Billionaires Blast off

[lpetrich]

Seems like self-driving systems will have a long way to go before they can be considered reasonably reliable.

I don't think they have all that far to go, but the premature claims of cowboys like Musk is likely to set them back a fair way, as he inspires governments to demand a more cautious approach than would otherwise be needed.

Why do you say that about not all that far to go?

 

[DrZoidberg]

Seems like self-driving systems will have a long way to go before they can be considered reasonably reliable.

I don't think they have all that far to go, but the premature claims of cowboys like Musk is likely to set them back a fair way, as he inspires governments to demand a more cautious approach than would otherwise be needed.

Why do you say that about not all that far to go?

I have people close to me who work with Machine Learning and self driving cars. My scientist brother. The Swedish Scania has had perfectly fine self driving trucks working for years now. These have already surreptitiously been out in traffic for years. Without incident. They're already on generation three of these. Now they have perfected parking on their own. The next step is unloading on their own. As long as these trucks have drivers at the wheel, it's perfectly allowed to have self driving vehicles out in traffic. They're doing this because they want to avoid the previous Monsanto /Frankenfood debacle. Where a company releases products unequivocally of benefit to mankind, but without enough test data to demonstrate benefit. As well as any single casualty, anywhere in the world, can easily lead to an outright banning of the technology. The technology is still so expensive that the cost of paying a useless driver doesn't really matter. But today in hazardous environments, on private land, where there are no other humans, (like some mines) self driving trucks are today common. But kept quiet since any accidents would lead to scary headlines globally.

This is just from my insider knowledge of one company. I'm pretty sure, all car companies, globally talk to each other and are cooperating in order to prevent a repeat of Frankenfood. Nobody wants to be another Monsanto.

And if you ever wondered where true power lies today, it isn't with the Illuminati. True power is the mindless raging witch hunting Internet mob looking for their next target. Fueled by equally mindless demagogues spreading superficially believable narratives everybody needs to bow down to and accept, or be crushed.

That's why self driving cars are being so slow to become common.

My brother thought that self driving cars would dominate by 2021 and by 2025 it would be illegal to drive your own car. Simply because humans are so much worse drivers than the self driving cars (even five years ago). Clearly his prediction hasn't and won't come true. Because humans are stupid and scared of the wrong things.

 

[bilby]

Seems like self-driving systems will have a long way to go before they can be considered reasonably reliable.

I don't think they have all that far to go, but the premature claims of cowboys like Musk is likely to set them back a fair way, as he inspires governments to demand a more cautious approach than would otherwise be needed.

Why do you say that about not all that far to go?

Because I think that many of the autonomous vehicle systems currently being trialed are significantly better than Musk's 50% arsed 'autopilot'.

But I am not the person to ask - we have a genuine expert here at IIDB, who actually operates prototype vehicles of this kind. @Ford, do you want to weigh in?

 

[lpetrich]

• The 6 Levels of Vehicle Autonomy Explained | Synopsys Automotive
• Levels of Autonomous Driving, Explained - JD Power

The levels:

• 0: No Driving Automation -- except for emergency braking and the like
• 1: Driver Assistance -- any one of steering assistance and adaptive cruise control
• 2: Partial Driving Automation -- both steering assistance and adaptive cruise control, working together
• 3: Conditional Driving Automation -- automated driving most of the time, but still requires a human driver some of the time
• 4: High Driving Automation -- automated driving in some specified regions
• 5: Full Driving Automation -- as it says

From JD Power, "For the record, and according to what the automaker told the state of California, Tesla’s new Full Self Driving Capability technology is a Level 2 system, and it will remain so when Autosteer for city streets arrives as an over-the-air software update."

Other car makers have come up with Level 3 and 4 systems, however.

 

[RVonse]

Seems like self-driving systems will have a long way to go before they can be considered reasonably reliable.

I don't think they have all that far to go, but the premature claims of cowboys like Musk is likely to set them back a fair way, as he inspires governments to demand a more cautious approach than would otherwise be needed.

Why do you say that about not all that far to go?

And if you ever wondered where true power lies today, it isn't with the Illuminati. True power is the mindless raging witch hunting Internet mob looking for their next target. Fueled by equally mindless demagogues spreading superficially believable narratives everybody needs to bow down to and accept, or be crushed.

Are you talking about the social justice warriors? If so, I agree.

