A Twonks cartoon in two panels: A man at the doctor's. The doctor tell him: "That's a nasty bug you got there." In the next panel, we see a bug on the floor between the two men. It says to the doctor: "Fuck you."

This is genuinely very, very funny. 😁

Totally overwhelmed by what’s happening in the world? Feel like it’s all too much to take in? Have you tried fainting? It’s the cheap, fun way to give a hard pass on everything. The hours and days will fly by. Give reality the finger. Try fainting.

I think there's a 3rd & larger group, who are also racist but are perhaps ashamed or unwilling to admit it openly, where Reform gives them an excuse to hide within the masses behind 'whataboutery' and 'asking legitimate questions' without having to actually wear the fascist rosette...

From the archives - a drawing I did of Haeckel's comparison of vertebrate embryos - for my book on human evolution & development, the Incredible Unlikeliness of Being.
uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-...

Congratulations to McLaren & NEW World Champion Lando Norris

It certainly has ! I've chatted to someone on BlueSky in France about installing a 'BalkonKraftwerk' and I'm encouraging friends / family in the UK to 'start their journey' with one.
Anker Solix & EcoFlow are 2 companies that make great plug-and-play systems...

I think that's the winner!

SättigkeitsKaufFehler

Times Radio 'Breakfast Show' can also be shockingly partisan, but I guess the Editorial Direction does come from the Murdochs...
Since Aasmah Mir left, there's no handbrake left to maintain sanity & rein in some of the 'views'...

I feel that you just don't want to understand.

And it's not my job to explain - as I've already mentioned it's the job of the Self-Driving Co's - so I'll leave it to them & their 'hundreds of lobbyists'.

I'll be using Self-Driving Vehicles at every opportunity, but for now it's time to log-off...

There's so much information available if people would just make the effort to look & try to understand, rather than take every opportunity to naysay.

The Armchair Experts will never be satisfied, of course.

I hope your concerns will be calmed elsewhere / eventually - time for my Sunday afternoon!

Again (!) the whole point is to prevent the vehicle from getting into any of these situations: by definition the vehicle is designed & programmed not to ever have to deal with 'The Trolley Problem'.

However, preparing for every single possible eventuality in the Universe is of course not possible.

My frustration (from a position of knowledge) is that these Companies don't do nearly enough Promo or Information Campaigns - they really need to do a significant amount more.

There's a huge amount of data that has been gathered & can be shared, with simple explanations to calm fears & speculation.

My last involvement with a Self-Driving project was ~5 years ago.
Since then, e.g. Waymo / Aurora / Nuro / etc have had tens of millions of miles more experience.

And they're heavily monitored by NHTSA & IIHS etc.

There have been accidents, but the majority IIRC were below 1mph closing speed.

And then the realisation that the 'robot' vehicle is seeing far far more than any human ever can & that it's dealing with the information far quicker than we can.
It never gets tired, it's never distracted, it never thinks it's late, it never worries about a headache, or an argument.
It just drives.

The other fascinating aspect - if the vehicle has a 'display screen' so that you can see what it's seeing - is the realisation what an incredible job the human brain does in absorbing & filtering information & making decisions...well...in 'most' drivers... 😉

When / where ?

The Authorities - as always - have a responsibility to ensure that 'Standards' are high enough.

Take the chance ASAP to have a ride in one.
Initially, you'll be utterly fascinated. Then after a while you'll relax & enjoy the journey, perhaps even falling asleep.

I speak from personal experience.

In fact, I'll correct myself slightly - the vehicle is always analysing the data & predicting perhaps dozens of scenarios / decisions - and will take the safest option - it certainly won't take one that incurs risk.

It's literally the fundamental reason for the existence of self-driving tech.

The largest number of accidents that have occurred involving self-driving vehicles during their testing so far?

Other people not paying attention to the self-driving vehicle & crashing into it.

Again, the whole point is to prevent getting into a situation where there are 2 outcomes.

Avoiding the child will not risk killing anyone - the vehicle slows down & stops well before the situation gets dangerous.

And yes, there will be idiots deliberately walking out in front of Self-Driving Vehicles, and they'll try to damage or obscure the sensors, and they'll put obstacles in their way, but they'll soon get bored - or prosecuted.

The vehicle suppliers need to be Licenced - so that their vehicles are allowed on the road - so the Licencing Authorities need to ensure that enough rigorous testing has been successfully performed.

All decisions are usually made by 2 separate systems, which are then compared, and if there's a discrepancy then - guess what - the vehicle stops.

There are redundant systems (brakes & steering) - which - when they fail or start to fail - signal the vehicle to stop.

If it can't 'see' what's happening in front of them (e.g. view is blocked by a truck) then it's still 'looking' at the truck's 'behaviour' & adding that into the mix.
If a ball rolls into the road then the vehicle is programmed to expect a child following to catch it, so it slows down or stops.

Self-driving cars analyse data from sensors from 360 degrees around the vehicle thousands of times a second, with a range of a hundred metres or more.
Prediction models are used to judge the chances of any particular situation developing - way way faster than any human.
They take avoiding action.

I'm so tired of hearing this.

A fundamental part of self-driving vehicle design philosophy is to ensure that the Trolley Problem will never occur.

To all politicians - especially Reform & Tories and to anyone else who thinks it's a good idea to leave the ECHR.
Thx @fife4europe.bsky.social