You are wrong, self-driving software can make mistakes. It is the software companies coding it that refuse to shoulder the responsibility, because they still have no idea how reliable their tech is. Otherwise they would have the appropriate insurance, like any company that trades in any dangerous business. Aircraft manufacturers still make planes (with autopilot!) despite crashes, chemical manufacturers still deal with explosive and poisonous materials, etc... Only those software companies want to be fully held irresponsible of what happens. They are dishonest.
Otherwise they would have the appropriate insurance, like any company that trades in any dangerous business.
What is "appropriate insurance"?
As far as I'm aware, virtually every state with an AV pilot program requires insurance (either commercial or self-insured, as typical for commercial vehicles) in order to be permitted. Several major markets (e.g. California) also require an additional bond to cover issues and have a gradual expansion process to better understand unknown risks.
Yes, they are dishonest and only loyal to stakeholders, that's capitalism 101. The other examples you mentioned are around for more time and they have safety regulations, inspections and fines. Another thing that changed is media landscape. Tesla can get caught of altering the logs in cases of autopilot crash and it just gets buried in news instead of being brought up and repeated over and over each time their stock is discussed.
>i am still hesitant of tesla and similarly large players, it seems absolutely wild to me that people are using a fork of a small company's software to drive their car.
Of course they are. This is exactly why we have laws and regulations.
But there are always people who think they know better. George Hotz, the founder of comma.ai, is a very prominent one (despite falling flat on his face more than once). Who do you think is attracted to comma.ai?
“We’ve always been the North Korea of self-driving companies; we are driven by nobody else’s agenda. That’s not going to change.” -George Hotz
"Hotz is clearly a very capable engineer and has accomplished some impressive feats in his young life. However, listening to him speak at Techcrunch Disrupt he also comes off as incredibly arrogant even by Silicon Valley standards. The fundamental problem that I personally have with Hotz and many others in the valley is that they seem to have the idea that just because they can do something, there is no reason not to, regardless of the consequences for others."
Why would you rely on reporting pf behavior from a decade ago though? He was what... 25-26 then? He's closing in on his 40s (sorry if you read this geohot) and hasn't seemed very arrogant on his live streams for tinygrad. Strong opinions, confidence, sure, but he keeps a flexible mind.
It is not a tariff issue because there are no tariffs.
The author says so, if you take the time to read the actual article:
>I say this isn’t a tariff issue, and it’s not—these are existing customs charges that were waived for these low-cost shipments.
It is US companies having to pay VAT just like EU companies (the author seems surprised EU member states have varying VAT rates, but it is the same across the US), and private shipment companies deciding to push administrative costs to the customers. And inflation and energy costs soaring, due to a certain (US) administration going all-in on AI and foreign wars (which also affect intra-EU shipping).
But guess what: it costs less to ship something between two neighbouring European countries than across the Atlantic ocean. That's still not a tariff.
> It is US companies having to pay VAT just like EU companies
I volunteer with a small US-based non-profit, and we only mail really inexpensive items ($4.50 each). We've been prepaying the VAT for a few years now [0], but our printer still informed us that we need to pay this new €3 fee, on top of the VAT and shipping fees that we're already paying [1].
We have no problem at all with paying taxes (even 30% of $4.50 is still really cheap), but a fixed €3 fee per item is brutal on an item that we're selling for less than €4. And the typical methods to reduce the impact of this fee like shipping in bulk don't really work for us, because timeliness is important for a periodical and most people only want a single copy of each issue.
> and private shipment companies deciding to push administrative costs to the customers
Our printer was rather evasive when we asked about this, but as far as I can tell, the €3 fee is imposed by the government, and then the shipping intermediaries will charge some undisclosed additional amount on top of this fee.
I appreciate the insights of Alfred Korzybski: the map is not the territory, the verb "to be" can be very reducing, etc.
His thoughts also directly inspired Dianetics, i.e. Scientology, and several prominent followers of Korzybski's philosophy were syphoned in the pipeline to Dianetics and Scientology.
I still find his work insightful and don't follow the same path.
I think the same can be done with Kahneman's concepts. Sometimes, when the logical thread from a few good ideas gets too long, you need to do a reality check and use it as a "reductio ab absurdum" that this thread went nowhere.
Right now, American sailors and officers are doing war crimes every week in the Caribbean, shooting at boaters. They are boasting about it and showing it on social media.
Zero reaction. But you are more concerned because you might have some of your private data put into a huge database by the CIA. Heh. Seems that really sets you off is not the scale of the "crime", but that you may have been affected. "How dare they!"
I deeply hate Noam Chomsky for his hypocrisy, but his 80's analysis that the press as a business can't do its job is profoundly right. It got much worse since then.
Sorry, but is Russia or the USA the one most likely to kill Snowden? Oh, yeah, it isn't Russia, because Snowden avoids saying things that could trigger his KGB handlers to disappear him... Like denouncing a genocidal war of aggression against a neighbor, or the assassination of journalists and political opponents, or the repression of any opposition in the streets...
By leaking American info, Snowden painted a target on his back that can be reached by the USA and all allies with extradition agreements. That leaves him with very few superpowers who won't hand him over to the FBI/CIA and execution or imprisonment.
If I were in his shoes, I too would relocate to a superpower not allied with the USA and avoid getting involved in anything political over there.
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