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Matthew Yglesias
@mattyglesias
I keep meeting people who are skeptical self-driving cars will ever happen. I tell them I took one to the airport in Phoenix several months ago, did a test ride in DC, they’re currently all over San Francisco, etc and it’s blank stares like I’m telling them about Santa.
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Alice
@AliceFromQueens
Self-driving cars are like the new weight loss drugs Their value is so large, so obvious, and so scalable, that we can confidently predict their triumph regardless of knee-jerk cultural resistance and their wildly exaggerated downsides. x.com/emollick/statu…
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David Watson 🥑
Eric Rachlin
@eerac
But surely the specific area in which I live has unique challenges that this already-deployed, already-successful self-driving technology will never be able to master.
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John Shedletsky
@Shedletsky
same thing happened to the wright brothers. they were flying planes for years over ohio and no one believed that they actually were real.
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bartdecrem
@bartdecrem
It took 10 years longer than we thought, but now it’s super real and it’s magical technology. I take it several times a week and it’s just amazing. On a par with the internet and the smartphone as a tech breakthrough.
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Liz Highleyman
@LizHighleyman
If it's not yet a fact of life in the major East Coast cities, it might as well not exist as far as much of the national media & punditry is concerned.
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Richard K
@RichardK4
Why would they think technology to replace any given mechanical task of humans could never happen...
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Stan Walters
@StanManWithPlan
The cool thing about self-driving electric cars is that they can be car-jacked, stripped, and left as junk on the road - and no one calls the police.
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Ljubomir Josifovski
@ljupc0
Our collective indifference to statistical murder by omission is indefensible. We effectively act as if "it's ok to kill 100 by omission in order to avoid killing 1 by commission." But this FAIL of ours is not inevitable. It's laziness in our thinking, and lacking feelings for
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AdiP
@AdrianPocea
You fucking paid money to Google instead of paying an Uber driver that puts food on his table? And you call yourself a leftist? You are a despicable human being
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Leslie Ridings
@Leslie_Ridings
I take them in LA whenever I can’t take transit where I’m going. They’re awesome; far prefer them over human drivers for one simple reason: they obey traffic laws and drive under the speed limit. It’s a whole different experience. Also you get to pick the music 😎
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(((Matthew Lewis))) cults & consequences
@mateosfo
It's a question of scale. They will almost certainly never scale/always be niche, and make no measurable impact on safety or convenience. Waymo doesn't even intend to scale this or next decade, they're aiming for 30,000 vehicles max by 2030.
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Dylan Rhoney
@rdrhoney
Took a Waymo in Scottsdale earlier this year. A great experience. Felt safe, easy to get the ride, had safety precautions to make sure I was the person who ordered the care before opening the doors. We need them everywhere.
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Matthew Griisser
@_mgriisser
The 2010s in retrospect feels a bit like a technological doldrums where we just got incrementally better and more complex websites and apps and people are somewhat unprepared for genuinely impressive technological leaps that are/have happened in the 2020s
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Password is Taco
@pw_is_taco1
The white pill is that if their insurance quotes are priced to reflect their risk reduction, adoption could be widespread as sticker costs continue to come down The black pill is Europe is ok killing thousands of citizens a year because AC causes "thermal shock"
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Teddy Chassin
@TeddyChassin
I think what happened was their timeline for street viability was oversold for a while until somewhat recently, but the ironic “just around the corner” reputation settled in strongly
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Patrick
@phorne96
As much as there is a hype train for new tech, there’s an at least equal anti-hype train for new tech.
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Mark N
@mviski
Even with little improvement in technology, we could get a future where self driving taxis are abundant, and we can start reclaiming all the on street parking for loading zones, cafes, and green space.
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Sara Mead
@saramead
When people says this: is the skepticism about technology, financial viability, demand, political/legal/regulatory barriers or something else?
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matt duffy
@iammattduff
I'll accept that it's possible that some smart people are unaware of waymos successes. But I also think people psychologically put 'personally owned' in front of self-driving cars when talking about whether or not they will "happen".
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