Slashdot Mirror
What Effect Will VW's Scandal Have On Robocars?
pRobotika writes: It's looking bad for Volkswagen, German car manufacturers and possibly even car manufacturers as a whole. But the revelations that VW put software in their cars to deliberately cheat on emissions tests could have even greater repercussions. Robocars' Brad Templeton looks at the effect for manufacturers of autonomous vehicles. From the Robohub article: "There may be more risk from suppliers of technology for robocars. Sensor manufacturers, for instance, may be untruthful about their abilities or, more likely, reliability. While the integrators will be inherently distrustful, as they will take the liability, one can see smaller vendors telling lies if they see it as the only way to get a big sale for their business."
Tomorrow's Slashdot headline:
"How Will The Apple Watch Affect the Future of Self-Driving Cars?"
or,
"What Year Will The Self-Driving Car Cure Cancer? We Ask Travis Kalanick."
You are welcome on my lawn.
As the early history of industrialization shows, unregulated companies have no problems poisoning people for short-term profits. Aggressive business people tend to only think about 5 years out. If they believe the chances of getting caught is relatively low for the next 5 years, they'll often gamble to get here-and-now power and wealth. They are thinking with the "2nd head".
By the time 3-eyed babies appear, the perps or their trail may be long gone.
Table-ized A.I.
Exactly. Pollution is one of the most basic examples of an "externality" to a business.
The business is happy to make more profits and doesn't care if it pollutes.
If the consumer has the choice between a cheap car that belches smog and an expensive car that is relatively clean, the rational self-interested choice is to choose the cheap car. The direct benefit to them of money in their pocket outweighs the relatively small amount of pollution that their individual car will create. However, when taken in aggregate, it's better if *everyone* chooses the clean car.
Since we can't persuade human beings to always selflessly consider the good of the community over their own interests (and we shouldn't), we agree on laws to protect our shared resources.
Cars from the sixties and seventies that were fun to drive were horribly wasteful on fuel when driven hard. Carburetors are like that. The point now, is that we have technology to sample the air pressure, air temperature, and exhaust mixture to try to achieve the most thorough burn possible, which is why the cars of today are more fun and more powerful than they were in the sixties and seventies. And I say this as someone that is mid-restoration on a seventies Mopar.
The tradeoff is complexity and cost. The cars are much more complicated because the systems that regulate fuel pressure, nozzle duration, spark duration and timing, and valve timing are much more complicated than an accelerator pump, a venturi, and a simple vacuum-advance distributor.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.