Prior to 1978, the government's Civil Aeronautics Board set nearly all commercial plane fares, aside from a few exceptions like wholly intrastate trips. A JFK-LAX roundtrip was more expensive 50 years ago than it is today, and deregulating the industry was a legitimate democratic move that greatly expanded air travel. (Admittedly at an environmental cost.)
Prior to the early '80s, most Americans were under the thumb of AT&T's near-monopoly on phone service, and among other things had to pay monthly *rental* fees for phones, along with by-the-minute long-distance charges.
Still, point taken. (Plus these deregulatory moves mostly helped the corporations as well.)
I wish this post made the matter more clear, but there's a considerable difference between what Trump wants and what he gets, and while he famously hates bureaucracy (as do a number of SCOTUS justices), the notion of rewriting NHTSA regs to permit literal pedal- and steering wheel-free cars is absurd even by Trump standards.
But also Elon Musk’s. He desperately *wants* autonomous cars, but Tesla's been having its ass handed back on a stick by Waymo the past several years – despite Tesla ostensibly having "billions of miles of data" from its still-nonfunctional FSD. It's entirely possible the "robotaxi wars" are already over, and Tesla lost: its decision to dump sonar & lidar sensors for a camera-only setup – which is largely useless at night, during any type of precipitation, etc – could prove catastrophic to the company's unless Tesla can actually *deliver* a functional Robotaxi or Cybercab.
No, that honestly isn't an exaggeration.
Most indications thus far suggest that Tesla's autonomy efforts are less & less likely to become a reality with each passing day. They have a grand total of 17 known Robotaxis functioning without safety drivers (solely in Austin), and definitely zero Cybercabs. Finally, ground transportation is nearly always regulated at the local level – with the exception of California, where its public utility commission does so. I'd be surprised if even *Texas* agreed to let Tesla's deathtraps operate, but barring massive levels of improvement, this simply isn't happening in any blue state.
The NHTSA changes would need to follow the usual FMVSS rulemaking process, and the Trump administration could find things just a smidge more difficult after the midterms. Still, you can't sell a vehicle in the U.S. without NHTSA's approval, and for very good reason.
These Cybercabs have already needed to be investigated by the same NHTSA that wants to now roll back regulations to pave the way for an expansion of autonomous driving cars. Driving on the wrong side of the road. Phantom braking. Dropping off customers at random intersections. These issues have already been observed during Robotaxi's limited run in Austin, TX. Expanding the incidence of Cybercabs in major cities feels like playing with fire.
Adolescent SF dreams coming true. I take less than zero comfort in Elon Musk pretending to take personal responsibility. If he so sure, lets have Trump ride around solo for a busy day in some driver- friendly environment.
I for one will never set foot in one of Musk's deathmobiles. Shit, I've turned down Ubers that were Teslas. His cars are old technology, overpriced and increasingly unwanted as competitors produce lower cost, higher quality vehicles. The stock is over priced by a factor of five, kept high by irrational faith in Musk's boasts and promises. The crash is coming, not if, but when.
Same here. The government apparently sees no obligation to respond to citizens but I can at least use the market to register my disapproval of Tesla and its shoddy products
So, how many jobs are there for taxi drivers, delivery drivers, and truck drivers, and why not include all transportation jobs that currently require a driver, an operator, or, at the very least, someone who can oversee this flawed technology? For starters, from Copilot Search, there are about 447,900 taxi drivers, shuttle drivers, and chauffeurs in the United States, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
When those jobs are gone, what will be affected next by autonomous technology? I'm not going to go into that here, but anyone can see that it will eliminate jobs.
Maybe that's why we should demand sufficient regulations and a profit-sharing feature to fund a minimum universal income that is 50% above the poverty level for anyone in the country who becomes unemployed as a result of this technology. THAT would at least mitigate the problem of having more people than jobs.
Coming up in Boston in the 1970s and NYC after that, cabs were the way to go. Even a way to make a living. My brother drove a cab in Boston during college breaks. My girlfriend drove in Boston for ten years. The drivers in NYC were lifetime drivers. And they knew the city they were driving in, no GPS or video mapping. Uh-huh, you learned the streets of Dorchester, the back roads of Queens.
Now, all those opportunities for new drivers, Uber drivers, part time gigs, independence for some, good hours for others. All disappearing because Musk played all alone when he was a child and everything he did had no humans interacting, except maybe two astronauts in a tin can to Mars.
Mr Musk: you are no Henry Ford (except the racist part), you are no Nikola Tesla, (except the eccentric part), you are certainly no Thomas Edison. Except you steal ideas and put your name on them.
Take all the bad parts of people, put them together and you have the corpse-looking Leon Msuk, racist, disgusting, cruel Leon, the sad boy no one loved, not even his mom or dad.
