Man too stupid to even drive a car gets Darwin Award

[Jim Bell]

This whole thread reminds me of when Stirling Moss fell down a lift shaft because there was no lift there when the doors opened, but he stepped in anyway.

[Eddie Honda]

I remember that WW. Funny as fuck.

[I_am_Diesel]

Mmmm!, Driver less cars. This could be the shot in the arm the British pub industry has been waiting for.*

 

 

 

* Joking

[Timewaster]

Mmmm!, Driver less cars. This could be the shot in the arm the British pub industry has been waiting for.*

 

 

 

* Joking

Joking or not, you could be on to something.

[Zantimisfit]

Tesla are really pushing the boundaries, and they're doing it in the worlds most litigious country. I think this may just end up in tears.

 

Pity, as the mainstream manufacturers have been asleep for a long time and need shaking up.

 

I would never have a self driving car though...I dont trust technology. It is the work of the devil

[rml2345]

Idiot proof eh? Nothing is idiot proof to a sufficiently talented idiot. It's sad that someone has died by leaving a car that they've been told to keep monitoring to do whatever it wants in the belief that the early form of a technology still in development will be fine but Tesla will probably have been preparing for this moment and defend themselves accordingly.

Would like to at least try it but I doubt a car fitted with it now will still have it working in 2032 when we'll be interested in it.

[captain_70s]

Mmmm!, Driver less cars. This could be the shot in the arm the British pub industry has been waiting for.*

 

 

 

* Joking

There is a service in Japan where by you call a company and they send out two blokes in a car, one of them drives your car with you as a passenger from wherever you happen to be to your home and the other guy follows in the company car to take the first bloke away. Rather handy as you can simply drive to your location, get wasted and wake up at home with your car safely in the drive all for a price that is apparently comparable to your average taxi.

[STUNO]

Tesla is very very well protected against Darwinism, I think even to the extent of having the driver sign a waiver on the dashboard screen when engaging  autopilot or hyperdrive.

But it is the USA !

[Dave_Q]

Also available here, but they send out one mush on a folding monkeybike to drive you home.

 

http://scootltd.co.uk/

[Negative Creep]

I can't wait for driverless cars, most of my driving is a boring slog I could be doing something interesting like being on autoshite or buying broken non driverless cars off eBay for the times I actually want to drive somewhere .

 

 

Except you'll find non dirverless cars will get taxed off the roads, or banned outright. Also doesn't help when Tusk's wife posts things like this

 

[Sheefag]

I wouldn't touch a self driving car, not after watching 'AnchorMan 2'.

 

[rantingYoof]

My point is that it should be easier and better for the environment to fix public transport than reinvent driving so that it's automated and electric (both of which are definitely happening) so why aren't we doing that?

 

It doesn't fit in with the political climate. Capitalism and the desire for profit will assist a motivated individual who wants to create ground-breaking technology, and the current Govmint - Brexit notwithstanding - is as pro free-market capitalistic-driven as you'll ever get. It also has the added benefit of being environmentally friendly* which means the Govmint can state that it is supportive of the environment and polar bears and things of that nature.

 

With the public transport system - let's take buses as an example - the same capitalistic and profit-driven individuals are less mindful to create modern, super-clean, efficient buses that run more frequently on a wider variety of routes, and would rather do the bare minimum to ensure customers are just the right side of "tolerating this shit" to ensure maximum money enters the coffers for themselves and shareholders.

 

The only way to really get proper investment in public transport is either tougher regulation, or (in my opinion) the nationalisation of local bus services so they are run by local authorities. Investment in higher tech systems (such as contactless paying of fares using debit cards), cleaner/modern buses, putting more of them on the road etc will also improve the situation for the capitalists by virtue of the local authorities seeking such tech/buses from them.

 

Even if full nationalisation is too radical, or if it simply won't work for whatever reason, tougher regulation forcing x% of the profits made by transport companies to be invested into various areas of the industry would probably be a good start, and if it's already in place, it should be made tougher.

 

Instead, at the moment I could run my old Lexus LS400 two miles into town and back five days a week, running super-rich and getting around 12mpg, and it would cost less than a daily/weekly bus fare from the bus stop which is 100m from my house into town no more than 250m from where I used to work. Something ain't right with that.

[Station]

When the truck turned in front of the car, the camera sensor thought the side of the truck trailer was the sky and just carried on. The car went straight under the trailer.

[Pillock]

And the driver who was watching Harry Potter didn't do anything sensible like brake, swerve, or pause the movie.

[vulgalour]

Idiot proof?  We'll see about that!

[garethj]

...and would rather do the bare minimum to ensure customers are just the right side of "tolerating this shit" to ensure maximum money enters the coffers for themselves and shareholders.

 

Investment in higher tech systems (such as contactless paying of fares using debit cards), cleaner/modern buses, putting more of them on the road etc will also improve the situation for the capitalists by virtue of the local authorities seeking such tech/buses from them.

Glad you wrote this, because it saved me the trouble of ranting myself.

 

I've often thought that buses (and maybe trucks) are ideal for electric power because the way they run is well known.  It's several hours until the driver needs a break for x-minutes, then back on the road again.  If you can make enough electric power for that length of time and do a battery change when the driver is resting, you're quids in.

 

A quick Google search shows that a Chinese company has just started to provide them, proof that a mediocre idea by a forum dullard can be made real if you've got a decent manufacturing base.  We've had electric vehicle development in the UK for years, why hasn't it been finished, put into production and sold yet?

[catsinthewelder]

If you wanted to run electric trucks wouldn't it make more sense to just change the tractor unit over for a charged one? I realise that this wouldn't work with rigids.