 

[RVonse]

Seems like self-driving systems will have a long way to go before they can be considered reasonably reliable.

I don't think they have all that far to go, but the premature claims of cowboys like Musk is likely to set them back a fair way, as he inspires governments to demand a more cautious approach than would otherwise be needed.

Why do you say that about not all that far to go?

My brother thought that self driving cars would dominate by 2021 and by 2025 it would be illegal to drive your own car. Simply because humans are so much worse drivers than the self driving cars (even five years ago). Clearly his prediction hasn't and won't come true. Because humans are stupid and scared of the wrong things.

But is it stupid and scared to be paranoid and/or concerned about personal freedom? The AI might be superior but what happens if you want to go somewhere it does not? What if you are a law abiding person but you simply do not want anyone to know where you are or what you are doing?

 

[TV and credit cards]

Elon Musk's Flawed Vision and the Dangers of Trusting Billionaires | Time

More importantly, those vehicles don’t have a clean, green supply chain. Around the world, mining companies are salivating at the opportunity presented by a shift to battery-powered vehicles because they’re so much more mineral-intensive than the ones we drive today. The International Energy Agency expects demand for battery minerals to soar by 2040, including up to 2,100 percent for cobalt and 4,200 percent for lithium.Then discussing Tesla Motors and its problems. Like supplying raw materials for its batteries: lithium and cobalt.

^^^And the paragraph just before for context

In 2019, Tesla was named in a lawsuit over the deaths of children in the Democratic Republic of Congo who died mining cobalt at sites owned by British mining company Glencore. Despite talking about cobalt-free batteries, Musk proceeded to sign a deal with Glencore in 2020 to supply its Berlin and Shanghai factories. The lawsuit was dismissed in November 2021, but in April of this year, an investigation from Global Witness found that Tesla was among a number of companies that may be getting minerals from mines using child workers in the DRC.

But what about the Sultan Sea? Time had no time to inject some positive goings-on into an otherwise negative article chock-full of accusations and generalizations?

I'll risk throwing sunshine here.

We go to Germany for the answer in California.

California mining firms seek to clean up lithium's production footprint | DW

I first read about this story a couple years back. Now it looks like it is just about operational.

 

[Swammerdami]

...
Dismantling De Hef for superyacht Bezos not yet certain. Aboutaleb: No application, so no decision

Mayor Aboutaleb thinks the fuss about the dismantling of De Hef to allow a ship belonging to billionaire Jeff Bezos to pass is exaggerated. Despite the fact that it was said earlier, no application has been received yet, and therefore no decision has yet been made, says Aboutaleb.

The yacht's assembly shipyard is in Alblasserdam, a little bit upstream of Rotterdam.

When I learned of that, I thought "Wouldn't be easier to remove the masts or else to fold them down?" It would be much cheaper and easier than to remove the lifting part of that bridge, its center span.

This story reminds me of an interesting story from 2010.

The team at Royal Caribbean is breathing easily now that the $1.5 billion Allure of the Seas managed to just squeeze under the Store Belt [Storebaelt] Bridge on its maiden voyage to Ft. Lauderdale, FLA. With just 20 inches to go between the top of the new cruise ship and the highly trafficked bridge, even a rogue ripple in the waves could have put the ship and the bridge in jeopardy.
...
All ships at sea are built to pass under three major gateway bridges: the Golden Gate in San Francisco, which has a clearance of 220 feet; the Verrazano in New York, with a clearance of 228 feet; and the Store Belt west of Copenhagen, which has a clearance of 213 feet. The height of the Allure is 236 feet tall.

To make it under the bridge, 23 feet below their nominal height, the company (a) made the smoke-stacks retractable (presumably they will be retracted only this once), (b) selected a time of fair weather and low tide, (c) raced under the bridge at top speed!

Perhaps there are places in New Jersey or near Queens where that cruise-ship might dock to visit New York, but it won't be visiting San Francisco! Why was it built in Finland in the first place?

 

[DrZoidberg]

Seems like self-driving systems will have a long way to go before they can be considered reasonably reliable.

I don't think they have all that far to go, but the premature claims of cowboys like Musk is likely to set them back a fair way, as he inspires governments to demand a more cautious approach than would otherwise be needed.

Why do you say that about not all that far to go?

My brother thought that self driving cars would dominate by 2021 and by 2025 it would be illegal to drive your own car. Simply because humans are so much worse drivers than the self driving cars (even five years ago). Clearly his prediction hasn't and won't come true. Because humans are stupid and scared of the wrong things.

