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"The bottom line in the Dune trilogy is: beware of heroes. Much better to rely on your own judgment, and your own mistakes."
- Frank Herbert
 |
| 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 -
|
Dr. David H. Keller makes the same point in The Living Machine (1935):
“And that is just one more reason why the average human being should not be allowed to drive such a powerful machine!" he mused to himself. "It has taken the combined intelligence of all the scientists of modern time to perfect the automobile and yet it is sold to and driven by any moronic fool who is able to gather together the few dollars necessary to buy a second-handed one. A beautiful machine in the hands of alcoholics, paretics, and fools! A little more thinking! Some additional inventions!! OH! why did I not think of it before?"
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.
The glancing blow from the recklessly driven automobile had spun him into the gutter, but had injured little except his pride and his clothing. Slightly dazed, he stumbled into the meadow by the road and sat down on the grass, his head in his hands to ease the vertigo.
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?
- Is It Time To Forbid Human Driving?
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| Leader-Follower Autonomous Vehicle Technology |
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