[ExI] Will robot cars be TOO good?

[spike]

>... On Behalf Of BillK
Subject: [ExI] Will robot cars be TOO good?

>...Robot Car Intersections Are Terrifyingly Efficient
<http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/artificial-intelligence/robot-c
ar-intersections-are-terrifyingly-efficient>  ... --------------

>...Robot cars may have to have the windows blacked out to stop the
passengers screaming for them to 'SLOW DOWN!'.  BillK
_______________________________________________

BillK this is another one of those mixtures of dream and nightmare
unfortunately.  If cars could control the brakes, steering and accelerators,
they could navigate crowded cities waaaay better than humans, because they
can operate with much closer tolerances than the general human comfort zone.
Imagine a city intersection where cars zip through at half freeway speeds
and miss each other by an arm span.  Every time we did that, we would feel
like we just survived a near death experience, but the machines wouldn't be
a bit worried by it, not a bit.  Everything that happened there would be
well within their capability to react.

Then we can imagine a situations where humans may not participate, since
they would endanger the computer driven cars by our bad habit of
out-freaking.

Imagine resurrecting a person from the horse and buggy days, and taking her
down any modern freeway at freeway speeds.  She would be terrified.  My own
grandmother-in-law from Idaho used to freak out in ordinary San Jose freeway
traffic as late as the 1990s, from the speed and closeness of the cars.

Actually that sounds like a thrilling scary fun roller coaster ride to get
into computer driven cars and tear through a crowded city, but I want others
to demonstrate it before I get in.  {8^D

spike