Except that Musk’s autonomous vehicles are probably safer for someone in the car than for anyone near the outside of the car. I wouldn’t ride in one, but I’m much more worried about getting hit by one.
It seems insane to me for the federal government to make or revise regulations so one manufacturer can realize his "dream" of monopoly. Leon Musk has no idea of what people want except himself. Here's just one argument: when I was first sending my child out of the door to drive by herself, I told her: look out for the other guy. I knew she was going to drive safely but what about all the crazies and angries? I say the same about the Telsa plan: You can't brake? You can't steer? You cannot even see a danger behind you? Why? Tesla's death cab: it's a metal coffin.
Deregulation is the entire point of the Republican agenda and has been since Reagan. The business moguls who love Trump have smiled while the American right wing voter has slobbered over abortion and immigrants. Meanwhile, good-bye clean air, clean water, sustainable energy, safety regulations (e.g. musk) and jobs. The best thing we can do is NOT buy muskmobiles and vote for candidates who reject deregulation.
In San Francisco where driverless vehicles are extremely commonplace, first responders and cops have become annoyed with the hassle and public danger they create. E.g. during the recent 4th of July celebrations where a couple of them drove over fireworks and a swarm of frozen Waymos helped block roads further, something that tends to happen when they encounter novel situations. Cops have to call the company to get them to remotely move them or have a way to do so on the street. They are a public nuisance in that way even if a lot of the time they work just fine and people like to take them.
Musk says "We’re going to take that risk. It’s my fault if it fucks up," but he's not the one taking the risk. The person foolish enough to get into one of his vehicles is. He has a history of hyperbolic promises and predictions that have never come to fruition. We all have the ability to shut him down. Don't get into a Musk autonomous taxi.
Yeah, just what we need! Another hair-brained outburst from don, backing elon - aka chainsaw murderer! Plus putting millions more out of work! Go to MARS, both of you dunderheads! Earth doesn't need either of you mucking up the planet more than it is already. And NOT 1 word about the wildfires burning down Great Lakes, eastern US!
Has there ever been a time when deregulation helped the people, and not the corporations?
Prior to 1978, the government's Civil Aeronautics Board set nearly all commercial plane fares, aside from a few exceptions like wholly intrastate trips. A JFK-LAX roundtrip was more expensive 50 years ago than it is today, and deregulating the industry was a legitimate democratic move that greatly expanded air travel. (Admittedly at an environmental cost.)
Prior to the early '80s, most Americans were under the thumb of AT&T's near-monopoly on phone service, and among other things had to pay monthly *rental* fees for phones, along with by-the-minute long-distance charges.
Still, point taken. (Plus these deregulatory moves mostly helped the corporations as well.)
The 'largest fleet of autonomous vehicles" that no one can afford or want.
I wish this post made the matter more clear, but there's a considerable difference between what Trump wants and what he gets, and while he famously hates bureaucracy (as do a number of SCOTUS justices), the notion of rewriting NHTSA regs to permit literal pedal- and steering wheel-free cars is absurd even by Trump standards.
But also Elon Musk’s. He desperately *wants* autonomous cars, but Tesla's been having its ass handed back on a stick by Waymo the past several years – despite Tesla ostensibly having "billions of miles of data" from its still-nonfunctional FSD. It's entirely possible the "robotaxi wars" are already over, and Tesla lost: its decision to dump sonar & lidar sensors for a camera-only setup – which is largely useless at night, during any type of precipitation, etc – could prove catastrophic to the company's unless Tesla can actually *deliver* a functional Robotaxi or Cybercab.
No, that honestly isn't an exaggeration.
Most indications thus far suggest that Tesla's autonomy efforts are less & less likely to become a reality with each passing day. They have a grand total of 17 known Robotaxis functioning without safety drivers (solely in Austin), and definitely zero Cybercabs. Finally, ground transportation is nearly always regulated at the local level – with the exception of California, where its public utility commission does so. I'd be surprised if even *Texas* agreed to let Tesla's deathtraps operate, but barring massive levels of improvement, this simply isn't happening in any blue state.
The NHTSA changes would need to follow the usual FMVSS rulemaking process, and the Trump administration could find things just a smidge more difficult after the midterms. Still, you can't sell a vehicle in the U.S. without NHTSA's approval, and for very good reason.
These Cybercabs have already needed to be investigated by the same NHTSA that wants to now roll back regulations to pave the way for an expansion of autonomous driving cars. Driving on the wrong side of the road. Phantom braking. Dropping off customers at random intersections. These issues have already been observed during Robotaxi's limited run in Austin, TX. Expanding the incidence of Cybercabs in major cities feels like playing with fire.
Hitting cyclists and pedestrians
Adolescent SF dreams coming true. I take less than zero comfort in Elon Musk pretending to take personal responsibility. If he so sure, lets have Trump ride around solo for a busy day in some driver- friendly environment.
