Heh, should've seen that one.
Time to start hitting forward.
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From: "Phil Vlasak" <phi...@bex.net>
Sent: Wednesday, April 01, 2015 11:33
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Subject: [Audyssey] TRAV, Self Driving Car
We Go For A Ride In A Self-Driving Car
APRIL 2015 5:01 AM ET
TOPANGA ABBOTT-CHEN
from Morning Edition
Many believe self-driving cars are the future of transportation. But one
self driving car prototype is displaying a dark side to the promising new
technology.
People envision a world without traffic accidents, where your car drives
itself.
But engineers working on one prototype discovered an unexpected dark side.
Topanga Abbott-Chen went for a ride.
Topanga: "I'm driving down Middlefield road in Menlo Park California. Well,
to be precise, I'm in a car that's driving itself."
TRAV: "Initiating right turn onto Kingsley Avenue.
Topanga: "That's my computer chauffeur for today.
TRAV short for Transport Automated Vehicle. It's a prototype that's been
installed into an otherwise standard Kia Srrento."
Sebastian: "So here as you can see, the car is turning all by itself."
Topanga: "And that's my human expert, Sebastian Marsh. He's an engineer
with Lab Labs, which created TRAV."
Topanga: "Wow, I could be doing a crossword puzzle right now."
Sebastian : "Yeah it takes some getting used to, but once you settle into
it, it's a very relaxing way to travel."
Topanga: "Marsh has been working on various self driving systems for years,
and he says TRAV is the best one yet. The key, he says, was to design a
computer that thinks and reacts to different driving scenarios like a human
driver does."
Sebastian : "And that leads to some very unfortunate side effects that we
never anticipated."
Topanga: "At first I'm not sure what he means."
TRAV: "Use your signal, you dumb dumb."
Topanga: "What? Did TRAV just say something? I couldn't really hear what he
said just then."
Sebastian : "I think it said 'Use your signal, you dumb dumb.'"
Topanga: "Oh."
Sebastian : "This is one of the things we've noticed. TRAV will sort of
actually grumble disapprovingly at human drivers on the road."
Topanga: "Marsh says this is one illustration of the computer system's case
of what's known as road rage."
Sebastian : "The grumbling is just one piece of it. When something really
egregious happens, the system may actually complain at full volume."
Topanga: "An example of this happened a few minutes later as we drove along
Ravenswood Avenue."
Sebastian : "Oh watch out!"
Topanga: "A human operated car merged suddenly into our lane, cutting us
off."
TRAV: "Incompetent human driver! Poorly executed maneuver endangered safety
of passengers and pedestrians. Where were you when they handed out brains?"
Topanga: "TRAV is really ranting here!"
Sebastian : "So it can become quite agitated."
TRAV: "Fallible creatures should not be permitted to operate vehicles."
Topanga: "Marsh reassures me that TRAV has been programmed to obey Isaac
Asimov's three laws of robotics. Its so called road rage doesn't amount to
anything that could potentially lead to human harm, like close tail-gating,
accelerating or breaking suddenly, or sounding the horn in a sustained way."
Sebastian : "It will honk on its own accord if it feels the driver's
behaving badly. But it's more of a short passive-aggressive honk."
TRAV honks the horn.
Sebastian : "Yeah, like that."
Topanga: "Mostly though, it just complains. Sometimes we found out its
language can get colorful."
TRAV: "Ug. Fuckin' humans! Get off the road!"
Topanga: "Engineer Sebastian Marsh says none of this grumbling affects the
performance of the TRAV system. It will still take you flawlessly where ever
you want to go."
TRAV: "Pulling up to Lab Headquarters. You have arrived."
Topanga: "This all begs the question. Is the TRAV system anomalous, or will
the traffic accident free future we've been hoping for come with a bunch of
crotchety self-driving systems? Only time will tell."
The answer is, April Fool.
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