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Some out there are saying that driverless cars are coming around the corner faster than we might imagine. Here's a prediction that 9% of cars sold will be driverless by 2035. It occurred to me that this has the potential to be a boon to the left. Here's a piece from Holman Jenkins of the WSJ on various privacy/liberty ramifications of the driverless car. Holman Jenkins: When Your Car Is Spying on You - WSJ
Once driverless cars become common, gov't will doubtless demand and get the ability to tap into the network, as they have done with cell phones and the internet. They will want to know where you are going and when you are going, for the sake of environmentalism, safety, etc. Then with a little further slide down the slippery slope, they'll want to be able to control when and where you go. Why do you want to drive 3 blocks to the drug store when you live in a walkable community???? Buzzzz---permission denied.
A politician named Ron Sims (now retired) here in the Seattle area pushed for an odometer tax, and Oregon currently has an ongoing pilot project for an odometer tax that has civil libertarians concerned. A driverless car network could put that concept on steroids. Where will this end? A significant segment of modern life--the ability to move when and where we want, could now be gobbled up by the leviathan state.
These could easily be under government control - forbidden to go certain places, forced to use certain fuels, forced to go no further than a certain distance over a certain time, etc. The technology is not bad - it is the government that will find a way to misuse it.
Some out there are saying that driverless cars are coming around the corner faster than we might imagine. Here's a prediction that 9% of cars sold will be driverless by 2035. It occurred to me that this has the potential to be a boon to the left. Here's a piece from Holman Jenkins of the WSJ on various privacy/liberty ramifications of the driverless car. Holman Jenkins: When Your Car Is Spying on You - WSJ
Once driverless cars become common, gov't will doubtless demand and get the ability to tap into the network, as they have done with cell phones and the internet. They will want to know where you are going and when you are going, for the sake of environmentalism, safety, etc. Then with a little further slide down the slippery slope, they'll want to be able to control when and where you go. Why do you want to drive 3 blocks to the drug store when you live in a walkable community???? Buzzzz---permission denied.
A politician named Ron Sims (now retired) here in the Seattle area pushed for an odometer tax, and Oregon currently has an ongoing pilot project for an odometer tax that has civil libertarians concerned. A driverless car network could put that concept on steroids. Where will this end? A significant segment of modern life--the ability to move when and where we want, could now be gobbled up by the leviathan state.
On NPR they mentioned that by 2040, 70% of cars will be driverless. So the 9% of 2035 seems a bit off especially when some companies will start selling those type of cars in 2019.
It's an interesting take, and I haven't thought about it.
But gosh I despise driving. I really don't like that an honest mistake can destroy your life if you're driving a car. I hate the time in my life wasted driving a car when I could be reading, online, or playing a game.
My own hope is that Google is working to build chevalines like in a The Diamond Age. Their purchase of the company that makes the Big Dog makes me think is likely. I don't like Google knowing where I am going though which I have thought about because I dislike Google as much as the government, and they are the ones actually building the things.
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driverless cars--potential boon for collectivists, social engineers, nannyists, and Democrats?
