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Should Self-Driving Cars Chauffeur Shopping 'Whales' For Free?
theodp writes "Probably not the most fortuitous timing, but the USPTO has granted Google its wish for a patent on Transportation-Aware Physical Advertising Conversions, a system that arranges for free or discounted transportation to an advertiser's business location that will be more or less convenient based upon how profitable a customer is deemed. It's reminiscent of the free personal chauffeured limousine rides long enjoyed by Las Vegas casino 'whales', but at scale and using cars that may not have drivers. A server, Google explains, 'arranges the selected transportation option, for example, by dispatching a vehicle or providing instructions for using public transportation.' So, it seems a Larry or Sergey type might expect to be taken gratis to the Tesla dealership via a private autonomous car or even helicopter, while others may get a discount on a SF Muni bus ride to Safeway. Google also describes how advertisers will be able to use a customer's profile 'to exclude a customer from being considered for an offer based on exclusion criteria identified by a business,' such as age, job title, purchasing history, clothing size, or other 'desirable' characteristics."
When I ride in my own, non-self-driving car, I don't have time to defecate on the seat. I am driving, after all. Nor do I want to clean up the mess afterward.
But if some company sends out a self-driving car to pick me up to go shopping, what exactly prevents me from just leaving a big, steaming turd on the back seat? I won't have anything better to do. And it's not my car, so I won't have to clean it up.
This could become a really big problem, if a lot of people do it. I wouldn't want to ride in one of these cars again if I got in only to find a huge chunk of shit sitting on the seat!
Maybe they could make the cars self-cleaning, too? But I just don't know where they'd deposit any feces that are found. Would it just be dropped onto the road? I would hope not, because that would just bring us back to Victorian London, where the horses pulling carriages left their doody all over the street.
These are some big engineering challenges, without a doubt.
Like race, perhaps? Even if it works out to race by other proxy characteristics, this has a lot of potential to blow up in the merchants' faces.
Does it ever occur to the niggers to stop being at the bottom of the barrel in single parenthood, welfare use, violent crime, and drug use? If they just fucking tried that for a while all of these "racism" things would go away. "Hmm I'm 19 and have no income and maybe I'm not sure where my next meal will come from. HEY, HERE'S A THOUGHT: maybe this is a bad time to get knocked up!" Moving in the right direction is that simple, folks.
The lesson here: behaving in conformance to a stereotype does NOT help make that stereotype go away. Cry about that all you want. Hate me for saying it all you want. Is that doing anything to fix the problem? Do you even want to fix the problem? Or do you like a permanent underclass that you can feel sorry for and compassionate about so you can justify your politics and feel like a good person? That's what makes me sick.