I've worked with engineers in the auto industry for over 30 years, and I believe the primary reason all the industry is taking on autonomy is that engineers love a challenge, the more insurmountable the better. In the sixties, the elites wanted to kill the automobile, cities were supposed to be car-free, and our mobility was to be severely trimmed. That's why the emissions laws and safety rules were set so high, no known technology could reach their lofty heights. Well, the auto engineering community rolled up their sleeves and came up with catalytic converters, more and better fuel optimization techniques, crumple zones, ultra high strength steels and a whole panoply of technologies. No wonder car companies feel they can cheat death again. But the bureaucrats and social planners have not given up their dreams of a car-less society. Autonomy is goals they are willing to live with. Cars that are unable to speed. Unable to change lanes. Unable to take a curve at an entertaining pace. Energy consumption will be optimized for our own good. Supposedly we will have cars that will not crash, but every sci-fi movie has a "robot boneyard" of broken autonomous toys. Perfection is not of this world, nor the future world. But the budding plutocrats in our midst hope that Mr. Baruth is right, that autonomy is unattainable. Just as vehicle emission levels, no matter how benign, have now gotten impossible to achieve, forcing emissions away from vehicles to power plants, autonomy will be mandated as well. But if autonomy, really, can never happen, the desired end of any individual mobility will be finally achieved.
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