For starters, when was the last time you eagerly threw down way too much money for the latest, greatest piece of technology; brought said purchase home; eagerly tore through the packaging and were delighted to have this new, “can’t live without” toy work flawlessly as expected upon its first boot? “Never” is the word you’re looking for here; and that’s because in today’s world nothing technologically advanced enough to become a needed life changer is ever really complete.
What we always
get is, at best, a beta version released to the public in an effort to avoid
financial collapse of a company that has already spent multiple times the estimated
development cost pulled out of thin air by said company’s marketing department
back when the initial idea of the product being developed was nothing more than
a brain-fart in some forward-looking engineer’s mind. Any bugs that still exist can be fixed with
future software updates. Just look at
the amount of updates that are constantly being delivered to your PC’s
operating system; your cell phone; your watch!
(Well, “your” watch I’m guessing as I have not bought into – nor will
ever buy into – the idea that I need to have a doppelganger of my cell phone strapped
to my wrist. The effort it takes to slide my existing cell phone from my back
pocket isn’t that cumbersome…) And it’s
perfectly fine to be running advanced beta versions of software on a computer
or phone, but a freaking automobile? I
think not!
“It’s a shame that your daughter was killed by your car but
I’ve heard that the next update is going to fix that bug. In fact, rumor has it that you’ll also be
getting a 10 MPG increase in fuel economy; so that’s good.” Could you imagine…?
I mean just contemplate the seemingly endless variables that
we would be relying on programs to be able to deal with. You’ve got a several thousand pound mass
capable of reaching speeds greater than 100 MPH traveling on a multitude of surfaces. Inside said mass is you; your friends; maybe
even your family. Outside said mass is
the world and everything that the freaking world contains. The first thing that needs to be done is that
we need to have these vehicles selectively start to ignore things. It’s done by having these vehicles sense
things nearby. Yeah, it’s a race to have
one company’s vehicle able to sense more than its competitors; however the
truth of what’s happening here is that each company is really making a decision
as to what their car is going to be ignoring.
Let’s hope that all the companies working on these cars choose wisely. Let’s also hope that the devices used to
sense things work flawlessly. Oh wait, what
am I thinking? I’ve never had to repair
any malfunctioning parts on any car I’ve ever owned. They’ve always worked exactly the same as the
day I drove them off the lot.
these cars? The manufacturers? The governmental entities that were stupid
enough to allow this madness to even happen?
That’ll be a mess for sure. I
foresee customers being forced to sign away legal rights during purchase much
like HOAs currently force homebuyers to sign now. People will need to procure the services of a
notary public, sit down with their salesman and sign several papers of legalese
in order to be allowed to have their new car drive them home. Well hidden in these documents will be
multiple statements alleviating both the manufacturer and sales entities from
any and all future lawsuits brought forth from the destruction caused by the
vehicle being purchased. At least that
way nobody will have to worry about company profits getting affected by
anything as silly as people getting killed.
If only there were an alternative way to allow people to get
from one place to another that didn’t require us to risk our lives on whether
or not our car’s software was 100% bug-free, all possible variables were
contemplated and covered in the coding of this software and all hardware
associated with the correct execution of this code was working flawlessly … if
only…
bis später,
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