I will admit that I haven’t done a deep dive on other sources of data, but I feel like we can’t have a belly laugh over the tobacco companies telling us how safe their product is and then just accept that the official Waymo blog is perhaps, just possibly, taking a more rosy view of their product. This is, after all, the company that can’t figure out why their cars are blowing past stopped school buses with flashing lights and extended stop arms. (https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/Pages/HWY26FH007.aspx)
Waymo has work to do in that arena for sure, but human drivers blow past school buses with alarming frequency. When the worst happens, there is no big corporation to sue, either, just ruined lives in many families. And insurance rates that are levied on individuals and that continually rise. Personally, dropping car maintenance and insurance from my budget would be a relief.
I'm not a Waymo fangirl at all. I'm purely Waymo curious. I do think a Waymo type future is inevitable. I don't think we are there yet.
Agreed, but most busses now have cameras that catch these drivers and, at least here, the sheriff dept hunts them down and the fines are significant. My argument, though, is that we have no idea how safe these vehicles are at this point because the data has all been self collected. Jeff’s thesis is “unions would rather you die” and is based on self collected data in a few environments and situations.
I’m also not some Luddite. I’ve worked in tech for 40 years and still believe that it is, overall, a benefit. But these companies always exaggerate the benefits and massively downplay the costs of their products.
One wonders how many of the outlets and people pushing this line of thought are the same people who, back in the early 2020s, also pushed the line that taking any kind of factor other than "lives immediately saved" into account when dealing with COVID meant that you hated Grandma, the immunocompromised, and puppies.
There is one big difference between the two but I'm not sure how it affects Jeff's thesis, which is this is also a productivity thing. If a person doesn't have to drive a car to move materials from one place to another, he can do something else that is productive, so banning Waymos means you're eliminating additional potential productivity. But if you ban tobacco products, the only real effect will be people not being able to enjoy Laramie's Hi-Tar cigarettes, which are bursting with sweet Carolina smoke flavor.
I hadn't thought of it this way (which is why YOU'RE the content creator with the emphasis on "creative"!), and you might find some of the opposition to noncombusted nicotine products to be similarly anti-autonomous vehicle-ish.
For some additional context, this FP column from last year (after my client, Juul Labs, received FDA marketing authorization for their original product) from Joe Nocera might be of interest.
I will admit that I haven’t done a deep dive on other sources of data, but I feel like we can’t have a belly laugh over the tobacco companies telling us how safe their product is and then just accept that the official Waymo blog is perhaps, just possibly, taking a more rosy view of their product. This is, after all, the company that can’t figure out why their cars are blowing past stopped school buses with flashing lights and extended stop arms. (https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/Pages/HWY26FH007.aspx)
Waymo has work to do in that arena for sure, but human drivers blow past school buses with alarming frequency. When the worst happens, there is no big corporation to sue, either, just ruined lives in many families. And insurance rates that are levied on individuals and that continually rise. Personally, dropping car maintenance and insurance from my budget would be a relief.
I'm not a Waymo fangirl at all. I'm purely Waymo curious. I do think a Waymo type future is inevitable. I don't think we are there yet.
Agreed, but most busses now have cameras that catch these drivers and, at least here, the sheriff dept hunts them down and the fines are significant. My argument, though, is that we have no idea how safe these vehicles are at this point because the data has all been self collected. Jeff’s thesis is “unions would rather you die” and is based on self collected data in a few environments and situations.
I’m also not some Luddite. I’ve worked in tech for 40 years and still believe that it is, overall, a benefit. But these companies always exaggerate the benefits and massively downplay the costs of their products.
All good arguments for stronger public transportation infrastructure.
I love watching very old movies where everyone smokes. They even had ashtrays in hospitals.....
One wonders how many of the outlets and people pushing this line of thought are the same people who, back in the early 2020s, also pushed the line that taking any kind of factor other than "lives immediately saved" into account when dealing with COVID meant that you hated Grandma, the immunocompromised, and puppies.
There is one big difference between the two but I'm not sure how it affects Jeff's thesis, which is this is also a productivity thing. If a person doesn't have to drive a car to move materials from one place to another, he can do something else that is productive, so banning Waymos means you're eliminating additional potential productivity. But if you ban tobacco products, the only real effect will be people not being able to enjoy Laramie's Hi-Tar cigarettes, which are bursting with sweet Carolina smoke flavor.
I hadn't thought of it this way (which is why YOU'RE the content creator with the emphasis on "creative"!), and you might find some of the opposition to noncombusted nicotine products to be similarly anti-autonomous vehicle-ish.
For some additional context, this FP column from last year (after my client, Juul Labs, received FDA marketing authorization for their original product) from Joe Nocera might be of interest.
https://www.thefp.com/p/time-to-clear-the-air-on-juul