Driverless cars are often called autonomous vehicles – but driving isn’t an autonomous activity. It’s a co-operative social activity, in which part of the job of whoever’s behind the wheel is to communicate with others on the road. Whether on foot, on my bike or in a car, I engage in a lot of hand gestures – mostly meaning ‘wait!’ or ‘go ahead!’ – when I’m out and about, and look for others’ signals. San Francisco Airport has signs telling people to make eye contact before they cross the street outside the terminals. There’s no one in a driverless car to make eye contact with, to see you wave or hear you shout or signal back. The cars do use their turn signals – but they don’t always turn when they signal.
“In the Shadow of Silicon Valley” by Rebecca Solnit
Quotes
No driver, no fines
Driverless cars have been documented running red lights, blocking emergency responders and swerving into construction zones.
Driverless cars immune from traffic tickets in California under current laws
[…] When driverless cars break the rules of the road, there’s not much law enforcement can do. In California, traffic tickets can be written only if there is an actual driver in the car.
Kiwibots win fans at UC Berkeley as they deliver fast food at slow speeds
The Kiwibots do not figure out their own routes.
Instead, people in Colombia […] plot “waypoints” for the bots to follow, sending them instructions every five to 10 seconds on where to go.As with other offshoring arrangements, the labor savings are huge. The Colombia workers, who can each handle up to three robots, make less than $2 an hour, which is above the local minimum wage.
Kiwibots win fans at UC Berkeley as they deliver fast food at slow speed
Hal was built to suffer. He is a medical training robot […]. No longer must nurses train on lifeless mannequins. Hal can shed tears, bleed, and urinate.
In three incidents, humans intentionally attacked a self-driving car, such as by hitting it, or climbing on top of it.
Waymo […] routinely encounters pedestrians who deliberately try to “prank” its cars, continually stepping in front of them, moving away and then stepping back in front of them, to impede their progress.
Does he have a favourite robot? “I actually do. 64117. There’s a kind of leaderboard system that tracks each drive unit [a droid in Amazon lingo, Ed.], and I follow them all. 64117 has travelled only 164 metres the whole time it’s been here. It’s the laziest drive we’ve got. It’s got the work/life balance worked out.”
Ishiguro believes that since we’re hardwired to interact with and place our faith in humans, the more humanlike we can make a robot appear, the more open we’ll be to sharing our lives with it.
People do enjoy the social interaction with the robot, but it turns out what they enjoy most is not having to have a social interaction with another person at a time when they’re not feeling sociable
It seems the tough streets of Philadelphia were too much for a friendly little robot from Ontario. All the Hitchbot wanted to do was see the United States. But just two weeks after starting its cross-country journey in Boston, Hitchbot’s trip has come to an unfortunate end. Last night, the cute little robot was vandalized and apparently decapitated in the city of brotherly love.