2y ago

After a Big Lobbying Push, Robotaxi Companies Are Wreaking Havoc on San Francisco’s Streets

jacobin.com

5 comments

Safe Street Rebel, a decentralized group that prefers to keep its members anonymous due to potential legal or punitive actions, has been involved in a number of protest incidents in which activists place traffic cones on the hoods of the driverless cars, disrupting the cars’ sensors and forcing the vehicle to stop, illustrating how easy it is for the vehicles to become incapacitated and cause congestion.”
Lol. It's an elegant way to prove that this tech is not at all ready.
- I'd say the vehicle not continuing to drive with a traffic cone on its hood is the exact way it should operate.
  But putting a cone on its hood should be a crime. Vandalism or obstruction of some flavor.
  
  It more demostrates that it is not comparable to a human driver, for whom it's a very simple task to just remove the cone. It begs the question; if these cars are paralyzed by the most basic thing, how can we expect them to make decisions in more complicated scenarios where lives are at risk or the car gets hijacked through some exploit?
  Punishing the demonstrators won't resolve that question.
  
  @rgb3x3 @raccoonanongrata "Vandalism, n, action involving deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property."
  Obstruction as a crime means "an act that involves unduly influencing, impeding, or otherwise interfering with the justice system".
  
  But putting a cone on its hood should be a crime.
  What a wild take. "Ah yes, we should be protecting capital at all costs."
  A traffic cone is not damaging the property, or hurting anyone. It just damages their bottom line a little bit.
  It's not even like the car is personal property, someone's only mode of transportation. And if it were, it wouldn't matter, because a human can just remove a cone.
  I find it hilarious and unhinged that people will genuinely suggest that something as minor as placing a traffic cone on the hood of a robotaxi should be criminalized.