The Cellar / Tesla Car

**Posted by Flint** 12/20/2023 5:03 pm

Just learned that rapper XXXTentacion was killed while being robbed in his car, which due to a safety feature was unable to accelerate away from the gunmen, because the doors were open.

I'm not sure how I feel about that. If it's a numbers game, it probably saves more lives to have the feature in place.

But it just strikes me as an "Asimov's laws of robotics" type problem. If the machines are going to take over "thinking" for us, should they be required to prove they will make ethical decisions in complex situations? This seems different than "a faulty airplane part fails and people are killed" . . .

**Posted by Flint** 12/20/2023 10:57 pm

. . . my intrusive thoughts are saying the correct answer for the override mechanism is "the gas pedal" . . .

..it is amusing to think our cars might have a safe word

..regarding the Holodeck, how can we avoid a "Moriarty" situation.? I don't know what that would be, but I'm suspicious in advance..

**Posted by xoxoxoBruce** 12/21/2023 5:58 pm

"safeword"
"I'm afraid I can't do that Dave"

**Posted by Flint** 12/21/2023 6:06 pm

...this type of thing has happened before, and it's always been attributed to human error...

**Posted by Diaphone Jim** 12/22/2023 12:18 pm

xoxoxoBruce wrote:
"safeword"
"I'm afraid I can't do that Dave"

That's funny.
My new piece-of-shit HP/Microsoft/Bing computer has a pushy feature called AICopilot, that likes to butt in to "help" with searches etc. when it "senses" you are having difficulty.
I have started thinking of it as Hal.
Of course, it was HAL ((Heuristically Programmed Algorithmic Computer" in the movie. HAI (H artificial intelligence) sure looks the same.
Copilot, BTW, has actually "helped" only once so far.

**Posted by xoxoxoBruce** 12/25/2023 5:14 pm

When your new car comes with a button for everything and you see one labeled REAR WIPER, do you try it?

**Posted by Flint** 12/26/2023 5:07 pm

Heated seats with a built-in bidet, for those "movie theater nachos" moments?

**Posted by Happy Monkey** 1/05/2024 5:57 pm

Saw my first in-person Cybertruck while wandering a mall waiting for car maintenance.

In person, it doesn't look quite as odd as it does in media, possibly since it's big enough to not really perceive the whole profile. Oddly, the weirdest thing to me was the hubcaps, which really make it seem Lego-like.

**Posted by griff** 1/06/2024 9:40 am

I see this vehicle and I just think what is the purpose? Vehicles should have a use case. The old car makers do non production vehicles to test ideas but this is actually in limited production. I'm a weirdo though as I want a small electrically propelled pickup without excessive entertainment, self driving, etc... but with the actual advantage of home recharging and reduced maintenance.

**Posted by fargon** 1/06/2024 1:30 pm

Amen.

**Posted by xoxoxoBruce** 1/07/2024 2:22 am

What? You want a small practical truck?
How dare you, that's anti-Merican... it's downright heathen.
=13px

**Posted by Happy Monkey** 1/07/2024 4:39 am

I think Elon's going for the same use case as the Hummer - big truck people can see you own.

**Posted by griff** 1/07/2024 9:24 am

Looking at the sight lines on that pickup it's no wonder pedestrian fatalities are up.

**Posted by xoxoxoBruce** 1/08/2024 2:56 am

I just figured out why China had welcomed Tesla with open arms despite several of there own makes, besides the investment in facilities.
Tesla's computers know where every car is, who owns it, if it's moving or parked, where it goes, where it stops, for how long, and even videos. I'll bet the party is tapped into that info with or without cooperation.

**Posted by griff** 1/08/2024 7:08 am

Yeah, choose your poison corporate and government monitoring in the West or government and corporate monitoring in the East.

**Posted by Flint** 1/08/2024 1:33 pm

griff wrote:
Yeah, choose your poison corporate and government monitoring in the West or government and corporate monitoring in the East.

"You know of what I speak. A Great Eye. Lidless. Wreathed in flame..."