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Apparently, People Say 'Thank You' To Self-Driving Pizza Delivery Vehicles (technologyreview.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Last summer, Ford worked with Domino's Pizza on a test in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where it delivered pizza to randomly chosen customers in a self-driving Ford Fusion hybrid. An operator was inside the car, and a regular human-driven car trailed behind, videotaping the drive. Customers had to approach the car and enter a number on a touch screen on the side of the vehicle to get their pizza. Speaking at CES, the annual consumer electronics show, in Las Vegas this week, Jim Farley, Ford's executive vice president, acknowledged that the idea sounds silly, "but we learned so freaking much," he said. Apparently, most people say "thank you" to the car after getting their pizza.
"Thank you" doesn't cost you a dime, there is absolutely no drawback at all whatsoever to say "thank you".
I fail to see the problem.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
This should be a lesson on how important human contact is for people. If it was -13F and a blizzard, they would likely be saying something else.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
I talk to my computer at work all the time, but less thank you's and more "come on!" and "are you kidding me??" Point is, people tend to personify inanimate objects. It's part of how we interpret and interact with our surroundings.
You do not want to piss-off the robot that delivers your food. Next time they might spit in your pizza!
The article didn't indicate it was a problem, just that they thought they should react to it somehow (you're welcome!).
I see a lot of potential to mine cute robot voices and mannerisms from movies, like Johnny Five I think would make a good pizza delivery personality. Or that luggage inspection bot from the Star Tours ride at Disney.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I mean, come on... someone is monitoring this vehicle somehow, so of course people will say thank you in hopes that the person monitoring it can hear...?
Just seems polite.
When true AI emerges, I won't be one of the ones out there claiming they are "just machines."
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
To paraphrase Kierkegaard:
Human beings are perfectible. You can get them to fast as easily as to feast. Only one thing is required: that they are just like all the others. But God desires primitivity.
There's also Mister Rogers' statement on the floor of the US Congress insisting that people stop trying to program one another.
I've never ordered a self-driving pizza before; what do they taste like?
Fordâ(TM)s
phone posting has spilled from the comments into the submissions now?
does anyone actually look at these things, or are they posting the stores from their phones
Obviously lost in the noise and stink of the traffic. Ha! What fucking world do THEY think they are living in!
Having good manners, have you learned nothing from your president?!
It's just common courtesy
That way I'll be last in line when the robots rise up against us!
Ok - total truth - I've also said "No Siri you stupid idiot!" Who else has said that?!
If one of those cars delivered pizza to me, I'd say thank you also. I would assume that the transaction is being monitored by a human somewhere, so why not be polite? I'd want the car to be polite to me as well.
Well, it was a robot car PLUS "regular human-driven car trailed behind, videotaping the drive".
So...to help translate mild-mannered Midwestern into plain English for you, consider that "thank you" really meant "hey you creepy millennials live-streaming this for your corporate overlords, we got our pizza and we paid, so now would you please GTFO here?"
is what I should do if I am in a hotel room, and I look out the window and observe a driverless pizza delivery colliding with someone. Will I be required by law to submit to testimony?
- Mike
BAH. Obviously the proper response is " I love you ".
I mean, Jesus Christ, this robot is bringing you Pizza.
Also, TIL some terminators play a long game, bringing Mankind down with arteriosclerosis.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
To think of saying: Open the pod bay doors, Hal
My mother beat "Always use good manners" into us from an early age. I'm not changing now.
As someone who says, "Thank you" to his car for making dinging sounds to remind me when my headlights are still on after turning off the engine, I don't find this behavior unusual.
No biggy I thank my bitcoin wallet and give her a kiss every night.
Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto
"He's lost in a 'floyd hole"
seriously. didnt you read the past comments about your stupid ass fucked up postings, being propurted as relevant..
You stopid bitch, its people like you whom are killing this publication. Those bitch lips of urs must be good enough to suck off the rest of the staff so they dont stop you, by becoming editors themselves..
How does it feel to be a glazed donut, stupid bitch.
why is this modded -1??
Truth hurt to much???
Saying "Thank you" is part of the protocol that us humans use in social interaction.
