While this is great news technologically, and makes absolute sense automating something like public transport we are edging ever so closer to phasing out masses of jobs.
The real question is why haven’t we automated trains yet? How hard can it be to automate something on a rail?
I would also like to see if this effects anti-social behaviour on busses as there will be no ‘offical” when they eventually remove the support staff.
Driverless vehicles are impossible as things stand at the moment. They need to understand human beings and the human world, the driving bit is easy in comparison.
Not to say it won’t happen but it’s decades away.
It is insane to put an AI in charge of such a massive, deadly piece of machinery in an uncontrolled environment around hapless bystanders.
The state of the art in AI is nowhere near human levels of perception and judgment outside of contrived, tightly controlled settings.
That’s fine on a production line or a spam detector, but driving on the road comprises an ever-changing maelstrom of thousands of micro-tasks from perception and control to social behaviour under imperfect information.
Simply put, driving on the road is a task that needs general intelligence, and artificial general intelligence is not even on the horizon.
There’s no way this can ever backfire. I mean, it’s not like some people can be utter bastards towards others because they want a certain seat or someone kicks off because another person wants a certain seat etc…. Bus companies will remove staff to avoid paying and then we’ll hear reports of a rise in anti-social behaviour.
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Driverless trains would be better because you can retain the ticket conducters and have the driver remain as a precaution. Even then, i rather travel with the thing being operated by a human .
Looks like a BYD bus, they’ve made impressive inroads into Europe and the UK.
5 comments
While this is great news technologically, and makes absolute sense automating something like public transport we are edging ever so closer to phasing out masses of jobs.
The real question is why haven’t we automated trains yet? How hard can it be to automate something on a rail?
I would also like to see if this effects anti-social behaviour on busses as there will be no ‘offical” when they eventually remove the support staff.
Driverless vehicles are impossible as things stand at the moment. They need to understand human beings and the human world, the driving bit is easy in comparison.
Not to say it won’t happen but it’s decades away.
It is insane to put an AI in charge of such a massive, deadly piece of machinery in an uncontrolled environment around hapless bystanders.
The state of the art in AI is nowhere near human levels of perception and judgment outside of contrived, tightly controlled settings.
That’s fine on a production line or a spam detector, but driving on the road comprises an ever-changing maelstrom of thousands of micro-tasks from perception and control to social behaviour under imperfect information.
Simply put, driving on the road is a task that needs general intelligence, and artificial general intelligence is not even on the horizon.
There’s no way this can ever backfire. I mean, it’s not like some people can be utter bastards towards others because they want a certain seat or someone kicks off because another person wants a certain seat etc…. Bus companies will remove staff to avoid paying and then we’ll hear reports of a rise in anti-social behaviour.
​
Driverless trains would be better because you can retain the ticket conducters and have the driver remain as a precaution. Even then, i rather travel with the thing being operated by a human .
Looks like a BYD bus, they’ve made impressive inroads into Europe and the UK.
Lots here in London