Driverless taxis

GibbosEmpire said:
Driverless taxis, driverless buses, next we will have driverless trains, what about the millions of workers?
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You can't halt advancement with this argument. Innovation is and needs to be constant to drive improvements. Most people alive today will be doing a job that someone did previously with older technology or in a much more laborious fashion.

Millions of workers will either retrain or the various UBI schemes will have to come to fruition, burners going to happen one way or another and workers doing a menial task that can be automated won't stand in the way of it being done, cold as it sounds.
 
Having seen the driving of some of these taxi drivers I think I'd take a chance with a driverless one. Not uncommon to see them doing 50mph down Marton road in the early hours.
 
GibbosEmpire said:
Driverless taxis, driverless buses, next we will have driverless trains, what about the millions of workers?
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There are already driverless trains all over the world. China's got one which is twice as fast as our fastest manned train. The DLR in the UK is largely driverless isn't it?

You don't keep inefficient methods to keep people in jobs, the world has never worked like this, as soon as tech advances and is ready, it takes over, and the people go and do something else, just like they always have.

For example, if you use automation so a robot can do the job of four people, replacing two people, then you have 100% more of the output, and can still pay out the same as what you would have in labour as tax, which can fund the two people who now don't need to work. Or you have one minder, getting 2/3rds of the saved cash and the person doing nothing getting 1/3rd. The money should go further now, as products are now being made cheaper (as far more efficient). It needs to be handled correctly of course, as in big companies not just raking more in profits and paying less tax etc.

Automation could rebalance the world, if there's enough interest in doing it.
 
Drivers and warehouse / factory workers are in the immediate firing line but every profession can and will be replaced eventually. It's just a matter of time before the hardware and software surpass the capabilities and cost efficiencies of hiring humans to do a job. In many cases it already has. I really don't think most people realise how close we are to a major jobs crisis and UBI being a necessity rather than a far left fantasy.
 
Andy_W said:
Because 10,000 driverless cars could do the job of 50,000 cars.

We've got two cars, and they're parked on the drive, or parked up in some lane or car park somewhere 95% of the time.

If busses went driverless there could be more of them, and they could be a lot more targeted to areas of demand, a bit like tees flex etc.

It's probably already cheaper for me to just get a taxi everywhere than actually own a car, the only reason I don't is taxis are a little unreliable and I can't deal with the small talk all the time. If there were 10x more of them it would be far more reliable, quicker to get one and I wouldn't think twice about ditching one or both cars.
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I'm not sure where you are getting your figures from and how you know it would take 40,000 cars off the road. Also, bus services are being cut now, they aren't going to start adding to them because they've been made driverless.

You could see the above being introduced in major towns and cities but somehow I can't see it happening on Teesside in the near future. We are still getting the cast off London trains whilst they are issued new.
 
GibbosEmpire said:
Driverless taxis, driverless buses, next we will have driverless trains, what about the millions of workers?
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This stuff has to come in alongside a change in our politics/economics. We need politicians to start getting behind the idea of us all having more leisure time somehow. Ideas like changing to 4 day weeks, more bank holidays, UBI need to be the answer. Socialism or barbarism.
 
SilentProf said:
Drivers and warehouse / factory workers are in the immediate firing line but every profession can and will be replaced eventually. It's just a matter of time before the hardware and software surpass the capabilities and cost efficiencies of hiring humans to do a job. In many cases it already has. I really don't think most people realise how close we are to a major jobs crisis and UBI being a necessity rather than a far left fantasy.
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Yep, nail on head. UBI has to come along sooner rather than later. Interesting that the trials have been taking place in some of the most technologically advanced societies already.
 
The only way 4 day weeks would work is if you're paid the same as working 5 days, what benefit is there for the extra day off if you can't feed yourself?
 
GibbosEmpire said:
Driverless taxis are now in use in America , one taxi crashed into a fire truck, two more blocked an ambulance that couldn't get through where the patient later died and the company said it wasnt their fault. Would you get in a taxi where there was no driver? I don't think I would.
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Sounds fairly normal for taxis with drivers
 
What people need to remember is that as well as eliminating jobs, technology also brings opportunities - it's just that we dont necessarily know what they are yet. I'm sure when the luddites were out smashing weaving machines they weren't thinking of the jobs that would stem from manufacturing and maintaining the textile machines.

Of course there will be casualties, and there needs to be a safety net in place for those people (unlikely with this government), but coming out the other side will be jobs that dont even exist today - who would have said they wanted to be a prompt engineer 3 or even 1 year ago ?
 
The_Lizards_Jumpers said:
What people need to remember is that as well as eliminating jobs, technology also brings opportunities - it's just that we dont necessarily know what they are yet. I'm sure when the luddites were out smashing weaving machines they weren't thinking of the jobs that would stem from manufacturing and maintaining the textile machines.

Of course there will be casualties, and there needs to be a safety net in place for those people (unlikely with this government), but coming out the other side will be jobs that dont even exist today - who would have said they wanted to be a prompt engineer 3 or even 1 year ago ?
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Exactly this.

There'll be a tonne of jobs, AI programmers, maintainence for the sensors, data evaluation.

Not to mention we'll still have stuff like mechanics
 
Cambsred said:
With car automation I wondered what would happen with bigger road awareness e.g you hear an ambulance and need to pull in/ stop before the junction. I'm sure its been thought of. Or manual road management with stop/go signs rather than lights.

Automation is the way forward, it just needs to be right. Accidents will happen. Would need to see the odds versus normal taxis to really make a judgement.
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Why apart from profit is it the way forward. Taxis have worked perfectly well since 1903 when London cabs began to use combustion engines and even before that going back to the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1. Why do we have to automate everything.
 
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