It's a Hokey Name, but I'm Applauding Nonetheless

This is pretty astonishing — fully autonomous, functioning vehicles running around and taking people places.

Why yes, it does look like a golf cart. That's the beauty of it, see? Who would be afraid of a cute little golf cart?

This thing was actually pretty amazing—it was driving all over the place, among bicyclists and pedestrians. Click on the pic, however, for a very frightened giant lightbulb. (Actually, there is video of a bunch driverless vehicles.)

It all worked out, though.

Why did they have to call them CyberCars? Apparently it's short for "cybernetic." If you say so.

Here's an article from Time, an interview with a guy who's saying just what this blog wants to hear:

The traveling public seems to be warming up to a driverless future. At a recent two-week-long test drive in Antibes, more than 3,000 people were able to take free rides in a CyberCar. Although some passengers might at first be nervous about cruising around town in a machine with no living navigator, Parent says, "in the end they will trust our technology." This gives new meaning to the term designated driver.

TIME Europe Magazine: Look Ma, No Hands -- Dec. 06, 2004

Oh WORD... This is EXACTLY the Droid I've Been Looking For.

The geeks at Smart Mobs point to a post by another geek, Roland Piquepaille: Will Our Cars Become Our Chauffeurs?

Both are in response to this article:

Self-Navigating Vehicle

NOW we're talking.

First thing I note: they use a different term for essentially the ONLY concept this here blog has to offer (people shouldn't drive) than the ones I've used, such as Robotic Car or Robotic Taxi.

Their term is Self-navigating Vehicle.

It doesn't connote confrontation between people and robots; rather than "No steering wheel for you!", it suggests something like "Look how convenient this would be!"

Maybe that's the right approach to take, I'm not sure.

Anyway, it's a great article, and addresses what I see as the main issue:

The technology is inevitable, what isn't inevitable is popular acceptance of the concept.

You Just Have to Laugh...

So look.

Drinking and driving sucks.

A lot.

That said, in this particular case, no one was hurt.

But there was... a lot of damage. A lot, a lot, of damage.

Of the most... hysterically surreal variety. I'm not going to attempt to describe it to you. Just... go.

So what woke me up today at 3:38 am? Why, a Civic of course... outside my window.

And when you get done laughing, try considering the fact that the guy who did this probably has a serious drinking problem. Hopefully this will cure him of it.

But also try thinking of the fact that drinking and driving are only related problems because we allow them to be.

Driving sucks, and we need to learn how to eliminate it -- it kills more people than terrorism. And the first step to eliminating it is to begin imagining how we can create a world without driving. Not a world without cars, necessarily -- a world without driving.

Setting your Clock back can Kill You

The most dangerous day of the year?

According to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, the road casualty rate - which sets accidents against miles driven - peaks each year in November.

RoSPA blames the increase on the clocks going back at the end of British Summer Time - and it says scrapping this changeover would mean 450 fewer deaths and serious injuries from road accidents.

See, this is dumb.

Time changes are a useful convenience. The mindset here is "well, we have to make our lives worse so that we can drive more safely."

The mindset we need is "we should figure out a way to stop driving so we can live like civilized people."

Driving sucks.

Epilepsy and Driving

Epilepsy Causes Few Fatal Car Accidents

"The total number of deaths due to alcohol-related fatal crashes is 6.6 times greater than the number of fatal crashes associated with medical conditions and 156 times greater [than] those associated with seizures," say the researchers.

Young drivers aged 16-24 were at the wheel in 24% of all fatal driver crashes.

"The overwhelming majority of fatal crashes are associated with alcohol abuse and other crash risk factors, such as driver error and driving conditions," say the researchers.

One might be inclined to suppose that a medical condition like epilepsy would significantly increase a driver's chances of being involved in a fatal car accident, but one would be incorrect.

This is just further evidence for the single thesis of this blog: the reason that driving kills so many people is that humans can't do it safely. It's not a matter of cutting back alcoholism, or trying to prevent the tiny percentage of epileptic drivers from driving.

It's a matter of getting people to stop controlling their cars, and having machines take over: we should demand that research into robotic vehicles be greatly increased, and that politicians and goverment officials consider this situation for what it is: a daily war on innocent people.

That, and that alone, will prevent the lion's share of deaths due to traffic accidents. Until then, every day means more needless deaths.

Drink-driving.

I just learned that they call it "drink-driving" in Britain.

Also, this post is an official announcement that I intend to post soon.

Emotions + Driving = Bad Mix

We are emotional creatures, and our emotions extend to our actions and reactions behind the wheel. Emotions are irrational things; sometimes, there is nothing we can do to control them.

In the article Fatal Traffic Accidents Rise After Terrorism, we see a lot of theorizing about just why the rate of traffic accidents consistently spikes three days after terror attacks in Israel.

Think about the tone of this article: it asks why three days? What is the exact cause?

But that's not the most important question.

This phenomenon exists, and it's killing people. (In societies that are already suffering terribly.)

The important question is what are we going to do to prevent it?

Emotions are part of our nature: they're what make us human. But the place of emotion is within human relationships (emotion really only exists in human interactions), not driving a deadly vehicle.

We need to respect our emotions. We need to respect each other. We need start thinking about how to stop humans from driving.