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"A science fiction story is a story built around human beings, with a human problem and a human solution, which would not have happened at all without its scientific content."
- Theodore Sturgeon
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| Laws Against Human Drivers | ||
| The idea that autonomous vehicles should be the only cars on the road, for safety. |
As far as I know, this is the first reference to this idea.
| Heavy penalties, brought to the equivalent of attempted manslaughter, were to be applied to any one found driving manually-controlled machines. Not that anyone would have dared. It was impossible in that tear of traffic for an humble brain to respond quickly enough to avoid almost instant anhihilation. |
| Technovelgy from Photo Control,
by Bernard Brown. Published by Amazing Stories in 1934 Additional resources -
|
Isaac Asimov made the same point in Sally:
The thought makes me feel old. I can remember when there wasn't an automobile in the world with brains enough to find its own way home. I chauffeured dead lumps of machines that needed a man's hand at their controls every minute. Every year machines like that used to kill tens of thousands of people.
The automatics fixed that. A positronic brain can react much faster than a human one, of course, and it paid people to keep hands off the controls. You got in, punched your destination and let it go its own way.
We take it for granted now, but I remember when the first laws came out forcing the old machines off the highways and limiting travel to automatics. Lord, what a fuss. They called it everything from communism to fascism, but it emptied the highways and stopped the killing, and still more people get around more easily the new way.
Compare to the similar statement that only autonomous cars should be allowed on public roads made by Arthur C. Clarke in his 1976 novel Imperial Earth.
Good old Matthew. He stayed in the garage most of the day now, but then he was the granddaddy of all positronic-motored cars. Those were the days when blind war veterans, paraplegics and heads of state were the only ones who drove automatics. But Samson Harridge was my boss and he was rich enough to be able to get one. I was his chauffeur at the time.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Photo Control
More Ideas
and Technology by Bernard Brown
Tech news articles related to Photo Control
Tech news articles related to works by Bernard Brown
Laws Against Human Drivers-related
news articles:
- Autonomous Cars: Who Is Responsible For Driving?
- No Human Drivers By 2040 - Israel
- Tesla Autopilot's 40 Percent Crash Reduction
- When Will The Feds Ban Human Drivers?
| 'Autonomous' Waymo Improves Driving With Remote Human Operators |
| Heinlein’s Controlway - Connected and Automated Vehicle (CAV) Corridor In Michigan |
| CyberCab - Tesla Renames The Robotaxi |
| Elon Musk Says Robotaxis Will Be Ready This August, 2024 |
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'The pitiless M rays pierced Earth and steel and densest concrete as if they were so much transparent glass...'
'Pina2bo would have to operate full blast for many years to put as much SO2 into the stratosphere as its namesake had done in a few minutes.'
'Nanny is different,' Tom Fields murmured... 'she's not like a machine. She's like a person.'
'We made a crude , small cell and were delighted - and, I admit, somewhat surprised - to find it worked.'
'...we've promised him a generous pension from the royalties.'
'The clothes and jewelery drew their tiny power requirements from her movements.'
'At the end of each appendage's eight fingers there are tinier appendages...'
'We want to do something to help those who are suffering from tooth loss or absence,' said lead researcher Katsu Takahashi.
