Category Archives: Driver-less cars

Just Finished Mowing the Front Yard

Posted in A Little About me, Driver-less cars, Elections, experience, Lawyers and Representation, Politcal Opinion, Robots by

I know. You could care less. However, have you not heard the saying, Laziness is the mother of invention? I know. Not accurate. Same thing only different.

I look at these kids with these R/C cars running them up and down the street at breakneck speeds while the kid operating the $40 toy car stands in one place.

I look at it and I shake my head. Why can’t I do that with my lawn mower? I mean, all that is missing is the R/C, right. Then I can sit under my porch on an elevated seat in the shade. Without even working up a small sweat, I can watch as my modern day mower makes short work of shortening my grass.

My first consideration is my doctor. He wants to make sure I get some good exercise once a week. [Now that is almost an oxymoron. How can exercise be good?]

On the other hand, it might be a conspiracy of the lawyers. It’s something of a disorganized thing. The word might already be spread that the lawyers will all be ready to jump on that lawsuit after the first accident. It ought to be worth a few thousand, even if the manufacturer is not at fault. I mean, the manufacturer will need a well-paid lawyer to explain why the machine is not at fault whilst the other is paid big bucks to prove it is.

So, while laziness might encourage invention, it provides no competition to the discouragement of the legal system.

It does cause me a little curiosity of how much more advanced civilization would be without the legal anchor we must drag behind us.

Do you suppose I could mount my own R/C on a mower. Sitting on my porch in the shade with a Diet Coke while the mower gets the exercise my doctor insist I have would be good, right?

Now I ask you, who else do you know who can write a humorous, interesting post about mowing lawns? This while arguing that our society has too many laws and lawyers.

I Like It

Posted in Abuse of Power, Crazy Nuts, Customer complaints, Driver-less cars, Elections by

It seems some truckers have decided to put the sqeeze on NY, NY. Can you imagine as many as 1/4 of the truckers refusing to deliver to NY, NY. It’s not that much of a stretch. I’ve talked to several drivers that refuse to make deliveries there anyway. The place is just not designed for 18 wheelers.

Regardless, it would seem that that NY, NY judge made a decision that has set the drivers off. When it was decided that Trump owes 350 million, several drivers chose to reply in a way they will likely be heard loud and clear, coast to coast.

Let’s make an assumption. Let’s say there is a large disruption and all those world class restaurants start having probems getting supplies. All those international clothing stores don’t have anything to sell. Suddenly, they go to the mayor and councilmen. Then, there begins the clamering from that guy in that 5th ave. apartment in the clouds.

They all say, do something fast or find another job. Now, of course, this is the interesting part. The mayor, in theory can’t do much. It’s the crazy nuts judge that brought down his little hammer and said guilty.

As far as I know, he’s the only one in the immediate future that might be able to reverse the decision. Actually, that might not be possible. I suppose it depends on the law. Then again, the judge might simply refuse. I did say that the judge is crazy nuts.

I simply have no idea what happens after that, maybe an emergency pardon. Your guess is likely better than mine.

Well, there is one more outlandish thing, that is if they can get enough driver-less trucks.

My Prophecy Has Come True

Posted in Driver-less cars, Lawyers and Representation, Politcal Opinion by

I am not a prophet but sometimes I can foretell the future. It doesn’t take a special ability from above, just a little observation and reasoning.

My prediction was a simple one. Self-driving cars will not be successful for decades, if not longer. My reasoning was and is very simple. I have no doubt that they will soon have Self-driving cars safer than those driven by humans.

Compared to humans, computers react, effectively instantly. Perhaps, more important, they are not distracted. The nice thing is that the computer controlled car would be able to follow much closer and still be safe.

The hitch has not one thing to do with the cars or computers. It’s the law and the legal system. I saw today that Tesla was sued by a Tesla owner. The driver tried to claim that Tesla was at fault for an accident, but Tesla was found not at fault.

Let’s look at the possibilities. As it turned out, Tesla was out the cost of providing a defense, even though they were not at fault. For one case, that’s not much. When the number of cars increases, then so will the costs of lawyers.

At some point Tesla, and others, will need to buy insurance to pay for settling the thousands of suits. It will have to happen. Every day, I see these Morgan and Morgan commercials. I suspect they are already exploring the possibility of settling the first million dollar law suit.

My guess is, after a few of those, guilty or not, those Self-driving vehicles will become to fade from view.

There are but two things that will allow their return. Either perfect computers and/or a revision of the laws. Regardless, I really believe the revision of our law is in order.

No one group of people has beneted from the tort laws than the lawyers. Considering that it is mostly lawyers that write the laws, I don’t expect any change in the next decade or two.

So, Self-driving cars will have to wait for perfect computers. When that happens, there will be many disappointed lawyers.

Still, there will be accidents. Then, lawyers will converge to get their share of contingency money.