But is it stupid and scared to be paranoid and/or concerned about personal freedom? The AI might be superior but what happens if you want to go somewhere it does not? What if you are a law abiding person but you simply do not want anyone to know where you are or what you are doing?

If AI driven cars have average rate of accidents of zero. People will probably sacrifice that freedom

 

[Harry Bosch]

Seems like self-driving systems will have a long way to go before they can be considered reasonably reliable.

I don't think they have all that far to go, but the premature claims of cowboys like Musk is likely to set them back a fair way, as he inspires governments to demand a more cautious approach than would otherwise be needed.

Why do you say that about not all that far to go?

My brother thought that self driving cars would dominate by 2021 and by 2025 it would be illegal to drive your own car. Simply because humans are so much worse drivers than the self driving cars (even five years ago). Clearly his prediction hasn't and won't come true. Because humans are stupid and scared of the wrong things.

But is it stupid and scared to be paranoid and/or concerned about personal freedom? The AI might be superior but what happens if you want to go somewhere it does not? What if you are a law abiding person but you simply do not want anyone to know where you are or what you are doing?

If AI driven cars have average rate of accidents of zero. People will probably sacrifice that freedom

Yes, it is great to have the freedom to choose. Those who will choose to buy an AI driving vehicle will pay a certain amount of insurance per month. Those who choose to drive a manual car, will pay 100 times that in insurance.

 

[Swammerdami]

That's because it's still being built. It's expected to run San Francisco - San Jose - Merced - Fresno - Bakersfield - Palmdale - Los Angeles - Anaheim, with future extensions to Sacramento and San Diego.

What they have funding for is Merced - Bakersfield, and they hope to get funding for the rest of the system later on.
. . .
So it will likely be San Jose - bus (2 hours) - Merced - high-speed train (1 hour) - Bakersfield - bus (2 1/2 hours) - LA

The distance from Merced to Palmdale is about the same as Paris to Lyon. The difference is that most people have no reason to go to Merced or Palmdale or anywhere in between.

You can enjoy America's spacious "Flyover_Land" without ever leaving California!

 

[Bomb#20]

The distance from Merced to Palmdale is about the same as Paris to Lyon. The difference is that most people have no reason to go to Merced or Palmdale or anywhere in between.

People have a reason to go to Paris?

 

[bilby]

The distance from Merced to Palmdale is about the same as Paris to Lyon. The difference is that most people have no reason to go to Merced or Palmdale or anywhere in between.

People have a reason to go to Paris?

They don't have a choice; That's where the Gare de Lyon was built.

 

[DrZoidberg]

Seems like self-driving systems will have a long way to go before they can be considered reasonably reliable.

I don't think they have all that far to go, but the premature claims of cowboys like Musk is likely to set them back a fair way, as he inspires governments to demand a more cautious approach than would otherwise be needed.

Why do you say that about not all that far to go?

My brother thought that self driving cars would dominate by 2021 and by 2025 it would be illegal to drive your own car. Simply because humans are so much worse drivers than the self driving cars (even five years ago). Clearly his prediction hasn't and won't come true. Because humans are stupid and scared of the wrong things.

But is it stupid and scared to be paranoid and/or concerned about personal freedom? The AI might be superior but what happens if you want to go somewhere it does not? What if you are a law abiding person but you simply do not want anyone to know where you are or what you are doing?

If AI driven cars have average rate of accidents of zero. People will probably sacrifice that freedom

Yes, it is great to have the freedom to choose. Those who will choose to buy an AI driving vehicle will pay a certain amount of insurance per month. Those who choose to drive a manual car, will pay 100 times that in insurance.

It's not just that. The driver's seat is a very expensive part of the build. If the guy in the driver's seat isn't driving, it frees up a lot of space in the car, makes the instrument panel redundant and means you don't need to pay for all that shit. Once people learn how much money they're saving by not having that it's an easy choice.

A lot of the design choices in cars are centered around accident protection. If accidents drop down to near zero we can stop caring about safety and security of driving. It allows for a radically different interior design of cars. We will want interiors that can easily be turned into beds, so people can sleep or rest on the road to places. Commuting to work means transforming your car into an office space.

