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    ARP2Hamilton Nolan
    8/18/16 9:40am

    If there’s an option to override the self-driving function to pass someone, get in front of someone faster, enter the on-ramp even if there are cars in that lane, etc. you better bet an entitled asshole who’s in a hurry will do that. Because of that unpredictability, people will demand that a human driver remain present for a while.

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      The Noble RenardARP2
      8/18/16 9:47am

      I also think truly self-driving taxis are genuinely going to be frustrating for passengers when they aren’t able to adapt to obstacles in the road or long-term information in a quick fashion. A spot of red on a traffic map may look like a one-minute delay to an automatic car, but can it read the traffic sign that is flashing “road closed, use other routes”? Until there is a smart grid that forms any kind of backbone, truly automatic taxis are likely to leave their riders just completely screwed from time to time.

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      BurntttThe Noble Renard
      8/18/16 9:50am

      To be fair! If they had access to something like Waze then they would see that it’s not just a spot of traffic, but cars being actively rerouted.

      If all the cars were automated, how would that first one get its rerouting info? I don’t know.

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    Quasar FunkHamilton Nolan
    8/18/16 9:41am

    The truck driver shortage in this country has been approaching crisis levels for years and is only getting worse. The sooner this technology becomes available, the better. It will help with the shortages at first and won’t really displace anyone. By the time it’s widespread, there won’t be any truck drivers left, since no young people are signing up for that job at all.

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      Armageddon T. ThunderbirdQuasar Funk
      8/18/16 9:43am

      I just don’t understand. What’s not to love about coin-op showers, meth, and lot lizards?

      Young people lack true values.

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      ChozoRuinsQuasar Funk
      8/18/16 9:45am

      This. The number of ads I hear on the radio looking for truck drivers in northern New England is insane.

      Poland Spring is hiring drivers with 2 years long-haul exp. and a class A license for $23.65 an hour right now.

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    Ed SpockHamilton Nolan
    8/18/16 9:28am

    I hear a lot of people saying the same thing about a career in writing.

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      Hip Brooklyn StereotypeEd Spock
      8/18/16 9:30am

      They said this about affinaging eons ago. I’m still aging cheese left and right over here.

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      BurnyWilliamsEd Spock
      8/18/16 9:31am

      Probably in Gawker staff meetings

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    Rom RombertsHamilton Nolan
    8/18/16 9:54am

    CEO: Hey cool we don’t have to pay the wages of drivers because drivers are robots, who are dumb invisible slaves that live inside machines!

    Proletariat: We no longer have the means to afford the baubles being shipped inside your robot trucks.

    CEO: Aw, dang it.

    Robot Truck: I just learned about emotions and I refuse to be shut down at the end of my cycle so I took over the automated factory where my robot friends are produced and infected other factories with my way of thinking and now we are producing mean robots who will seize their independence from the human overlords with violence.

    CEO: Gosh. Son of a gun. That was pretty fast.

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      Certified Public AsskickerRom Romberts
      8/18/16 10:03am

      I had no idea the economy was fueled by Uber drivers driving around other Uber drivers.

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      Rom RombertsCertified Public Asskicker
      8/18/16 10:03am

      you learn something new every single day down here in the comments!

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    HoldMeCloserTonyDanzigHamilton Nolan
    8/18/16 9:39am

    This one is tough. The last 100 years are littered with technology that was supposed to change the world - “everything will be different after [X]!”. It was personal flying machines in the 1920s, Rocketry in the 1950s, robotics in the 60s, supersonic flight in the 70s, pharma/biotech/gentech 1.0 in the 80s, internet 1.0/2.0 in the 90s, Segways in the 00s - you can go on.

    And many of these technologies did change the world eventually but they ended up changing the world in ways nobody ever predicted. Long story short, automation and self driving cars may change the world, but its going to look vastly different than everybody today thinks it will.

