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Florida Senator: No Permit Needed For Driverless Cars In Florida (politifact.com)
In response to the California Department of Motor Vehicles ordering Uber's autonomous vehicles off the roads in San Francisco due to a lack of a permit, Florida state Sen. Jeff Brandes said he welcomes the company with open arms. Brandes tweeted: "Hey @Uber, unlike California we in Florida welcome driverless cars -- no permit required. #OpenForBusiness #FlaPol." PolitiFact reports: Several car companies are developing fully autonomous or self-driving cars operated by computers and testing them in some states. But it could be several years before they are broadly publicly available due to the cost, questions about liability and the technology and as state government officials grapple with oversight. While California's law requires a permit, that's not the case in Florida. "Florida has the least restrictive active state laws for the operation of autonomous vehicles," said John Terwilleger, an attorney at Gunster, Yoakley -- Stewart in West Palm Beach. Terwilleger represents a company that is involved in developing and using autonomous vehicles in Florida. In 2012, the Florida Legislature passed a law co-sponsored by Brandes that allowed a person with a valid driver's license to operate an autonomous vehicle. Before companies could test autonomous cars, they had to submit proof that they had $5 million in insurance. But in 2016, the Florida Legislature passed new rules that eliminated some of the previous requirements, including the $5 million in insurance. The new law also got rid of the requirement that a human operator be present in the vehicle, as long as an operator can be alerted in case of technology failure and stop the vehicle. Since there is no permit for autonomous vehicles, the state has no information regarding how many Floridians own one, said Beth Frady, spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Florida law treats an autonomous vehicle in the same manner as any other motor vehicle operating on our roads, said Chris Spencer, a spokesman for Brandes. "There are no requirements for additional permitting, licensing, or approval from any state or local government body to operate an autonomous vehicle on our roads," he said. That's still the case, even though Florida was the location of the first fatality involving a self-driving car. In May, Joshua Brown, was killed when his Tesla while on autopilot crashed into a tractor-trailer in Williston.
If you've ever driven in or around Miami, you'd be aware that having a human in the driver's seat is not necessarily saying the same thing as having a driver in the driver's seat. A computer-driven car just formalizes what is already a common state of affairs.
I would love to have a discussion on this but I don't want to lose mods.
Circa 1994, I left college. $20 dollars a quarter for insurance. Didn't cover much, but the college I went to has a world renowned medical research facility and it gave me access to this. Left college. I had to get my own insurance. $80 dollars a month for high deductable major medical. I joined a self-employed co-op and got a little lower deductible for $47 a month. 6 months later, $56. 3 months later $63. regular increases of over the next 15 months. 2 year anniversay arrives. Renewal was $264. A month. And this was through a co-op. What's that? Almost 6x increase in 2 years? I went uninsured for many years and found doctors that gave large discounts for cash. This can't be blamed on the ACA. It didn't exist. This has been the pattern in healthcare since the insurance industry found a way to insert themselves into the picture in the late '40's and it has been used as a shackle for the common working person. It has been used to keep people chained to poor jobs since the beginning. You say, get a better job? Sure. As soon as i can guarantee my family can go to the dr. You checked out COBRA? Another rip-off. Do you understand the fear of having something bad happen to you while you are in a period of uninsured? Seen that. Don't want to go there.
I'm open for suggestions. Single payer seems logical. MC/MC have the highest efficiency ratings of any insurance program. Somebody has to put a check on the insurance, medical, and drug industries. This shit is out of control.
> Have you ever tried to use this major illness insurance you had then?
Yes, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas was a good company then, as it is now.
Medical INSURANCE is/was regulated by state law. "Health discount plans" not so much.
The really bad ones said "Health Care Discount Plan" or whatever at the top, at at the bottom said "this is not an insurance product". In most states the less-regulated plans couldn't use the word "insurance" in their marketing, other than a disclaimer stating that it's not insurance.
> Obamacare actually defined what "counts" as health insurance
Completely REDEFINED. You can't legally just buy actual insurance anymore. Now you have to buy a health care plan. The difference, as noted above, is that insurance insures you against unforeseen high costs. Home insurance is for if your home burns down, not a new toilet flapper ($12); car insurance covers a wreck that totals your car, not new spark plugs. Imagine if you and your mechanic had to deal with 100 pages of insurance and government paperwork for each oil change. An oil change wouldn't cost $35 anymore!
The state-regulated medical insurance had a range pf different plans at different prices, appropriate for different people. At least where I've lived, they all did okay on the catastrophic coverage, which was most important to me, what varied the most was the lower cost stuff, under $5,000. That made a big diference because $25 of administrative costs on a $25 service doubles the cost; $200 of administrative cost on a $2,500 procedure has less impact. It was important to understand that with the state regulated insurance you did get what you paid for - plan with a lower monthly premium probably had a higher deductible etc.
... will Trump drop Florida into the Gulf for allowing Big Business to run roughshod over the population,... ?
By ignoring Climate Change Trump and his moronions will only need to let nature take its course – the Gulf will swallow Florida all by itself.
People who live in the economic engines, Tampa, Orlando, South Florida, Naples, Jacksonville, those whose livelihood, property and trade will get affected by rising tides, we all get a big collective fuck you from our remote state capitol. Local governments in South Florida are all over the issue working right now on countermeasures, beach preservation barriers, pumps, etc. All by themselves, pretty much we are all by ourselves because the fuckers in Tallahassee are pretty much non-existent. They exist there just to appease rural Florida and snow birds (most of them away from the coasts.)
I've always been skeptical of South Florida politics, having a unique streak of banana republic corruption here and there. But on the other hand, I've been quite impressed by how city mayors have mobilized.
Because we don't give a shit what Rick Scott and his circle up in Tallahassee or the far fringe right morons think, we see the effects of climate change. We see this shit is real, the rising tides, ocean water creeping through our walkways and sewers, etc.
This is the type of thing for which state and federal governments ought to exist, to assist local governments in tackling these kind of things. But shit, no, that's not how we roll.
Whether we can deal with it by technical means, it remains to be seen. But no one can say we did not try. And none of these Repuke motherfuckers in Tallahassee have a fucking right to claim participation if we do get to deal with sea level rise successfully. Because unless they sent the invisible man to help us, our governor is with his bald head shoved right up his ass on his state capital, denying a reality we see down here every damned day.