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Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Which Way ForThe Driverless Car

On November 5th an article in the Toronto Star dealt with the reality of driverless cars. Computer scientists and economists say the threat is no longer theoretical. Automated cars pose a threat to many Americans who drive for a living which are 2.9 million truckers and delivery drivers, 674,000 bus drivers and 181,000 cab drivers and chauffeurs. Already, in Pittsburg, there are driverless Uber taxis. Conversely, the self-driving Tesla car crashed in May as it failed to detect a tractor-trailer crossing its path. Frank Levy of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said, ''Truck drivers are safe because a machine couldn't negotiate rush hour traffic without a helping hand.'' Some say driverless vehicles will not create much unemployment overall because a vehicle that is on the road 24 hours a day will need a lot of maintenance. 
This writer thinks they may have computer operators on them, initially, instead of drivers. At present no one knows exactly what will happen; it could be after a period of trials and experimentation it will lead to more unemployment. If automation leads to massive unemployment overall there will be a reaction. 
What form this will take we don't know. The worse case scenario would be the rise of the fascism we saw in the 1930's. The best would be a working class, who, through severe economic pressure, realize they can only solve their problems through co-operation with their fellow workers - lets hope so. 
John Ayers.

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