All the Requirements

Posted in Abuse of Power, Biden, Driver-less cars, Dummycrats, Kamala Harris, Lawyers and Representation, Politcal Opinion, Uncategorized by

It would appear that Kamala Harris has all the requirements that Biden was looking for to be his running mate.  She is female, Black, and she is willing to toe the dummycrat line, even if she doesn’t believe in it.

It does bring up the question.  Has she decided to toe the line because it was what she believes or because she wants the job?  The again, maybe someone made her an offer… like the presidency after Biden’s first term.

On the other hand, why wait for him to complete the first term.  It seems to me as if I remember an amendment that allows a president to be removed from office if he is unfit.  Seems to me that they might have tried to use it on the current POTUS.

Considering Biden’s mind, it ought not be difficult to prove him unfit.  Then she can just shuffle into the White House, just as she originally intended.

Either way, she just might be thinking ahead.  Everyone knows it is easier for a current present to be reelected.  It would certainly give her a leg up in 2024.  Her primary would very likely go much smoother.

I don’t have any inside track on the matter.  Just, so to speak, thinking aloud.  Still, if Biden were to be elected, it might be nice to see how things unfold once he takes the oath of office.  Meanwhile, during the time between when he takes office and when she takes over, it would give a new meaning to a driver-less car.

A Few Words About Self-Driving Cars

Posted in Alcoholism, Computers, Customer complaints, Driver-less cars, Important things, Lawyers and Representation, New Cars, Politcal Opinion, Uncategorized by

I am sure there is much to be said about this subject, but let me start with the obvious.  I would suspect there are hundreds, maybe thousands of lawyers that are salivating at the prospect of taking some big company to court over an accident piloted by a computer.

First, there is the possibility of suing the car manufacturer.  Then they might sue the company that built the computer, or one of the sensors.  Then there is the software company or person who wrote the programming of the computer.  Then again, why discriminate.  They can sue all of them and let the jurors sort it out.

Each time they level a lawsuit, it means 40% of something they would be able to put in their pocket.  My guess is, few if any of the suits would go to court.  The defendants would not want to set any kind of precedent, so they would likely settle out of court.  They would admit no guilt and the plaintiffs would agree to drop the suit.

It would mean, after an accident, the lawyer would raise his hand and say “Suit,” and the defendants would ask how much.  Then, the nation would have two more instant millionaires,  The lawyer and his client.

Then again, I’m not sure.  It might be four more millionaires.  It is entirely plausible that the parties from both cars might sue to to get a piece of the pie.  On the other hand, what if there are more than two cars involved.  The little glitch in the software just might cause a ten car pileup.  I don’t want to even think about that.

The point is, the lawsuits are no longer limited to the tens of thousands of dollars that an individual driver can cough up.  We are talking megabucks now, millions of dollars over what we now call a fender-bender.  Every dent is a possible lawsuit.

It is all ironic.  Eventually, the driver-less cars will be safer than those driven by humans.  It is quite possible that the computer just might reduce crashes and deaths on the highway.  The computers, after all, have three advantages over humans.

Computers are not distracted.  That little instant that a man takes his eyes off the road to look at that barely dressed woman will no longer be a problem.  That misbehaving child in the back seat will not keep you from seeing that car pull out in front of you.  Moreover, should you nod off from staring at that endless ribbon of highway, it’s no problem.  The robot has it all in control.

It takes us humans about 1/4 of a second to react to an emergency.  From the time we see some child dart out in front of us to the time we put our foot on the brake, it takes at least two tenths of a second.  On the other hand, the computer would apply the brake in millionths of a second.  Even at thirty miles an hour, a car can travel quite a distance in a quarter of a second.

It has often been asked, what if the computer fails.  What if a component goes bad.  Today’s computers are incredibly reliable and will likely become far more reliable in the future.  On the other hand, we humans can and do fail from time to time.  I have known of many accidents that were the result of someone pressing on the throttle instead of the brake.  Then too, there are a few of us that are old.  If a heart goes out while we are driving, it can cause people to die… besides the heart attack victim.  Besides, even young people can have heart attacks, or black out from other ailments.

In the long run, computers will be far more reliable, though I would still be hesitant to put my life in the hands of one.

However, until something is done with the legal aspects, autonomous cars will continue to be the exception rather than the rule.  It means that women will not be able to put their makeup on at seventy mph and men will have to ignore that good-looking woman walking by.  As usual, it will be the lawyers that will impede the progress.  Even when it makes the roads safer, the driver-less cars are going to have to wait.  There is no way that our legal system will be able to handle it.  Our courts will be so backed up that they won’t be able to deal with the less important things… such as rape, robbery and murder.

Besides the legal problems, there are the recalls.  One accident, and it would likely result in the recall of millions of autos.  Talk about a nightmare.

Then again, there is one thing that I am really looking forward to… keeping all those alcoholics from driving.  That in itself would save uncountable lives, pain and suffering.  The problem is, as long as lawyers make the laws, driver-less autos will remain quite rare.