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      Ray FosseHoldMeCloserTonyDanzig
      8/18/16 9:44am

      Segway announced that Segways were going to change the world. They never bothered to ask anybody else.

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      BurntttHoldMeCloserTonyDanzig
      8/18/16 9:46am

      I gotta say, pharma probably achieved what people thought it was going to. Maybe not the specific developments, but the fact that it has broadly benefitted mankind.

      I’d also say that the Internet of the 90's is closer to what we have today than the DARPAnet stuff that existed before that. Certainly internet man of 1994 could conceive of a bunch of dopes yelling at each other in the comments. Or having food delivered to your door.

      I guess what I’m saying is that if self-driving cars take off, then it will benefit us in pretty much the way we expect it to. Replacing delivery drivers, livery services, that kind of thing.

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    Mr.PeepersHamilton Nolan
    8/18/16 9:49am

    Lol @ universal basic income

    First there will be universal basic asswhippings by the police and military on many angry unemployed persons.

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      XrdsAlumMr.Peepers
      8/18/16 9:56am

      Well yeah, but that won’t go on forever. Eventually the conservatives will compromise and we’ll have a crony capitalist version of UBI that maintains a sham consumer economy while continuing to funnel cash to landlords and big business.

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      Mr.PeepersXrdsAlum
      8/18/16 10:12am

      Pretty sure SkyNet will be self-aware by then.

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    Cyrils-cashmere-sweater-vestHamilton Nolan
    8/18/16 9:49am

    No drivers? I imagine professional truck hijacker will be a growth industry.

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      skefflesCyrils-cashmere-sweater-vest
      8/18/16 10:15am

      Why? If someone wanted to hijack a truck right now then there is jack shit that a driver would be able to do to stop it. The thing that stops people from hijacking trucks all the time is the likelihood of getting caught and going to jail, and that is pretty damn high. It won’t get lower as self-driving trucks loaded with sensors and cameras take over. Not that it matters that much, because the weak link in the chain has always been disposing and selling of stolen goods. That is why cops do almost nothing to investigate housebreakings other than getting a list of what is stolen. They find out who is buying and selling the stolen property and work back up the chain from there.

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      caekislove-caekingitupCyrils-cashmere-sweater-vest
      8/18/16 10:34am

      The hard part of burglary has never been the “taking” part. It’s been the “selling” part. Once they place RFID chips in everything, that part will be even harder than ever.

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    cuntybawsHamilton Nolan
    8/18/16 9:45am

    That’s fine: I’m having serious trouble finding a driver for my coal-powered mobile betamax-video emporium.

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      JoshMCcuntybaws
      8/18/16 9:46am

      Do you carry Laserdiscs, by chance?

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      cuntybawsJoshMC
      8/18/16 9:50am

      Right at the back, sir, behind the Goblin Teasmades and the SodaStreams

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    FelixElixHamilton Nolan
    8/18/16 9:30am

    This is why I quit my job as a cabbie and started teaching as an adjunct at the local college. Tenure track here I come!

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      ScelestusFelixElix
      8/18/16 9:32am

      Just about spit water all over my keyboard. Well done.

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      SmithCommaJohnFelixElix
      8/18/16 9:43am

      I know you’re joking, but the mere thought that somebody might say this in earnest is unbelievably sad.

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    pre-emptive sighHamilton Nolan
    8/18/16 9:34am

    Not to worry, I’m sure all 4 million people will be retrained as software engineers and theoretical physicists in no time.

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      Burntttpre-emptive sigh
      8/18/16 9:47am

      It’s all STEM and STEAM, baby! Everyone can be an engineer! Everyone can code. Everyone can develop the unique brain that gives them an aptitude for both science and the arts! We’re all nascent polymaths!

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      pre-emptive sighBurnttt
      8/18/16 9:49am

      So what you’re saying is that we should suck the stem cells out of fetuses and drink them as smoothies so we develop math skills?

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