Let Sean Duffy take more time off from his job and take himself on a long road trip in a death cab. Look ma, no hands!
Now THAT is a wonderful idea!
I for one will never set foot in one of Musk's deathmobiles. Shit, I've turned down Ubers that were Teslas. His cars are old technology, overpriced and increasingly unwanted as competitors produce lower cost, higher quality vehicles. The stock is over priced by a factor of five, kept high by irrational faith in Musk's boasts and promises. The crash is coming, not if, but when.
I’m certainly not getting in one of those 🤣
Same here. The government apparently sees no obligation to respond to citizens but I can at least use the market to register my disapproval of Tesla and its shoddy products
So, how many jobs are there for taxi drivers, delivery drivers, and truck drivers, and why not include all transportation jobs that currently require a driver, an operator, or, at the very least, someone who can oversee this flawed technology? For starters, from Copilot Search, there are about 447,900 taxi drivers, shuttle drivers, and chauffeurs in the United States, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
When those jobs are gone, what will be affected next by autonomous technology? I'm not going to go into that here, but anyone can see that it will eliminate jobs.
Maybe that's why we should demand sufficient regulations and a profit-sharing feature to fund a minimum universal income that is 50% above the poverty level for anyone in the country who becomes unemployed as a result of this technology. THAT would at least mitigate the problem of having more people than jobs.
Coming up in Boston in the 1970s and NYC after that, cabs were the way to go. Even a way to make a living. My brother drove a cab in Boston during college breaks. My girlfriend drove in Boston for ten years. The drivers in NYC were lifetime drivers. And they knew the city they were driving in, no GPS or video mapping. Uh-huh, you learned the streets of Dorchester, the back roads of Queens.
Now, all those opportunities for new drivers, Uber drivers, part time gigs, independence for some, good hours for others. All disappearing because Musk played all alone when he was a child and everything he did had no humans interacting, except maybe two astronauts in a tin can to Mars.
Mr Musk: you are no Henry Ford (except the racist part), you are no Nikola Tesla, (except the eccentric part), you are certainly no Thomas Edison. Except you steal ideas and put your name on them.
Take all the bad parts of people, put them together and you have the corpse-looking Leon Msuk, racist, disgusting, cruel Leon, the sad boy no one loved, not even his mom or dad.
Or we could just put public money into a good public transportation system.
Maybe Musk should prove how safe his Autonomous Vehicles are by using them exclusively for road travel before he becomes the first human on Mars.
Except that Musk’s autonomous vehicles are probably safer for someone in the car than for anyone near the outside of the car. I wouldn’t ride in one, but I’m much more worried about getting hit by one.
It seems insane to me for the federal government to make or revise regulations so one manufacturer can realize his "dream" of monopoly. Leon Musk has no idea of what people want except himself. Here's just one argument: when I was first sending my child out of the door to drive by herself, I told her: look out for the other guy. I knew she was going to drive safely but what about all the crazies and angries? I say the same about the Telsa plan: You can't brake? You can't steer? You cannot even see a danger behind you? Why? Tesla's death cab: it's a metal coffin.
Deregulation is the entire point of the Republican agenda and has been since Reagan. The business moguls who love Trump have smiled while the American right wing voter has slobbered over abortion and immigrants. Meanwhile, good-bye clean air, clean water, sustainable energy, safety regulations (e.g. musk) and jobs. The best thing we can do is NOT buy muskmobiles and vote for candidates who reject deregulation.
In San Francisco where driverless vehicles are extremely commonplace, first responders and cops have become annoyed with the hassle and public danger they create. E.g. during the recent 4th of July celebrations where a couple of them drove over fireworks and a swarm of frozen Waymos helped block roads further, something that tends to happen when they encounter novel situations. Cops have to call the company to get them to remotely move them or have a way to do so on the street. They are a public nuisance in that way even if a lot of the time they work just fine and people like to take them.
https://abc7news.com/post/waymo-fleet-clogs-presidio-july-4-fireworks-leaving-vehicles-stranded-towed/19455862/
Temu Waymo, what could go wrong?
Musk says "We’re going to take that risk. It’s my fault if it fucks up," but he's not the one taking the risk. The person foolish enough to get into one of his vehicles is. He has a history of hyperbolic promises and predictions that have never come to fruition. We all have the ability to shut him down. Don't get into a Musk autonomous taxi.
Sean Duffy approaching this issue with his usual sense of duty. To Trump.
Yeah, just what we need! Another hair-brained outburst from don, backing elon - aka chainsaw murderer! Plus putting millions more out of work! Go to MARS, both of you dunderheads! Earth doesn't need either of you mucking up the planet more than it is already. And NOT 1 word about the wildfires burning down Great Lakes, eastern US!