A driverless car in San Francisco drove right into wet concrete and got stuck after seemingly mistaking it for a regular road: 'It ain't got a brain'
www.businessinsider.com
The site had been marked off with construction cones and workers stood with flags at each end of the block, according to city officials.

A driverless car in San Francisco drove right into wet concrete and got stuck after seemingly mistaking it for a regular road: ‘It ain’t got a brain’ / The site had been marked off with constructio…::The site had been marked off with construction cones and workers stood with flags at each end of the block, according to city officials.

  • P03 Locke@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    63·
    1 year ago

    The fire department in SF has made it very clear that these cars are a PITA for them. They are actively driving through emergency situations, cannot follow verbal instructions, drive over fire hoses, etc.

    Yeah, this is one of the biggest points, IMO. If a human did this, the fire department would immediately arrest or fine them. When a so-called “driverless” car does this, who the hell can they arrest?

    But I don’t think that’s what’s happening here, and I don’t think they are. American cities are a fucking disaster of planning. They are genuinely shameful, forcing their inhabitants to rely on cars, an excessively wasteful mode of transportation, all in a climate crisis. Instead of coming together to work on this problem, we’re begging our technological overlords to solve them for us, with an added drawback of privatizing our public infrastructure.

    This whole idea that we’re going to completely transform large, already-established cities, covered in literally trillons of dollars of infrastructure over the course of over a century, into some sort of carless, pedestrian utopia is so hopeless unrealistic that inserting it into a discussion about real problems happening today is actively sabotaging the rest of the good points you have in your argument.

    • theluddite@lemmy.mlEnglish
      5·
      1 year ago

      I assume we’re both living in the US? I didn’t say anything about an unrealistic pedestrian utopia. I said we should improve city planning and invest in public infrastructure instead or relying exclusively on tech companies to solve our total lack of willpower and imagination in building our physical spaces. The state of American infrastructure is absolutely pathetic.

      • P03 Locke@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        14·
        1 year ago

        I said we should improve city planning and invest in public infrastructure instead or relying exclusively on tech companies to solve our total lack of willpower and imagination in building our physical spaces.

        We invest a shitload in public infrastructure. How the hell do you think we got all of these roads?

        And we have quite a bit of willpower and imagination to build the craziest, most fucked up intersections that will still expand our cities.

        • Magnergy@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          And we have quite a bit of willpower and imagination to build the craziest, most fucked up intersections that will still expand our cities.

          Not just crazy. But glorious and transcendent too. Driving through the enormous multi freeway intersections near Dallas feels like a space age cathedral. Vaults to the heavens, arcs and sweeping forms surround you.

          I imagine future archeologists digging it up and wondering about the religion that built it.

    • Jagger2097@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      1 year ago

      Another major point people miss is that once you leave the city it’s all edge cases. Roads don’t have lane markings and non vehicle traffic is more common. Tech companies constantly miss these areas because you build for what you know. The US isn’t all SoCal and Texas

      • P03 Locke@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        41·
        1 year ago

        Hell, once you go deep into the city, it’s a bunch of edge cases. Old, large cities with weird, complicated intersections and 5-10 signs next to it to explain the rules on how it works. Expansion is messy, and not all roads are perfect grids with stoplights and 4-way traffic.