Quote Of The Day: Driverless Distraction Edition
More people feel that the task of driving belongs to the driver, and do you really want to sort of hand over your safety to a machine? It’s possible the technology might one day be widely deployed. I just don’t think we’re anywhere close to that right now
NHTSA Administrator David Strickland came away from his first run-in with Google’s autonomous cars in a less-than-entirely optimistic mood [via the DetN]. You might think that Strickland, who is a central figure in Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s “War on Distraction,” would appreciate a driver that has no need for Twitter, Facebook or the other increasingly-common in-car distractions. Instead, he took his position to its remarkably solid core: that individuals need to think more, not less, about their responsibilities as drivers. It’s actually a fantastic message, especially given that he wasn’t kidding about the “technology isn’t ready” part, telling the DetN
There’s near misses. It’s not fool-proof. There’s a lot of work to go, [but] it’s a great piece of technology.”
Comments
Join the conversation
Good for him and about time someone admitted that the driver has to LEARN to think MORE, not LESS. We certainly are relying way too much on technology to do our bidding for too many things and letting infotainment rule our lives, even to the detriment of driving. When we do, we then begin to forget how to think and react when someone or machine veers into our path.
The Federal level is exactly the worst possible place to locate decisions about how far to allow driver replacement by technology to go. Like all areas where there is no absolute right or wrong choice, the more different regimes are attempted, the more information is discovered, and the quicker the entirety of the country would move in the direction of the "right" choice. Of course, there is always the risk that what turns out to be this "right choice" does not favor currently entrenched interests, so fat chance seeing them give up the much more predictable regime of simply lobbying the feds.