Now that school's back in session I'm back to listening to "my guys" on the radio on the morning commute, and this morning they were talking about self-driving taxis in San Francisco:
On Thursday, California state regulators voted 3-1 in favor of allowing robotaxi services to begin paid, public 24/7 operations in San Francisco, effective immediately.
Concerns came to my mind instantly, and because great minds think alike, the radio guys made the same points.
Taking a taxi now might not be horrible, as there's an actual human in the car to curb the passengers' worst excesses. Without a human, I see such taxis becoming Las Vegas hotel elevators.
Imagine: it's 2am, the bar's shut down, and two inebriated paramours alight across the street and into the nearest self-driving taxi. Question: would you want to be the next passenger in that taxi? Ew.
Imagine: it's 2am, the bar's shut down, and a lone individual hops in one of those self-driving taxis. Unlike so many other people in The City he/she chose not to pee on the sidewalk, but during his ride realizes that he/she will not make it home in time. Question: would you want to be the next passenger in that taxi? Ew.
Those are the first two things that came to my mind, and given that we're talking about San Francisco here, are they at all unlikely? Tell me you can't imagine them happening...
It's not the technology that concerns me, it's the humans.
3 comments:
bars*
It's a given someone is going to hurl in the cab. So there's that as well.
I meant it as setting the scene in a story: "The bar is shut down...."
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