More than a few times I have said a silent thank you to my step-father. He was a very opinionated person more likely to snarl at you because he knew you were smart than if he thought you were stupid. If he knew you were smart, and you did something he thought of as stupid, clearly you weren't paying attention to the task at hand, at least, not at the level he believed you could and should.
Driving was a case in point. When I had my learner's permit, he suggested I take him for a drive so he could see how I was doing. Driving along, suddenly, he reached up and turned the rear-view mirror so that I couldn't see behind me and simultaneously asked me to describe the car that was following us - how close it was and so forth. Luckily, I had just checked, figuring he might do such a thing. I passed his test, but his comment was that I didn't check my mirrors often enough and I must always know what was going on all around my car while I was in charge of it. "One never knows when an emergency will come up - the car in front might suddenly stop and you will need to know that you have room to swerve. You won't have time to check in that moment, so you have to always know that you are clear to manoeuvre."
What brought this back to my mind, you ask? I have been reading a book by Hannah Fry called "Hello World: Being Human in the Age of Algorithms". In her chapter "Cars", she describes a not-so-distant future where cars can drive themselves - mostly. In this future, the driver will give over control to the car for long periods of time. The car will mostly be capable of decision-making. However, if the situation becomes overwhelming, or too complex, the car will sound a signal for the human driver to take over. I can imagine the horrified look on the face of the driver as they realize that the situation is out of hand - a scary way to end one's life.
My step-father would be appalled at the very idea of this situation. He didn't even like automatic transmissions, power steering, or power brakes because they would make one less attentive to driving. And because he would have been appalled by a self-driving car, and he taught me about attentiveness and preparedness, the idea appalls me too.
You can be sure the self-driving feature won't be something I will use when it becomes standard equipment on all automobiles. I don't want the ghost of my step-father to haunt me!
I'm sorry your step-father was difficult but on this subject I agree with him. Autonomous driving has not arrived yet and its deficiencies have already killed people. What we need is MORE attention on the roads, not less. Distracted driving from cellphones has been a plague.
ReplyDeleteWell, as I said, I thank him often. This attention to detail is now just part of how I think about everything. Sadly, we cannot instil this in others. There are so many bad habits seen on the roads that it isn't possible to list them.
DeleteIt seems that everything now is being dumbed-down. I know my step-father would agree.
Hi Deanna,
ReplyDeleteFuture more or less Driverless cars from my perspective ( except in controlled areas such a specialized mining etc ) are about as likely as the astronauts are of relinquishing control of their spacecraft. Nasser tried this and the astronauts rebelled and sent back the specs for the auto pilot to be under the operative’s control and not the other way around. The who idea of a sensible AI protocol is in a nutshell; - technology must be seen as the slave and not the master. The inventor/ programmer needs to make product available in my view where the operatives are in control with technology always subject to human checks and balances. That’s if we are to make any progress and not flounder on under the illusion we are achieving productivity gains because we aren’t. The amount of errors and re work is increasing exponentially as the worlds productivity is at all time low or virtually non-existent. That will only be compounded if we go down the road (no pun intended) of the driverless cars. Trouble is too many smart people lack wisdom and uncommon sense.
Best wishes.
Hullo Lindsay,
DeleteI fully expect the experience of driving to become quite unnerving in the next two decades. Since autonomous vehicles will not likely stay back what is now seen as a decent distance we shall be seeing the 'bonnet' right on our tail. As well, the sight of either no driver behind the wheel, or a person sleeping, reading or watching a video will be equally unnerving.
As far as common sense is concerned it is, indeed, most uncommon these days!
Hope you are doing well.
that's meant to be common uncommon sense.
ReplyDelete