Once people are given the choice and they see how much time, stress, lives and money they save by insisting on manual cars being made illegal it'll be an easy choice. It's just so much more superior, in every way, that counter arguments fall flat. Manual driving will be something hobbists do on purpose built driving tracks. It'll be similar to how people ride horses today. Something few do out of necessity.
Or so thinks my brother. He doesn't work with this anymore. He's a scientist and once self driving cars were solved, (which he thinks it is), he moved on. He thinks that the roll out of this technology is too slow for his taste. He's too impatient. Today he works with using AI to optimise water usage of cities. He works with R&D of pump systems for entire cities. May not sound like a similar job. But he's doing the same kind of research, just elsewhere.

He says that self driving cars is not longer a technological problem. It's a question of marketing and politics. Something which he knows nothing about nor is interested in.

 

[lpetrich]

Jeff Bezos’ New Yacht, Koru, Is Finally Ready to Set Sail - The New York Times - "Amazon’s founder has been spotted on Koru, a massive schooner with a design that evokes the golden age of sailing in the early 20th century."

Just in time for the high season of yachting in the Mediterranean, when multimillion-dollar megayachts descend on ports like Monte Carlo and St. Tropez, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, has been photographed with his partner Lauren Sánchez on his new boat, Koru, off the coast of Spain.

Mr. Bezos’ vessel is a sailing yacht, a departure from the diesel-powered, floating palaces popular with other billionaires. But it is still massive. At 417 feet, Koru is the world’s largest sailing yacht, according to Boat International, and it cost an estimated $500 million to build, Bloomberg reported. (Parsifal III, the boat featured on Bravo’s reality series “Below Deck Sailing Yacht,” is 177 feet long — less than half the length of Koru — and cost $18 million, according to the website SuperYachtFan.)

 Schooner - a big sailboat or sailing ship with at least two masts and fore-and-aft sails. I found that a bit surprising, since the big stereotype of oceangoing sailing ships is their having square-rigged sails.

 Fore-and-aft rig - sails extending along the main axis of the vessel, what small sailboats have.

 Square rig - sails extending sideways.

The support boat?

Koru will be trailed by Abeona, a 246-foot support vessel. Superyachts often have support vessels following along behind them. These “shadows,” as they are colloquially known, are for the “toys” — the ATVs, supercars, seaplanes, motorcycles, smaller boats, scuba gear, personal submarines and even helicopters that pleasure boaters might bring on a trip. According to its builder, this model of boat can carry these gadgets along with dozens of crew members. (Ms. Sanchez flies helicopters, and the couple was recently photographed taking a helicopter to board Abeona and then Koru.)

Abeona, a motor yacht, will have enough range to follow Koru from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean — a common course for yachts — on a single tank of gas.

Personal submarines?
The Quest to Make Submarines More Affordable - The New York Times - "A Personal Submarine for Every Orthodontist" - "Until recently considered a folly available only to billionaires, personal submarines are now ready for the (well-heeled) masses."

The name?

Koru is Maori for “coil” or “loop” and refers to the unfurling of a fern frond. The koru design is common in traditional Maori art, where it symbolizes new life, growth and peace. Mr. Bezos included a photo of a koru frond in an Instagram post on Jan. 1, 2022.

 

[TSwizzle]

Another billionaire tragically dies after crashing his race car;

A billionaire who had vowed to make crime-riddled Chicago the safest city in the US has died in a tragic car crash at a race track in Colorado. James 'Jim' Crown was celebrating his 70th birthday at the members-only Aspen Motorsports Park on Sunday when his vehicle hit an impact barrier. 'Mr. Crown was involved in a motor vehicle crash at the Woody Creek racetrack resulting in fatal injuries,' said the Pitkin County Sheriff's Office.

Daily Mail

 

[Rhea]

Well, one has to applaud the desire to use his money to help reduce crime. (Unless he was a monster kind of personality and wanted to do it through cruel means, then one doesn’t applaud)

Interesting mix:

Commercial Club of Chicago - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

progressive social issues but trying to shut down pensions.

But he sounds like he might have been a guy who cares about people:

Civic Committee aims to tackle crime from a new perspective

The Civic Committee has evolved from a standard business group issuing standard business demands to taking a much more nuanced, holistic approach to solving very difficult, perhaps intractable problems like crime.

chicago.suntimes.com

 

[blastula]

Anyone who still has a billion dollars only cares so much about other people.

 

[Rhea]

Well, I agree with that.

 

[ZiprHead]