Here’s my problem with all of the automation the manufacturers are adding to cars. Not even Autopilot level stuff is potentially a problem - things like adaptive cruise come to mind.

If there’s some kind of bug in that adaptive cruise that puts my car into the bumper of the car in front of me before I can stop it, the very first thing the manufacturer is going to say is:

But the responsibility for safe driving, is on the driver…

And how do we know there isn’t some stupid bug? Our car has plenty of other software bugs in the infotainment system; hopefully they were a little more careful with the safety-critical systems…ha ha, I know. Even the bugs in the infotainment are distracting. But what would the manufacturer say if there was a crash resulting from my moment of distraction, caused by the 18th fucking weather alert in 10 minutes for a county 100 miles away, a feature that I can’t fucking disable?

But the responsibility for safe driving, is on the driver…

In other words, “We bear no responsibility!” So, I have to pay for these “features” and the manufacturer will deny any responsibility if one of them fails and causes a crash. It’s always your fault as the driver, no matter what. The company rolls this shit out to us; we have no choice to buy a new car without it any more, and they don’t even trust it enough to stand behind it.

Maybe you’ll get lucky and enough issues will happen that gov’t regulators will look into it (not in the US any more, of course)…but probably not. You’ll be blamed, and you’ll pay higher insurance, and that will be that.

So now I have to worry not only about other drivers and my own driving, but I also have to be alert that the car will do something unexpected as well. Which has happened, when all this “smart” technology has misunderstood a situation, like slamming on the brakes for a car in another lane. I’ve found I hate having to fight my own car.

Obviously, I very much dislike driving our newer car. It’s primarily my wife’s car, and I only drive it once or twice a week, fortunately.

Ever hear the expression, "Hitler made the trains run on time“?

Thing is, he didn’t. But everyone was afraid to report that they weren’t running on time, so officially they always met their schedules.

That’s where this is heading.

Unfortunately my knowledge of running an anonymous website is very limited.

I would like someone to create a website where we can list the enablers. All of them. Make a list. Start with Trump. Add everyone in his cabinet. Add all of his enablers, down to the people that voted for him.

We’re fucked. It’s all over but the fighting.

Until a few months ago, I was a statistician for the US government. 25 years. I’m so fucking glad I’m out, though I’m making far less than I used to, honestly not enough yet. But I’m glad I’m not under his thumb.

Yeah, exactly. So great to be able to say, oh, she’s about 15 minutes away, so I’ll start making dinner. Much easier and safer than texting while driving, too.

We originally set it up so she could make sure I wasn’t laying in a ditch somewhere from a cycling crash.

I had to google it…I think he’s referring to the Burning Man term for “Matter Out of Place”. So I think he’s agreeing with you that this link doesn’t belong in this community.

Now he is pushing for tariffs against Russia. And he finally seems to be figuring out that Putin doesn’t want to stop trying to conquer Ukraine…a point the rest of the world understood immediately…years ago.

The new Ross Perot!

And yes, this is all deeply undemocratic.

Agreed, and it’s worth noting the Republican party has done the same thing to candidates who weren’t far enough to the right.

They settled with the family of that woman that disobeyed a direct lawfully given order from a cop, to the tune of millions of dollars.

So, yes, they absolutely will pay them. In fact, this is a “legal” way for the government to fund them.

Yep. I’m retired now, but before retirement a month or so ago, I was working on a project that relied on several hundred people back in 2020. “Why can’t AI do it?”

The people I worked with are continuing the research and putting it up against the human coders, but…there was definitely an element of “AI can do that, we won’t need people” next time. I sincerely hope management listens to reason. Our decisions would lead to potentially firing people, so I think we were able to push back on the “AI can make all of these decisions”…for now.

The AI people were all in, they were ready to build an interface that told the human what the AI would recommend for each item. Errrm, no, that’s not how an independent test works. We had to reel them back in.

Anyone remember Ross Perot? He created the Tea Party, which eventually took over the Republican party.