It is no different from how a serial or network protocol would send an "ACK" code. Without those codes, digital communication protocols wouldn't work properly either.
In fact the term "protocol" in computing is a metaphor for human interaction - specifically interaction between diplomats.
"We mustn't be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology" -- Aldous Huxley
They will lose it with time. Sooner or later they'll say "fuck yourself", "go die in a fire", "I hope your kids get cancer", and in time they will learn to bash the vehicles up and defecate on the smoking remains.
Self-driving cars sound like improbable AI of the far-fetched-future, but how about pizza-baking robots?
fucking stupid, lame ass bitch
I know it may sound strange but saying "Please" and "Thank You" is standard operating procedures for polite people. Yes, I say "Please" and "Thank You" to waitstaff and executives alike.
It says there was someone in the car. Perhaps they were thanking the person in the car?
Why are most if not all of TRUMPS female staff so Krusty???
Ok, why is it worth being mentioned?
That's a great question. From TFS:
An operator was inside the car
So of course they said thank you . . . unless the operator wasn't visible (like that prank where the guy diguised himself as a car seat), which probably means they reasoned that someone was listening even though the car was completely empty. In that case I ask: were they right or wrong?
The reporting attempts to imply these customers behaved nonsensically, when all the reported facts show the opposite.
>> The company hopes to learn more—both about how customers interact with the cars and about how it should set up the interior of delivery-centric vehicles
To keep the delivery experience consistent, you need half a pack of smokes and another 2-3 packs on the front seat, a couple of burn marks in the unholstery, a sticky slime of rapid-turn-spilled soda down the passenger door, a couple of snot rags in the door handle, and a thin film of overweight-smoker's-man-cough mixed with mold-in-the-intake-filter debris and bacteria distributed evenly over all the food transported to the customers.
The trickiest part might be how the car would dispense some of the illegal substances delivery drivers currently offer to their customers today.
I think I'd say 'thank you' to one just to see if it had some sort of response programmed into it.
And if it did, I might ask it to 'Open the pizza box, HAL.'...
When someone says, "Any fool can see
If I have to get dressed, go outside (in the rain) to get a pizza, why bother ordering it in the first place ?
Your ad here. Ask me how!
How can evolution, that pits individuals of the species one against another foster anything other than selfishness? The seminal breakthrough came in 1970s and 1980s when it became possible to simulate in a computer model interactions. The well known iterated prisoner's dilemma problem, the tournament of strategies found nice strategies at the correct level of pay off, can create conditions that foster altruism. The most famous and most successful strategy was tit-for-tat (Dont be the first one to be nasty, always be nasty to nasty people and always be nice to nice people, don't be jealous when falling behind in point count, forgive historical slights instantly)
But tit-for-tat is not a evolutionarily stable strategy. Once it takes hold and drives out all the nasty people, it is no different from "always be nice" strategy. Without punishment and reprisals, mutant nasty players gain an advantage. That is what is happening here, in the West people are so used to being nice to one another, they are nice to even machines.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
I'm sorry Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.
I imagine the car had windows so the person inside could see to take over if needed. I'm willing to bet the thank you was directed to the person in the car, NOT the car it's self
People are not overly bright in many ways. They don't understand that it was a so-called 'self driving car', because they see a human being behind the wheel, assume he's the delivery driver, and that the touchscreen business is just some new time-saving gadget -- and in fact I'd think they'd also be somewhat annoyed that they had to come out to the vehicle to get their pizza, instead of the driver bringing it to the door. If they noticed the follow vehicle, they maybe think that's the guys boss and it's some sort of 'training' thing. I'd bet cash money that if there were no human being inside that vehicle and no follow vehicle, people would be confused, maybe not even get their pizza, and perhaps more than a bit freaked out, on the phone to the pizza place frantically asking all sorts of questions and maybe even complaining about it.
During the testing phase, an engineer and a driver will be in the car -- but the windows will be heavily tinted so customers can't see them. And both have been instructed not to interact with people at all.
So with the current facts, it appears absolutely certain that the customers assumed they were talking to (at least) the car's driver (a real human). This looks like a complete non-story.
... they will remember those of us who were courteous to the AI bots and said things like please and thank you. And those people will be the first ones they eliminate for being inefficient.
