Oppose Expansion of Autonomous Vehicles on public streets.
By Mari Melodie
Dear California Public Utility Commissioners,
The public needs you to vote against any expansion of Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) on California streets until some goals are met and major problems are resolved.
Humans and emergency responders cannot communicate with AVs.
The corporations are allowed to collect data on us without sharing of the data they collect.
Demand that data be turned over to the government and that is not be kept indefinitely.
Alphabet Inc. and General Motors have turned our public streets into an automated private computer game. These corporations have released machines on our streets that are allowed to make mistakes at the public’s expense and the public has no right so far to appeal or request compensation for damages, though thousands of complaints have been filed.
AVs are machines and do not experience any real world tangible consequences for their actions. That is how humans learn. AVs are reliant on their human handlers to program them and if there are no human consequences how do human handlers program the AVs?
This lack of consequences creates an unfair advantages for machines that humans resent and fear. The lack of human instincts is largely to blame for the negative attitude humans feel for machines. We would like to throw them out the window sometimes, not hand over more control of our lives to them. The less connected we are to their controls over us, the more resentment and anger we feel. There are a litany of complaints.
AVs and “driverless” technology are not programed to care about others.
AVs have no motivation to drive fairly, to respect human drivers or be courteous.
AVs do not feel badly when they tie up traffic.
AVs do not respect police authority.
AVs do not have to obey emergency responders
AVs behave as if they are exempt from the law.
AVs are currently not under jurisdiction of the law.
AVs cannot react to human eye contact and have no way to express their intent to humans.
AVs hide behind remote human handlers, who must physically come to fix them.
Avs have an unknown number of humans handling the fleet. Or is it an AI handler?
Avs do not communicate with humans.
AVs ignore real live humans and are not programmed to take direction from them.
Avs do not respond to or distress signals, headlights, horns, waving arms, glares or screams.
AVs do not know when they are in the way and do not attempt to move when they are.
AVs freeze when confused, and there is a lot of confusion on the streets all the time.
The lack of accountability is one of he biggest problems with the AV products. So far the powers that be have made certain that “driverless” technology is exempt from any consequences of AV actions. Unlike human drivers AVs are not legally required to take a driving test, do not carry licenses and insurance papers, and are not under the threat of fines or indictment for breaking the law, yet. This needs to change.
Can automated driving developers program common sense? A human is usually has 16 or more years to develop skills necessary for driving. We learn self preservation and the importance of protecting lives and property. Humans are at least capable of taking actions to protect themselves.
Human taxi drivers must protect their riders and are often called up to help with tasks beyond driving from one place to another. Human drivers open doors, help with luggage and packages and often carry groceries up the stairs for people who need help. How do AVs protect their riders or help them with other important tasks?
Until some of these problems with AVs are solved, and communication between AVs and humans is established, we need to stop the expansion of AVs tests on our streets and demand the corporations improve their products before they put more of them on the streets. We do not need more of the same.
Please do not approve the expansion of Waymo and Cruise and other Autonomous Vehicles on our California city streets.
Distressed San Francisco resident
