Image transcript:
White background meme with the text “People want to build a massive connected network of driverless cars to ‘solve’ traffic. Doesn’t that sound a bit like giving SkyNet control of all the nukes?”
There are illustrative images of the proposed “network of driverless cars” as well as a menacing image of a terminator robot and an image from a news report about a deadly crash caused by a self-driving Uber.
I wouldn’t and don’t. I can’t tell at all what some software is thinking so I don’t know how to interact with it as another driver or as a pedestrian. When I’m crossing the road in front of it, it may stop because it sees me, but then randomly accelerate for impossible to comprehend reasons. With a human behind the wheel when I look at them and see that they acknowledge my presence I am way more confident that they won’t run me over. Also with being in a car the movements of other human drivers make intuitive sense to me.
Regardless, the solution to the worlds car / traffic problem is not more cars. It’s condensed public transit so the point is a bit moot.