President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

The way I envision it, automated vehicles will be little different from cruise control: except, now, once you turn it on, you don't have to worry about paying attention at all. I find it hard to believe even the most ardent of drivers gets any sort of thrill out of navigating a vehicle during rush hour. Even people who like to drive use cruise control, I'd assume. Now, you just get to take your hands off the wheel and devote your attention to something else.

 

As long as they don't automate coal mining, we're safe.

 

I have never used cruise control. Ever. If I'm driving, I'm driving. If I'm not driving, I'm not in the driver's seat. It's how I feel about people wearing headphones when they run or using their phones as pedestrians I get why they're doing it, but turning off one of your five senses while out in public strikes me as needlessly courting danger.

 

In Europe robot trucks for years have been draying shipping containers from dockside to storage yard and back. It's only politics, money and will to get it done here.

Too late.

Mine of the Future™

 

One small point: A lot of the big retailers (Target, Best Buy, Walmart, etc.) are starting to use their stores as local distribution hubs for online delivery in an attempt to compete with Amazon. Some of those former stock boys and cashiers are now packing and shipping in the back room. Not that that can't be automated, but it's worth mentioning.

 

A recent New York Times Magazine issue was all about the autonomous vehicle if anybody is interested.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...olicing.html&usg=AOvVaw0qcLzalAVYbgqS1WKkw924

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...-future.html&usg=AOvVaw0zTdMUlGTGHGf82hXAr4l7

 

Push to increase minimum wage, well intended though it may be, will only accelerate this process. (Although perhaps that will in turn accelerate adoption of Universals Basic Income.)

 

How about jogging while pushing a baby carriage? I get the allure, but what if you trip on a curb and the carriage gets loose and sails into traffic?

 

The town I live in has a competition class track, a running trail of some miles length and a jogging/biking trail that runs the length of the town. Also sidewalks. People still run in the street because their sense of self-preservation is kinda dull.

 

This used to be the stuff of low rent talk radio hosts.

Surprised to see the Times doing this:

 

He assumes that since he has never seen it, it has never been shown on the news.

(the pushing off the roof)