18
submitted 1 year ago by yogthos@lemmy.ml to c/technology@lemmy.ml
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] theluddite@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Extremely based.

Waymo was less enthusiastic about the practice. A spokesperson said that the cone protest reflects a lack of understanding of how autonomous vehicles work and is "vandalism and encourages unsafe and disrespectful behavior on our roadways." Waymo says it will call the police on anyone caught interfering with its fleet of robotaxis.

You can tell the cops work for capital because Uber has made a fortune operating illegal taxis throughout the entire country and cops have never done a goddamn thing about it, but put one fucking cone on a car and Waymo feels confident the cops would use violence to stop it from happening again.

If Waymo gets its way, the roads are just going to be fully of buggy, barely-functioning autonomous cars, and every time they hit a pedestrian, the cops will arrest the pedestrian for being "disrespectful."

edit: the more I think about it, the funnier it is. Waymo is supposedly "testing" their technology. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of how testing works. If your car can't handle real-world conditions, you don't get to call the cops on the real-world conditions. Putting a cone on the hood of the car is actually a great example of the kinds of weird, one-off things that happen to drivers all the time, often called the "pogo stick" problem. A serious engineering organization would realize that, realize how good humans would be at responding to this anomalous situation, and take it for the humbling experience it should be.

[-] eyy@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

"vandalism" is really stretching it.

[-] n2burns@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago

IANAL or a resident of California, but I think you're right. According to California Penal Code § 594 PC, vandalism is when a person either "Defaces with graffiti or other inscribed material", "Damages", or "Destroys" property, which doesn't describe this act. I would think some sort of "mischief" is the most they could reasonably charge someone with. Maybe "public endangerment" but if you did this to a driver, they would just remove the object, so I think there's an argument of who is causing that public endangerment.

load more comments (4 replies)
this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2023
18 points (76.5% liked)

Technology

34987 readers
312 users here now

This is the official technology community of Lemmy.ml for all news related to creation and use of technology, and to facilitate civil, meaningful discussion around it.


Ask in DM before posting product reviews or ads. All such posts otherwise are subject to removal.


Rules:

1: All Lemmy rules apply

2: Do not post low effort posts

3: NEVER post naziped*gore stuff

4: Always post article URLs or their archived version URLs as sources, NOT screenshots. Help the blind users.

5: personal rants of Big Tech CEOs like Elon Musk are unwelcome (does not include posts about their companies affecting wide range of people)

6: no advertisement posts unless verified as legitimate and non-exploitative/non-consumerist

7: crypto related posts, unless essential, are disallowed

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS