February 16, 2023

Innerscape’s robotaxi?

By acflory

This is not quite how I pictured the fully automated taxi’s in the world of Innerscape, and they don’t talk, yet, but I kind of like the shape/design. And it helps that they’re real:

Zoox is not the first self-driving vehicle to be invented, but I suspect it may become the fore-runner for all taxi’s in the future. I’m just a wee bit surprised it’s happened so soon.

You can read the full, New Atlas article about the Zoox here.

cheers,
Meeks

About acflory

I am the kind of person who always has to know why things are the way they are so my interests range from genetics and biology to politics and what makes people tick. For fun I play online mmorpgs, read, listen to a music, dance when I get the chance and landscape my rather large block. Work is writing. When a story I am working on is going well I'm on cloud nine. On bad days I go out and dig big holes... View all posts by acflory
This entry was posted on Thursday, February 16th, 2023 at 8:48 am and tagged with , , , , , , , , and posted in Innerscape, technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

57 responses to “Innerscape’s robotaxi?”

  • D. Wallace Peach
    February 20th, 2023 at 12:26 am

    That is very cool. But that lady who’s riding in there looks way too calm. Lol. I’m surprised too that this is already happening. I can see it working in a number of settings. 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
  • Frances Davies
    February 19th, 2023 at 2:24 pm

    I think the design of the Zoox self-driving vehicles is really cool, and it’s so incredible to think that this technology is here already. I bet it will be the norm for all taxi’s in the future! What do you think will be the next big advancement in self-driving technology?

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
  • mydangblog
    February 19th, 2023 at 9:21 am

    I think I’ll stay away from self-driving cars–I’m too much of a control freak. I don’t even like it when Ken drives, lol!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
    • acflory
      February 19th, 2023 at 9:36 pm

      rofl – you should definitely steer clear of self-driving cars. I drive a manual coz I don’t trust automatics but…once I hit 90 I think I wouldn’t mind being driven around by an AI. I figure by then a bit of ‘live dangerously’ would actually be fun. 😉

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply
  • Anonymole
    February 19th, 2023 at 4:05 am

    The exponential rate of change is upon us. The AGI sector is testament to that. These next 10 years will be mindbogglingly tumultuous.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
    • acflory
      February 19th, 2023 at 7:42 am

      I admit, I’m excited by the thought of so much change, even if it makes my stories obsolete. I just hope the rate of change is matched by a period of global responsibility. Not holding my breath on that one.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply
  • Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt
    February 16th, 2023 at 6:17 pm

    Too much of a skeptic to put my life in the hands of software yet. I know some planes land that way – but there’s a pilot watching. I know some cars park themselves that way – ditto driver. I know some transportation on a dedicated lane does okay.

    But I also know software glitches and failures: I used to program CRAYs in FORTRAN, and the darn computers do what you tell them to do instead of what you want them to do.

    There have been plenty of problems so far. They don’t sleep – but also don’t have ANY judgment. I believe humans have died and property has been destroyed.

    I suspect it will happen in my lifetime, but will be perfectly happy to have other people test them first.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
    • acflory
      February 16th, 2023 at 8:33 pm

      I think that if they’re programmed to look for a whole range of potential dangers, the neural networks are far enough advanced to be able to ‘stop’, probably faster than a human. As you say though, if something happens that’s outside their programming they may not even recognize the potential for harm.
      I suspect the Tesla cars that caused death[s] were put out on the road without sufficient testing because of the PR value etc. Hopefully this new taxi is built for function rather than to be sexy. lol And yes, I’m not rushing to become an early adopter either. 😀

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
    • Yorgos KC
      February 25th, 2023 at 1:14 am

      “and the darn computers do what you tell them to do instead of what you want them to do.” 🤣
      Well, that’s what they are made to do 🤣

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
      • Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt
        February 25th, 2023 at 5:13 am

        It always amazes me how many people think software self-repairs somehow organically.

        There are at least a million lines of code of mine out there still being used for fusion research – every once in a while I hear about it. Boggles the mind.

        Liked by 2 people

        Reply
        • acflory
          February 25th, 2023 at 8:42 am

          I’ve done a little bit of coding but nothing on that scale. Nevertheless, it was enough to show me how limited programming can be. First there are the limitations of the hardware itself. Then there are the limitations of the software that drives the hardware, and finally there’s the human[s] who does the programming and may have a limited understanding of things outside of code. Yet that code is supposed to mirror the outside world.

          Like

          Reply
          • Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt
            February 25th, 2023 at 8:59 am

            It’s a fascinating thing to have been part of, professionally, and as a consumer, but it’s not perfect, and it’s not anywhere near over.

            I never thought of it as mirroring the outside world, only as doing set jobs faster.

            Liked by 1 person

          • acflory
            February 25th, 2023 at 10:31 am

            That’s certainly how it all began, but more and more, the technology is being used to create a digital reality. I’m not just talking about VR now. That still has a way to go, but it’s already possible to spend time in a digital environment that mimics reality. What else is Facebook? Or Twitter? Or even our own WordPress?

            Like

          • Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt
            February 25th, 2023 at 10:41 am

            We still keep a distinction between reality and virtual. I KNOW our interaction, for example, is limited because we aren’t seeing each other at the same time – and allow for the lack of or failure to pick up on cues.

            I have no desire to live in a reality built by other people – even if my reality is limited. Getting immersed in an innerscape is your fantasy/story, not mine – however long it might extend ‘life’, I’d always be worried about the people ‘out there’ running it.

            Of course, facing extinction (assuming that’s what I believed), I might have different thoughts.

            Liked by 1 person

          • acflory
            February 26th, 2023 at 8:19 am

            We are a long, loooong way from not being able to distinguish the difference between physical reality and digital ‘reality’, but I think it is coming. I just hope that we’ll always have a choice.
            Oddly enough, one of the minor characters in Innerscape – Noor – has the option of joining her husband in Innerscape but chooses not to. Not because they hate each other or anything personal like that. She simply loves the people and things in the real world more.

            Like

          • Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt
            February 26th, 2023 at 8:23 am

            We need to make the real world better and safer for more people – despots and wars and greed make it harder than it should be.

            And there’s the FACT that the real world is just there, while the virtual one requires an unbelievable level of electronic maintenance starting with electricity.

            If any (and I’ve always loved On The Beach, Nevil Shute), survivors of an apocalypse who are not radiation-poisoned and can still reproduce will just go back to basics: see food, eat food; shelter, heat, water.

            Liked by 1 person

          • acflory
            February 26th, 2023 at 9:09 am

            On The Beach was, and in some ways still is, the most terrifying book I have ever read. Even assuming some remnants of humanity survive in an irradiated world, what would they eat? The animal survivors and the plants would be irradiated too.
            Some things would survive and eventually re-populate the globe but it wouldn’t be humans because we reproduce too slowly for any beneficial mutations to take hold. 😦
            Sorry, but if I were to be stuck in a bunker for the rest of my life, I’d want to escape any way I could. 😦

            Like

          • Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt
            February 26th, 2023 at 9:13 am

            Yup.

            And the answer to that is the end of A Canticle for Leibowitz: the shark was very hungry that season. And a few of the children had been sent to a new planet somewhere.

            The scariest part of life lately has been Putin dropping out of the restrictions on nuclear arms. He’s an idiot, and cornered, and can do a LOT of damage.

            Liked by 1 person

          • acflory
            February 27th, 2023 at 8:20 am

            I think the lesson we should have learned from the recent past is that no one man should ever have the power to destroy either his/her own country or, heaven forbid, the whole world.
            I truly believe that all politicians should have to pass a psychological appraisal before they’re allowed to actually take office. I think there should be ‘political police’ too, in case a politician becomes unhinged after he enters office. 😦

            Like

          • Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt
            February 27th, 2023 at 8:26 am

            With the damage that psychology, psychological approaches to physical illnesses, and people who feel they have a right to tell others what to do, have done to those who suffer from diseases like mine – and are still labeled ‘hysterical’ – I’m not sure ‘Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?’ will be answered to my satisfaction.

            I’d call for the Social Democrat system of increasing taxes as wealth goes up (if I’m interpreting it properly), so that people who benefit from the system also benefit those who don’t have their resources.

            With now eight billions of us, it takes a lot to make everyone happy, but controlling funds such as you can afford to take a 44 BILLION DOLLAR hit to buy a stupid bird-named app, is morally repugnant – to all but a few.

            Trickle-down economic ‘theory’ has been debunked for many years, after way too long an experiment.

            Liked by 1 person

          • acflory
            February 27th, 2023 at 9:55 am

            Psychology comes in a variety of flavours, and one of them is ‘industrial’. I believe that much of the media manipulation we’re starting to see is thanks to psychologists putting behaviour mod. research to a terrible use.
            On a therapeutic level, psychiatrists and psychologists that their cues from whatever research someone else has done. Or not done. Hopefully that /will/ change thanks to Long Covid.
            Here in Australia we have different tax brackets based on income. The idea is that the more you earn the more tax you should pay. Nice in principle but the truly wealthy have teams of accountants and god knows who else just to find ways for very wealthy people not to pay tax.
            And then there are the corporations….-pulls hair out by the roots-

            Like

          • Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt
            February 27th, 2023 at 10:05 am

            Thing is, owning some things – like the Russian oligarchs superyachts, or houses like Mar-a-lago which go on for acres – show the flaws: they are huge, and very visible. The problem is that the very rich have a lot of money to manipulate the politicians and other decision-makers, and a feeling they’re somehow more special than the rest of us. 🙂

            What’s the point of wealth if you don’t get to display it?

            I’m not necessarily voting to take it away, but to NOT give them special rights NOT to share more. Presumably, they have more ‘disposable income’, and could share without it being the huge burden it can be on a family with many children to feed and educate.

            We’ll never have ‘fair.’ But we shouldn’t have people with so much excess they can never use it, unless they’re sharing in a way that tends toward leveling up over time. How to make that happen? No idea, but we seem good at encouraging the opposite.

            Liked by 1 person

          • acflory
            February 28th, 2023 at 8:10 am

            I grew up during a time in Australia when the ‘fair go’ was like the core of our culture. We demanded a fair go for everyone and so we had a large middle class and very few people who were actually on or below the poverty line. We only had a very small ‘1%’ too. In fact they were much less than 1%.
            We were a social democracy, and I like to think that we had ‘heart’. After successive conservative governments that have leaned further and further to the right, we’ve become a much greedier society. That said, here in Victoria, the Premier – Dan Andrews – has won two ‘Dan-slide’ victories as a pretty strong progressive.
            That heartens me because it means we haven’t all lost that core belief in a fair go.
            I think the US has to stop believing that the poor are poor because they deserve to be poor. And the flip side of that is that the rich are /not/ rich because they’re ‘self-made’ men, and therefore heroes.
            Three of the biggest, newest, corporations are run by three men whose ethical standards are questionable, to say the least. Yet they’re idolized. Why?

            Like

          • Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt
            February 28th, 2023 at 8:15 am

            I’ve always said the very best schools should always be in the poorest neighborhoods. And admired what Australians had done with their fate.

            All societies slide toward complacence at some point, but, if they’re lucky, get some reform and return to basics going. Even though what that is becomes hard to agree on.

            Attacking the schools and what they teach is a cheap trick – and surprisingly effective – I hope we manage to prevent more deterioration, because talent wasted doesn’t disappear: it goes to other channels. And then we don’t like the results.

            I wish we were moving toward social democracy more and faster.

            Liked by 1 person

          • acflory
            February 28th, 2023 at 8:24 am

            There’s a lot wrong with Australia, but one thing we got right is compulsory voting. When everyone has to vote, the middle of the bell curve tends to soften the extremes.
            Many of those in the ‘middle’ bitch and moan about having to vote, but the writers of our constitution did make it as easy for them as possible. And honestly? Despite the punishment for not voting beinig ludicrously minor – last I heard it was a fine of $50 AUD – most people do vote.
            I don’t know if compulsory voting would fly in the US. I suspect it would be seen as an infringement of ‘individual freedom’, but freedom cannot exist without responsibility. :/

            Like

          • Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt
            February 28th, 2023 at 8:56 am

            It’s too late for this version of American democracy – you have to sneak ‘compulsory’ items in at the beginning, and our Founding Fathers didn’t think it necessary (or they would have tried harder; heck, they didn’t even manage to outlaw slavery because they thought the union would go under – and made a mess, on the backs of enslaved Black people – we are still trying to right. Turns out “we’ll fix it later when we get around to it” isn’t workable.

            Sort of like marrying someone with the (possibly subconscious) desire to improve them? Never works very well.

            I’m glad Australians vote – but no one can make them vote ‘wisely’; I assume it minimizes the whining later because everyone who voted had their chance to choose their preferred outcome. But it also forces the crazies to vote, while minimizing the number of those not ALLOWED to vote by law or fear. You’re probably right that it’s too late for the States already – too many entrenched interests.

            Liked by 1 person

          • acflory
            February 28th, 2023 at 7:41 pm

            That’s true. We’re a much younger democracy that the US so I guess our constitution reflects both our own culture and the times in which it was drafted.
            And yes, I agree. even when everyone votes, the majority isn’t always right. I guess in a compulsory system you hope that the majority is generally wise. Most of the time they are. Sometimes they get it very wrong. :/

            Like

        • Yorgos KC
          February 26th, 2023 at 12:55 am

          🤣 I can believe that. We call our phones “smart”, so why wouldn’t they repair their own bugs? 🤣

          And more than a million lines, and out there! Wow!

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply
      • acflory
        February 25th, 2023 at 8:36 am

        Yeah, the GiGo…garbage in, garbage out principle. :_)

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply
  • Carol anne
    February 16th, 2023 at 9:04 am

    thats cool Meeks! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Don't be shy!

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this: