Steer clear

I’m not sure I understand the urge to introduce ‘driverless’ cars, unless at some point the idea is to do away with the driving test. I reckon they are just another component in the automated hell of the ‘metaverse’ or the ‘internet of all things’ where our lives will be serviced and controlled by remote computers in the hands of a small elite of multi-billionaires. Is this a desirable objective? The consequences were well portrayed over 50 years ago in 2001: A Space Odyssey where the spaceship’s computer HAL gets a bit too big for its boots (and has to be booted down so to speak) and even earlier in E.M. Forster’s The Machine Stops which might provide a prescient glimpse into the future of our over-dependence on machines. We are only in the nursery stage of being turned into fully functioning infants though, as a piece in The Intercept (link below) reveals. It reports yet another crash caused by a malfunctioning Tesla car on autopilot, whilst the vehicle was driving through the San Francisco Bay Bridge. Thankfully nobody was killed, but several were injured. CCTV footage shows the car making its own choices and coming to a stop in the tunnel-like structure. With several cars piling into it, others were able to dodge the pile-up, drive around and continue on their way. That says something about human nature. As yet there isn’t an autopilot that says ‘Stop! Get out and help!’​

https://theintercept.com/2023/01/10/tesla-crash-footage-autopilot/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=The%20Intercept%20Newsletter