What Could Possibly Go Wrong…U.S. Scraps Human Control Requirements for Autonomous Vehicles

Revised regulations from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, according to Reuters, no longer assume that autonomous vehicles (aka self-driving cars) will have things like a driver’s seat, steering wheel, or foot pedals. In fact, the agency said those things would be “logically unnecessary” in an automated vehicle. Officials first proposed adjusting the rules for self-driving cars two years ago, and the final rules were issued March 10.

-- Source: ThomasNet Industry Insights, Mar 31,2022

Hey, what could possibly go wrong if you have no ability to personally take charge of your “autonomous” car when you need to because there are no driver controls in the car? Let us count the ways…

1. Your self-driving car without a driver’s seat, steering wheel, or foot pedals (hereafter known as an “AVWDC” for Autonomous Vehicle Without Driver Controls) has a bug in its vehicle control software that causes the AVWDC to go out of control and slam into a bridge abutment and you die…and you never had a chance to do anything about it because you had no driver controls.

2. Your AVWDC’s vehicle control software is hacked by some kid having fun in his mom’s basement which causes your AVWDC to go out of control and slam into a bridge abutment and you die…and you never had a chance to do anything about it because you had no driver controls.

3. One of the sensors that feeds real time information into your AVWDC’s vehicle control system gets covered up by mud or malfunctions and your AVWDC does not recognize a hazard and you are involved in a horrendous accident caused by your AVWDC and you die…and you never had a chance to do anything about it because you had no driver controls.

4. Your AVWDC’s vehicle control system for some reason causes your AVWDC to run over somebody and that somebody dies and you are not only sued civilly for millions of dollars but are charged with murder for allowing YOUR car to run over the person…and you never had a chance to do anything about it because you had no driver controls.

5. This has nothing to do with your or other people’s safety, but rather your freedom: your vehicle which is of course always connected to the Internet is not really fully autonomous…it can be (and is able to be) controlled by your government through the use of an artificial intelligence (AI) controller that constantly monitors where you go in your AVWDC and when. If the AI controller doesn’t like the idea that you want to go somewhere…anywhere…hey, your AVWDC doesn’t go there and since you have no driver controls to override, you ain’t getting’ there! Or maybe the government has decided that you are only entitled to travel a certain number of miles every week or whatever time period it determines…once you get to that limit your AVWDC becomes a very large paper weight (VLPW) and you certainly can’t do anything about it.

When you look at item (5.) above you can see why the NHTSA would be really, really enthusiastic about taking away your driver controls…it’s just another way that control over your life can be transferred from you to the government. Items (1.) through (4.) above are just examples of the result of the stupidity of the people who tend to populate our government agencies today.

There’s an old saying that I don’t necessarily agree with that goes, “those who can’t do teach.” I would replace that saying with something much more relevant to our current situation, “those who can’t do regulate.”

ThomasNet Video Source: https://www.thomasnet.com/insights/u-s-scraps-human-control-requirements-for-autonomous-vehicles/?ecms_id=66069894-08ef-4665-b785-6be6331126b1&ecms_short=ART6869&doc_type=ted_video_article&parent_id=81560f7f-0eb9-48af-bb16-0871bd360ab0&utm_content=featuredvideo&linktype=title&channel=email&campaign_type=thomas_industry_update&campaign_name=tiu220331&utm_campaign=tiu220331&utm_medium=email&utm_source=thomas_industry_update&tinid=227714870