Sunday, July 8, 2018

The Objective of Self Driving Cars

The objective is not to free the driver from control of the car for whatever marketing reason sells the idea.

The objective is to monitor the driver through an internet of things that produce data  about the individual driver and all drivers collectively.

That data is input to monitoring systems that generate information about the driver and aloo drivers  that becomes valuable. Money is to be made on the value of that information.  This objective is what will make driving safer.

China is developing citizen rating systems aimed at control of personal behavior.  A government program that horrifies freedom loving Americans. America is developing the same public control systems for the same purpose but in partnership with the private sector.

This link:
https://fair.org/home/nyt-sees-dystopia-in-chinese-surveillance-which-looks-a-lot-like-us-surveillance/

China is doing the same thing:  Managing social behavior through creations of Internet of Things sensor systems to record behavior of its citizens.  Interesting that the photos that are used in presenting the control objectives of each country and the focus of control for the benefit of society.  In China it is photos of people on the street in the frame of government system control.  In the USA the focus is on the framework if private enterprise and the focus is on people in automobiles under the guise of self driving cars.

Which country is using technology the best to control behavior.  In the USA it is free private enterprise.  In China it is the government of the Peoples Republic of China.  The difference?  The difference in bottom line benefit to each society?  The difference in surveillance data collection?  USA is surveillance through relationship of people to their devices like cell phones and cars.  In China it is more direct surveillance of the individual.

If the objective is to generate driving data at the individual and collective level then public knowledge of that truth is not a good marketing.  The objective has to be sold to the public with a marketing strategy that portrays it as something that it is not but something the public will buy: Self Driving and Social Media.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/07/links-7-11-18.html#comment-2994984

Both countries use Algorithms applied to its population to produce personal data and convert it to personal information related to a unique individual.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/jul/01/how-algorithms-rule-world-nsa

"Self Driving":  An Artificial Intelligent  thing driving a vehicle.  It can be done.   It is being done on a test basis on public streets.  There is money to be made selling cars that can drive themselves autonomously.  It takes time to sell that many new vehicles with that ability.  What can be sold soon on a large scale is any ability of a vehicle to perform driving assist functions.  Like lane sensing.

Examining lane sensing is an example of a feature that offers the opportunity for managing not just where the vehicle positions itself in a lane of traffic but......this is the big flip side: Where it does not!  What is the value of that data?

This link extols the benefits of lane sensing:
https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/todays-lane-keeping-assistance-technology-steers-the-way-to-self-driving-cars/

Lane sensing devices inform the driver of lane departure by various means.  Sound warnings or physical warnings such as movement of the steering wheel that can be sensed by the driver's hands.  A warning that that also takes control of the vehicle to guide it unless over-ridden by the driver.

Lane sensing produces data about when the vehicle is not in a proper lane situation. That data and its related data elements can be recorded.  Lane position is a data element related to safe driving and recording that data about the driver ability to control the vehicle to remain in a lane can be used to evaluate the relative safety with which the driver controls the operation of the vehicle.  It puts a policing agent in the passenger seat...or more likely.... under the hood.

Connect lane changing with vehicle speed and a few other data elements like rate of acceleration and it begins to say something about the driver. Connect vehicle speed at the time lane change to posted speed limit and it tells more about the driver.  Aggregate data over time it is reveals frequency.  Something on a relative scale is produced relating to driver evaluation information.  That driver behavior information can be related to an individuals general personal behavior.

It is all about sensors recording and reporting on driver behavior.  That is what Progressive Insurance does when it gets an insured driver to put an OBD dongle on their car to get a lower insurance rate.
https://www.progressive.com/auto/discounts/snapshot/
The most scary phrase in the world to a conservative is: We are from  the government and we are here to help you.  For the American Public it is:  We are from (fill in the blank with a private enterprise entity like Finance, Insurance or Real Estate, Walmart or Amazon or Google) and we are here to help you.

This being Sunday I will shift my focus of thinking to a bigger wider scope.

The greatest commandment is:

Love one another!

Fear and Hatred seem to be gaining as the method of manipulating and benefiting from social behavior.  They are in fact powerful manipulators.

While more love is a good thing fear and hate focused on social behavior that truly deserves it to correct it is a good thing...done in a compassionate manner for the greater good.  The sowing of love where there is hate.

Hating social misbehavior outside the norms, rules and regulations both formalized in law and fundamental norms of human social rights is a good thing.  Choosing who and what to hate based on generalities of discrimination is wrong.  Hate and fear the behavior not the person is a good thing.

Hate and fear recklessness and lack of responsibility in compliance with of traffic laws and good driving practices is a good thing.  Most drivers judge themselves as good drivers.  More intelligent than others:
https://www.realclearscience.com/quick_and_clear_science/2018/07/05/65_of_americans_think_they_are_more_intelligent_than_average.html
Certainly true about what they think individually.  Certainly true collectively.

It is the small percent related to negligent death and destruction, the small minority of drivers that are to be hated and feared.  Sensors and reporting systems that are being developed for self driving vehicles are first and foremost and opportunity for social control of safe driving practices.  Private enterprise will identify unsafe drivers and charge them more.  Government monitoring control of social driving behavior through identification of the bad driving behavior as a function of purchase of aggregated data from private enterprise identifying the worst patterns of driving habits is a good thing.

Better drivers are necessary on our nations roads.  Reducing and eliminating the worst drivers is a way to average better drivers.

I foresee a future reality show that asks the question:  Are you a better driver than a self driving AI vehicle?  It will be a match between a vehicle that has all the sensors and software of and AI vehicle but not of the actual driving control physical mechanisms.  Actual driving control of a human driver will be matched to what the AI sensors and software would have performed.

Let that game begin!

https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/an-ai-learnt-to-drive-an-autonomous-car-in-20-minutes/















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