion thereof. If you explained the numbers in a vacuum, I think most people would take the safer-but-imperfect machine over driving for themselves - but as the relatively widespread fear of flying shows, the visceral and intuitive reaction is the opposite. People will feel more comfortable with the statistically higher chance of dying because they are controlling the vehicle and thus it "surely can't happen to them", and it's deeply uncomfortable to cede that control even if the actual risk falls dramatically by doing so.
This guy must be a hit at parties. edit edit: disregard, that comment was born out of ignorance. my bad
[Qazi's] Twitter handle, @tesla_truth, is a bottomless font of Muskolatry. Before we met in August, he’d emailed Musk to give him a heads-up and encourage him to speak with me.
[...]
He pressed a button on his phone, and his car pulled out of its spot. Qazi watched it cross the parking lot and roll toward him. “It’s not useful—yet,” he said, grinning. But he loves showing off this trick so much he’s been known to linger in a parking lot, waiting for an audience.
This guy must be a hit at parties.
edit: also, do people not realize that Teslas still need maintenance and upkeep like a regular car? I see so many people hopeful for the price to go down because they molehills on their current vehicle turned into mountains and they think Teslas don't do that.
edit edit: disregard, that comment was born out of ignorance. my bad
I didn't notice anything about maintenance in the article, but my understanding is that modern electric cars do require substantially less than their internal combustion equivalents? The nature of...
I didn't notice anything about maintenance in the article, but my understanding is that modern electric cars do require substantially less than their internal combustion equivalents? The nature of the technology means far fewer fluids, moving parts, and general points of failure.
If you look at the top ten things that go wrong with cars, they're all because of internal combustion engines. Tesla's and electric cars are way less maintenance, to the point where their...
If you look at the top ten things that go wrong with cars, they're all because of internal combustion engines. Tesla's and electric cars are way less maintenance, to the point where their widespread adoption is going to kill the auto mechanic industry.
Teslas do not need "regular maintenance and upkeep like regular cars." There are no oil changes, regular service intervals, or anything like that. Tires need to be rotated and brakes still need to...
Teslas do not need "regular maintenance and upkeep like regular cars." There are no oil changes, regular service intervals, or anything like that. Tires need to be rotated and brakes still need to be checked but there is no recommended maintenance on the vehicle except minor things like air cabin filter and wiper fluid.
Brake wear is greatly reduced and the manual states brake pads will last between 2 and 5 times as long on compared to a regular vehicle. They recommend checking them every 2 years.
They require maintenance, but far less than most ICE cars. Almost all systems in a modern car under the hood exist to keep a very tempermental machine that tries to turn hundreds of powerful...
They require maintenance, but far less than most ICE cars. Almost all systems in a modern car under the hood exist to keep a very tempermental machine that tries to turn hundreds of powerful explosions per second into useful energy happy. The transmission, cooling system, oil system, fuel system, and the ECU that keep it all working together consist of dozens of pumps, lines, sensors, valves, seals, and other mechanisms to keep the engine running in the speed and at the temperature at which it is most happy.
By comparison, electrical motors are far more rugged and far less temperamental. They'll happily run well at any speed you want, they don't generate nearly as much heat, they have far fewer moving parts, and they don't explode. The tradeoff of course is that you have lithium ion batteries to worry about, which are fairly finicky compared to a simple gas tank, but you still come out far, far ahead as far as maintenance needs go.
This pretty much sums up my take on it, but it's definitely not an intuitive viewpoint to say that letting an known-imperfect version out in public saves more lives than waiting for a better one.
I think the real philosophical and ethical point of interest (which the article only touched on very briefly) centres on control, or at least the illusion thereof. If you explained the numbers in a vacuum, I think most people would take the safer-but-imperfect machine over driving for themselves - but as the relatively widespread fear of flying shows, the visceral and intuitive reaction is the opposite. People will feel more comfortable with the statistically higher chance of dying because they are controlling the vehicle and thus it "surely can't happen to them", and it's deeply uncomfortable to cede that control even if the actual risk falls dramatically by doing so.
This guy must be a hit at parties.
edit: also, do people not realize that Teslas still need maintenance and upkeep like a regular car? I see so many people hopeful for the price to go down because they molehills on their current vehicle turned into mountains and they think Teslas don't do that.edit edit: disregard, that comment was born out of ignorance. my bad
I didn't notice anything about maintenance in the article, but my understanding is that modern electric cars do require substantially less than their internal combustion equivalents? The nature of the technology means far fewer fluids, moving parts, and general points of failure.
If you look at the top ten things that go wrong with cars, they're all because of internal combustion engines. Tesla's and electric cars are way less maintenance, to the point where their widespread adoption is going to kill the auto mechanic industry.
Teslas do not need "regular maintenance and upkeep like regular cars." There are no oil changes, regular service intervals, or anything like that. Tires need to be rotated and brakes still need to be checked but there is no recommended maintenance on the vehicle except minor things like air cabin filter and wiper fluid.
Brake wear is greatly reduced and the manual states brake pads will last between 2 and 5 times as long on compared to a regular vehicle. They recommend checking them every 2 years.
Source: Own one.
Yeah sorry, that was an ignorant comment on my part. Sorry!
They require maintenance, but far less than most ICE cars. Almost all systems in a modern car under the hood exist to keep a very tempermental machine that tries to turn hundreds of powerful explosions per second into useful energy happy. The transmission, cooling system, oil system, fuel system, and the ECU that keep it all working together consist of dozens of pumps, lines, sensors, valves, seals, and other mechanisms to keep the engine running in the speed and at the temperature at which it is most happy.
By comparison, electrical motors are far more rugged and far less temperamental. They'll happily run well at any speed you want, they don't generate nearly as much heat, they have far fewer moving parts, and they don't explode. The tradeoff of course is that you have lithium ion batteries to worry about, which are fairly finicky compared to a simple gas tank, but you still come out far, far ahead as far as maintenance needs go.
This is true for a lot of life saving innovations... medical trials for example.