Are We Moving Too Fast With Self-Driving Cars?

Recently, Arizona had 12 self-driving cars on their roads.  One of them was involved in what was called a "high speed" crash with the car landing on its side.  On a percentage basis, one accident out of 12 cars is not very good.  Because of that accident, Uber has now been forced to shut down its Arizona program of self-driving cars until further notice.

Yet, researchers, as reported by the "Atlantic" in 2015 (see below), said this:

"Researchers estimate that driverless cars could, by midcentury, reduce traffic fatalities by up to 90 percent. Which means that, using the number of fatalities in 2013 as a baseline, self-driving cars could save 29,447 lives a year. In the United States alone, that's nearly 300,000 fatalities prevented over the course of a decade, and 1.5 million lives saved in a half-century."

Of course, that assumes that the technology is sound.  In fact, in late 2015, "USAToday" ran a story that stated:  "self-driving test cars are involved in crashes at five times the rate of conventional cars."

Google and other companies such as Ford are pushing to put unmanned vehicles on the roads right-now, I personally think the states should slow down a bit and let the technology prove itself with lower accident rates.   As reported by the U.K. Daily Mail, a "leaked" internal report from Uber said that a self-driving Uber vehicles can't drive a mile without human intervention.  Doesn't sound like the technology is quite there, yet! 

References:

Self-driving Uber SUV crashes and flips onto its side after 'high impact' accident in Arizona: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4348742/Self-driving-Uber-crashes-Arizona.html

Uber crash raises question: How do self-driving cars deal with the other guys on the road: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2017/03/25/uber-accident-raises-question-how-do-self-driving-cars-deal-with-the-other-guys-on-the-road/?utm_term=.d8bcd79f0add

Self-Driving Cars Could Save 300,000 Lives Per Decade in America: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/09/self-driving-cars-could-save-300000-lives-per-decade-in-america/407956/

Study: Self-driving cars have higher accident rate: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2015/10/31/study-self-driving-cars-accidents/74946614/

Uber's self-driving cars get into another crash | TechRadar: http://www.techradar.com/news/ubers-self-driving-cars-get-into-another-crash

Uber Halts Self-Driving Car Fleet After Crash In Arizona: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/uber-self-driving-cars-suspended_us_58d70639e4b03692bea698ee
 
pb

The Hidden Agenda Of The Labor Department Ban On Children Doing Chores On Farms

Unless Congress is able to step in, It appears that Hilda Solis' Department of Labor will issue new child labor rules that will effectively ban all farm children from doing any daily chores on their parent's farms.  The Labor Department claims that the ban is needed because the children are being injured in the process of these chores and they are being abused by having to work long hours.

While I can't address the "long hours" issue, I can say that accident statistic for children on farms is about 7 per 1000 farms per year.  By contrast, 1 in every 5 high school athletes will suffer a painful injury in all their years of sports participation.  So, the "accident" claim seems to be a canard.  And, if one claim is a canard, the other on "long hours" just may also be falsified.

For as long as there have been farms in America, parents have their children working on them.  It helps farmers lower operating costs and it teaches the children many valuable life and work ethic lessons.  Generally, it prepares children so they can eventually run the farm themselves.  Now, all of a sudden, the Obama Administration has decided to break that long tradition.

But, why now?  To me, the "real agenda" here is all about forcing farmers to hire more workers.  Hilda Solis knows that the work will have to be done by paid workers if the children are no longer involved. This means more jobs for both nationals as well as illegals.  However, it also means that the farmer's costs will go up.  Of course, with higher costs you get higher food prices.  For the working poor, that means even more food stamps. Lastly, it also means that some number of farms will go bankrupt because the higher costs will make them less able to operate profitably.

Update:  Apparently the political heat got too hot for Obama and the idiots at his Labor Department and the new rules on farm children have been dropped.  But, mark my words.  The rules haven't been actually dropped.  They've just been shelved.  I guarantee you that, if Obama is reelected and he no longer has anything to lose, those child labor rules will be reissued.