[Felly Magic]

Sounds like he was probably decapitated. Being 'Merricuh', I don't think Musk will get off scot free, he's also in a bit of bother over cobalt mining and child labour. Self driving vehicles won't work unless every vehicle was equipped, and this fatality proves the idea is flawed, especially when the clueless dolt behind the wheel didn't intervene when it was about to go very wrong indeed

[DeeJay]

Do your deliveries and recharge overnight?

 

 

 

 

"Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool" and "If you make something idiot proof, someone will just make a better idiot." Along those lines, Douglas Adams wrote in Mostly Harmless, "a common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools."

 

Sometimes it will end in tears.

[Tayne]

Sounds like he was probably decapitated. Being 'Merricuh', I don't think Musk will get off scot free, he's also in a bit of bother over cobalt mining and child labour. Self driving vehicles won't work unless every vehicle was equipped, and this fatality proves the idea is flawed, especially when the clueless dolt behind the wheel didn't intervene when it was about to go very wrong indeed

 

Do you have any sources for the cobalt mining and child labour claims?

[colnerov]

 Hi, As said up there ^^^ driverless cars can't work on the same roads as driver operated ones because of their unpredictability. Although the driverless ones could get distracted by a sexy roomba or one of those naughty automatic car washes.

 

 Colin

[gnorwebthgimi]

It doesn't fit in with the political climate. Capitalism and the desire for profit will assist a motivated individual who wants to create ground-breaking technology, and the current Govmint - Brexit notwithstanding - is as pro free-market capitalistic-driven as you'll ever get. It also has the added benefit of being environmentally friendly* which means the Govmint can state that it is supportive of the environment and polar bears and things of that nature.

 

With the public transport system - let's take buses as an example - the same capitalistic and profit-driven individuals are less mindful to create modern, super-clean, efficient buses that run more frequently on a wider variety of routes, and would rather do the bare minimum to ensure customers are just the right side of "tolerating this shit" to ensure maximum money enters the coffers for themselves and shareholders.

 

The only way to really get proper investment in public transport is either tougher regulation, or (in my opinion) the nationalisation of local bus services so they are run by local authorities. Investment in higher tech systems (such as contactless paying of fares using debit cards), cleaner/modern buses, putting more of them on the road etc will also improve the situation for the capitalists by virtue of the local authorities seeking such tech/buses from them.

 

Even if full nationalisation is too radical, or if it simply won't work for whatever reason, tougher regulation forcing x% of the profits made by transport companies to be invested into various areas of the industry would probably be a good start, and if it's already in place, it should be made tougher.

 

Instead, at the moment I could run my old Lexus LS400 two miles into town and back five days a week, running super-rich and getting around 12mpg, and it would cost less than a daily/weekly bus fare from the bus stop which is 100m from my house into town no more than 250m from where I used to work. Something ain't right with that.

Thank you for that, whilst my faith in humanity took another knock I feel greater assurance over my sanity.

[Felly Magic]

Do you have any sources for the cobalt mining and child labour claims?

 

All the big boys are involved, doesn't look good for PR, even Apple, VW and Samsung, basically anyone who uses lithium ion batteries is connected with this disgusting trade. 

 

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/01/Child-labour-behind-smart-phone-and-electric-car-batteries/

[garbaldy]

Volvo have a very good cruise control and it took me a long time to trust it even a little, I have cruise control in both moderns and never use it even on the euro trip's,

 

I left home and set it for 70mph and set the car distance to five bars which is the max, with only steering input it got me all the way to Sheffield without touching the pedals,

It's a bit weird coming up to stationary traffic and it just pulls up and stops, when the car in front moves off so did we, it was certainly a revelation to realise just how small a chip can actually pilot a car, it also has some lane guidance shit as well but I never tested that out,

 

This guy has obviously had his car for quite some time and become far to trusting and it has cost him dearly,

[Tayne]

don't think Musk will get off scot free, he's also in a bit of bother over cobalt mining and child labour. 

 

 

All the big boys are involved, doesn't look good for PR, even Apple, VW and Samsung, basically anyone who uses lithium ion batteries is connected with this disgusting trade. 

 

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/01/Child-labour-behind-smart-phone-and-electric-car-batteries/

 

 

Whilst I'm not going to say that isn't a terrible thing, that article doesn't point more toward consumer electrical goods rather than electric cars.

Apple, samsung and Huwaeie have got the lion's share of the world's phone and tablet market yet the two biggest electric car manufacturers (excluding BYD in China, where human rights don't matter) or their battery suppliers aren't even mentioned.

The Chinese, surprisingly, get a special shooing on that report as they're the ones pulling the stuff the out of Africa with scant regard for the locals.

 

 

I can't actually see anything in there that points to musk being "in a bit of bother over Cobalt mining and child labour".

I expected you to have uncovered evidence that californian production line was entirely manned by 8 year olds...

[Tayne]

basically anyone who uses lithium ion batteries is connected with this disgusting trade. 

 

 

 

 

Even the end users?

 

There's a lot of laptop, smart phone, tablet and digital camera owners on here.

[Pillock]

I've replaced the battery in my phone with a lead acid one. Only weighs three kilos, and I get about twenty minutes of standby or three minutes of ta

[HillmanImp]

 

http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/self-driving-car-ethics

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Never underestimate the stupidity of people.  As far as I'm concerned I want unfettered mechanical linkages between the steering wheel/brake pedal and the car.  

[Junkman]

The more people are exploited by working from home, which means employers don't even have to invest in a fucking dismal little shitty workstation in an office, the more the self driving car is propagated "to make commuting less tedious". It doesn't really take a conspiracy theorist to figure out the conspiracy behind this.