It's not the car they are talking to - it's the person sitting inside, driving or not.
My favorite is most noticeable when people order fast food, "Can I have..."
Most people assume a person is somewhere somehow watching by camera, and it's directed towards that person.
whats the difference right?
is that I can’t properly say thank you“ because sHe does not recognize without activating before and thus does not answer you’re welcome“.
What I get instead is a hollow, disconnected funny‘ comment without further interaction.
This just feels very wrong.
People applaud at the end of a good movie too, even though nobody who helped make the movie can hear them. (What's more interesting is that I see this behavior in movie theaters, but not when watching at home.)
"the attribution of human characteristics or behavior to a god, animal, or object."
We do it because we like to think we can make the world appear more friendly to us by projecting human characteristics onto it. It's akin to giving your car a name or saying "well maybe she didn't feel like starting today because she's grumpy".
It's typically only irrational, less educated people that do this.
We'll make great pets
Last summer, Ford worked with Domino's Pizza on a test in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where it delivered pizza to randomly chosen customers in a self-driving Ford Fusion hybrid. An operator was inside the car, and a regular human-driven car trailed behind, videotaping the drive. Customers had to approach the car and enter a number on a touch screen on the side of the vehicle to get their pizza. Speaking at CES, the annual consumer electronics show, in Las Vegas this week, Jim Farley, Fordâ(TM)s executive vice president, acknowledged that the idea sounds silly, "but we learned so freaking much," he said. Apparently, most people say "thank you" to the car after getting their pizza.
You sure they were saying thank you to the car and not the operator inside the car?
People are happy now with their pizza, but after a week or two, there will be a traffic delay or a mixup in the web ordering system, and their thanks will change into fervent wishes that the autonomous delivery car dies in a fire. It's the nature of customers.
And a week after that, there will be roving bands of tweakers ambushing the cars, eating their pizza, and selling their parts to scrap dealers...
A non technical article on a technical website gets more comments then the primary subject matter..
layme
Have gnu, will travel.
I don't know about anyone else, but I've never thanked an ATM when it dispenses cash to me.
Unlike ATMs, having a pizza delivered by a self-driving car isn't a normal experience today, and customers expect there to be a person there. As far as I know, laws don't yet permit a self-driving car to do something like this without a person present. So I think it was fair that the people were thanking the person, whether they saw him or not.
UPS delivers packages to my apartment door, and then quickly walks to the next door. Occasionally, I open the door and get the package quickly enough that the USP guy is still in the building. I'll say "thank you" to him, even though I don't see him, or really know quite where he is. It's possible I'm talking to nobody, but I say it because there's a fair chance I'm not.
As a Boy Scout many years ago, we were taught when receiving a bladed object from someone, to say 'Thank you" when and only when we had a firm grip on the object, letting the other person know it was safe to let go. In a similar way, for many Americans, "Thank you" signals the end of an interaction. The people are merely informing the car that they had completed the transaction, received the pizza, and had no more need of it anymore. It just do happens that the car isn't capable of making use of that information, but that is likely a temporary condition.
Personally if I order a pizza to be delivered it is brought to the door. How does this work with a self driving car? If you have to pay someone to ride along to deliver it. Then how is this saving any money? Don't people just thank someone anyway for delivering something? If you dig deeper into this, the car maker is using this as a test bed with no financial investment from so of course Domino's would have no problem doing this with the result of some free publicity too and they already pay a delivery person anyway. Let's see what happens when Domino's has to buy the car and deal with the added expense.
Yeah that's the edited version. Here's the original they don't want you to see.
This is hardly news. People have been saying "Thank you" and much to computers since Eliza was created in 1964.
Because slashdot is not a publication. It's an aggregator and discussion forum with the focus being on the discussion.
The summaries barely matter and TFA is routinely ignored even more.
We're just here to bitch about headlines.
Also, when AI takes over the planet, we will want our robot overloads to specifically remember us as one of the polite humans that are worth sparing! I always thank Siri!!!
Now the "pizza pirate" will follow the autonomous delivery vehicle around in order to rob the recipient who has helpfully been lured out of the house. And barefoot no less so probably won't give chase.
This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
Some people are habitually polite? Wow. Thanks. Good to know.
Don't trust anything that bleeds for a week and lives.
When I read the headline I saw a big "tip jar" in my head. Please, someone, say NO
*unfortunate chain of events culminating in the bloody murder of an entire family*
Can you afford to order take-out pizza and tip? You should have enough room in your efficiency apartment to cook the basics yourself, Chris. ...oh. You said "the senior citizens who deliver pizzas in my area"
You didn't say they were being delivered to you, you just go around stealing old people's pizzas!!
They're the only ones you can outrun.
Got it.
Creimer alert creimer alert!!! I want a full update on the state of your business affairs sir!
Have you finally stopped fucking your neighbor's goats?
creimer is running a successful cock egg stand at the corner of Fruitdale and Leigh. creimer just picked up his gorilla suit from the cleaner's for tomorrow.
You sound bitter sweet tits!
Yes, Chris, it's your turn now! I know you've been waiting all week; I dressed it in your mother's clothes so you don't need Viagra like last time.
Dear Trolls!
The last ten months has been a wild ride. Your services are no longer needed. Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out. Thanks!
- Creimer
No no, your diabetes makes your cock eggs taste like birthday cake, Chris.
Dear Chris!
Your videos that no one watches, your diet advice that doesn't work, your nauseating personal anecdotes, your financial advice that a child would laugh at were never needed!
In your case, we'd need two doors to hit your fat ass.
- The rest of the universe
Here is the story of creimy the mountain and his royalties!
Listen to the audio version here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
"Creimy The Mountain"
includes quotes from Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in D major (Edward Elgar), Johnny's Theme (Paul Anka), Off We Go Into The Wild Blue Yonder (Crawford), O Mein Papa (Paul Burkhard), Over The Rainbow (Harburg/Arlen), Star-Spangled Banner (Smith/Key), Suite: Judy Blue Eyes (Stephen Stills)
One, two, three
CREIMY the Mountain
CREIMY the Mountain
A regular picturesque
Postcardy mountain
Residing between lovely
Rosamond and Gorman
With his stunning wife ETHELL, A tree! A tree!
CREIMY was a mountain ETHELL was a tree Growing off of his shoulder
CREIMY was a mountain
(CREIMY was a mountain!)
ETHELL was a tree Growing off of his shoulder
(ETHELL was a tree growing off of his shoulder)
(hey, hey hey!)
Creimy had two big
Caves for eyes,
With a cliff for a jaw
That would go up 'n down,
And whenever it did,
He'd puff out some dust,
And hack up a boulder (HACK!) Hack up a boulder (HACK! HACK!)
Hack up a boulder (HACK! HACK! HACK!) Up a boulder
Now, one day, now I believe it was on a Tuesday, a man in a checkered double-knit suit drove up in a large El Dorado Cadillac, leased from BOB SPREEN
("Where the freeways meet in Downey!")
And he laid a HUGE, BULGING ENVELOPE right at the corner of CREIMY THE MOUNTAIN, that was right where his 'foot' was supposed to be.
Now, CREIMY THE MOUNTAIN, he couldn't believe it! All those postcards he'd posed for, for ALL OF THOSE YEARS, and finally, now, AT LAST, his Royalties!
Royalties! Royalties Royalties! Royalty check is in, honey!
Yes, CREIMY THE MOUNTAIN was RICH! Yes, and his eyeball-caves, they widened in amazement, and his jaw (which was a cliff), well it dropped thirty feet!
A bunch of dust puffed out! Rocks and boulders hacked up, (hack! hack!) crushing 'The LINCOLN'!
I gave him the money He acted real funny He hocked up a rock and It TOTALLED my car!
Oh, do you Know any trucks Might be bound for THE VALLEY?
I don't wanna stand here All night in this bar (Dear Lord)
I don't wanna stand here All night in this bar (No shit!)
I don't wanna stand here All night in this bar!
By two o'clock, when the bars are already closed down, CREIMY had broken 'THE BIG NEWS' to ETHELL. And with dust and boulders everywhere, CREIMY, choked with excitement, announced
"ETHELL, we're going on a VACATION!"
Yes, and they WERE going on a vacation! (Oh, and ETHELL, ETHELL, ETHELL, like every little woman, she of course was very excited! She creaked a little bit, and some old birds flew off of her.) CREIMY told ETHELL they were going to Yes! They were going to NEW YORK!
"ETHELL, we're going to New York!"
But first they were gonna stop in LAS VEGAS
It's off to LAS VEGAS to check out the lounges Pull a few handles,
And drink a few beers, (Oh, ETHELL!)
ETHELL, my darling, you know that I love you!
I'm glad we could have a Vacation this year! (Oh, NEET-O!)
Glad we could have a Vacation this year!
They left that night, crunchin' across the Mojave Desert their voices echoing through the canyons of your minds (POO-AAH!)
"ETHELL, wanna get a cuppa cawfee?"
(Howard Johnson's! Howard Johnson's!
Howard Johnson's! Howard Johnson's!)
"Ahhh! there's a HOWARD JOHNSONS! Wanna eat some CLAMS?"
The first noteworhty piece of real estate they destroyed was EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE
And TO THIS VERY DAY, 'Wing Nuts' and Data Reduction Clerks alike, speak in reverent whispers about that fateful night when TEST STAND #1 and THE ROCKET SLED ITSELF (We have ignition!) got LUNCHED! I said LUNCHED! (Lunched!) By a FAMOUS MOUNTAIN-IN and his SMALL, WOODEN WIFE.
"Word just in to the KTTV News Service undeniably links THIS MOUNTAIN and HIS WIFE to drug abuse and
LOL yeah right. SIX PEOPLE have seen his most recent video!
You have teased a mentally handicapped man for 6 months now!
So? Average view rates are typically 2% of subscriber count. Creimer is hitting 100% with six views from six subscribers.
So I've been working for a few months at this office park that uses fingerprint scanners instead of access cards. The scanners at the gate and at the front door have a certain beep for "success" and another beep for "fail". However, inside the building there are also scanners at the main doors (operated separately from the office park's scanners). These have a recorded voice "Please try again" for fail and "Thank you" for success.
Apparently I have some gene that gives me shallow fingerprints (my mother also had all her days when fingerprinting for passports and what not). I can see the grooves well enough with unaided eyes, and paper-and-ink fingerprints look quite OK to my untrained eyes, but I am not friends with fingerprint scanners. Some days it may take 2 dozen tries (and a few minutes) to get in and be in time for that first thing in the morning standup meeting.
I also say "Thank you" to the scanner, even if it is much less intelligent than the delivery vehicle. Or rather, "No, thank YOU!" when it finally lets me pass.
In a very ironic tone of voice.
I fervently hope the pizza company does not decide that this now warrants some more auditory (artificial/canned) interaction from the delivery vehicle. That could get irritating quite fast.
I vaguely recall some research years back that found that people who didn't say please and thank you to automated systems also exhibited signs of sociopathy.
I.e., sociopaths only follow polite cultural norms because they "have to", they have to make a conscious effort to keep that up, and so when it's an inanimate object, they let it drop. Normal people, it's so ingrained in them to be at least semi decent to other creatures that it is automatic.
people say thank you to inanimate objects than stopped being polite to animate ones.
Of course, I am British and some less developed places think we are polite to everyone and everything. It's a good habit...
I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
The mentally handicapped man has a government IT job protecting the USA. The mentally handicapped man is free to go elsewhere.
He can complain to Slashdot management. Bitching about it in the comments as AC accomplishes nothing.
So? Average channel has a thousand times more subscribers than you do. They still manage more total views in one video than your entire channel's lifetime.
He doesn't have a government IT job much more than the janitor who empties the wastebaskets in the FBI datacenter.
Your view count is so low you might as well be buying views with bots for most of your videos. You know they won't audit you under 400 views?
... stop the music please. Thank you.
I'm polite to my animals, and they can't understand me. They appreciate that I'm nice but they can't tell that I'm polite.
This is normal human behavior. We anthropomorphize everything even when it doesn't talk back, so why is it surprising that they are polite to the cars? If it's smart enough to drive, it's smart enough to be polite to.
And yes, I'm aware that algorithms aren't AI, but maybe that habit will serve us well when our robot overlords finally take control in 2053.