@tiotasram@kolektiva.social2025-12-10 17:19:22
When "self-driving" cars were first getting some hype back in ~2015 or so, I told people who asked me that I didn't think they'd be safe, and that I wished the same money were being invested in driver-assistance systems instead.
At the time, advocates were claiming that self-driving cars would be safer than human drivers.
We now have both self-driving cars and some nifty new driver assistance things, and it turns out that the self-driving cars are in fact being developed by corporations whose attention to the bottom line results in danger to others on the road pretty regularly. I don't actually have stats here for whether they're "safer than human drivers" or not, but the opportunity for one bad software update to make *all* self-driving cars dangerous at once kinda makes me doubt that.
Here's an example of Waymo cars getting "more aggressive" as they try to balance between being too timid and obstructing traffic (including emergency vehicles) and being too dangerous:
https://archive.ph/JJuGv
Here's another example of passing stopped schoolbusses leading to a software recall:
https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/News/waymo-issue-voluntary-software-recall-after-close-calls/story?id=128207776
In the first article, Waymo claims 91% fewer serious accidents per mile. Obviously an independent audit would be actually trustworthy, but even if we take that claim at face value, it's meaningless if an update tomorrow causes 100,000 accidents.
Note that they could be using better engineering practices, and the fact that they aren't shows that they don't care enough about the risks. They could be deploying new software versions incrementally and slowly, letting new versions rack up lots of miles only on a few vehicles before pushing them to a fleet. The should also have the equivalent of a simulation unit test for "schoolbus is stopped, what do?" and if a software version fails that test, it doesn't make it to the fleet. Clearly they don't have that.
I feel pretty vindicated in my earlier prediction that this tech is a bad idea in the hands of the current advocates.
@midtsveen@social.linux.pizza2026-01-10 22:52:13
When the working class organizes on the basis of solidarity and direct action, workers and communities can collectively manage and control the means of production, while federations of workers and local communities coordinate production and social life through mutual aid and federalist principles, without bosses or the state.
In an era marked by automation, precarity, and deepening inequality, the struggle for workers’ self-management, economic democracy, and social liberation remains …
@hippyjo@c.im2026-01-10 18:40:53
WITNESS: Russian warcrimes in Ukraine as the worst attacks since the war began claim more civilian lives.
Trump supports the killing through his actions, regardless of his lies to cover the greed and cruelty.
Giorgio is a hero reporting from the trenches in Ukraine. He literally risks his life to provide a glimpse of the truth that is otherwise ignored by media and the world.
Support his work and support democracy by sharing the friend link to bypass the paywall, and allow …
@shriramk@mastodon.social2025-11-07 21:25:36
Good ol' Roger Williams makes it into the London Review of Books! https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n03/letters
@hex@kolektiva.social2025-11-20 22:27:26
After #Trump finally crashes and burns (I'm still saying I don't think he makes it to the mid terms, and I think it's more than possible he won't make it to the end of the year) we'll hear a lot of people say, "the system worked!" Today people are already talking about "saving democracy" by fighting back. This will become a big rally cry to vote (for Democrats, specifically), and the complete failure of the system will be held up as the best evidence for even greater investment in it.
I just want to point out that American democracy gave nuclear weapons to a pedophile, who, before being elected was already a well known sexual predator, and who made the campaign promise to commit genocide. He then preceded to commit genocide. And like, I don't care that he's "only" kidnaped and disappeared a few thousand brown people. That's still genocide. Even if you don't kill every member of a targeted group, any attempt to do so is still "committing genocide." Trump said he would commit genocide, then he hired all the "let's go do a race war" guys he could find and *paid* them to go do a race war. And, even now as this deranged monster is crashing out, he is still authorized to use the world's largest nuclear arsenal.
He committed genocide during his first term when his administration separated migrant parents and children, then adopted those children out to other parents. That's technically genocide. The point was to destroy the very people been sending right wing terror squads after.
There was a peaceful hand over of power to a known Russian asset *twice*, and the second time he'd already committed *at least one* act of genocide *and* destroyed cultural heritage sites (oh yeah, he also destroyed indigenous grave sites, in case you forgot, during his first term).
All of this was allowed because the system is set up to protect exactly these types of people, because *exactly* these types of people are *the entire power structure*.
Going back to that system means going back to exactly the system that gave nuclear weapons to a pedophile *TWICE*.
I'm already seeing the attempts to pull people back, the congratulations as we enter the final phase, the belief that getting Trump out will let us all get back to normal. Normal. The normal that lead here in the first place. I can already see the brunch reservations being made. When Trump is over, we will be told we won. We will be told that it's time to go back to sleep.
When they tell you everything worked, everything is better, that we can stop because we won, tell them "fuck you! Never again means never again." Destroy every system that ever gave these people power, that ever protected them from consequences, that ever let them hide what they were doing.
These democrats funded a genocide abroad and laid the groundwork for genocide at home. They protected these predators, for years. The whole power structure is guilty. As these files implicate so many powerful people, they're trying to shove everything back in the box. After all the suffering, after we've finally made it clear that we are the once with the power, only now they're willing to sacrifice Trump to calm us all down.
No, that's a good start but it can't be the end.
Winning can't be enough to quench that rage. Keep it burning. When this is over, let victory fan that anger until every institution that made this possible lies in ashes. Burn it all down and salt the earth. Taking down Trump is a great start, but it's not time to give up until this isn't possible again.
#USPol
@PaulWermer@sfba.social2025-11-10 02:56:18
People tell me that Wiener is a smart guy.
So why does #Friedmanist, devoutly trusting developer to do …
@cdarwin@c.im2025-11-02 17:45:02
Mr. President. Millions have put their trust in you and, as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God.
In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.
There are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and Independent families, some who fear for their lives.
And the people, the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry fa…
@Techmeme@techhub.social2025-11-07 07:05:52
Seven lawsuits in California, including four wrongful death suits, claim ChatGPT encouraged dangerous discussions, leading to suicides and harmful delusions (Kashmir Hill/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/0…
@aral@mastodon.ar.al2025-12-03 17:17:43
If only there were some clue about why the Democrats keep losing to Trump…
…It couldn’t possibly be that denying the basic humanity of Palestinians and going all in on genocide doesn’t resonate with people who aren’t fascists, could it? https://mastodon.social/@QasimRashid/1156562588…
@cdarwin@c.im2025-11-01 01:21:41
Trump’s request to add a documentary proof of citizenship requirement to the federal voter registration form cannot be enforced, a federal judge ruled Friday.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington, D.C., sided with Democratic and civil rights groups that sued the Trump administration over his executive order to overhaul U.S. elections.
No She ruled that the proof-of-citizenship directive is an unconstitutional violation of the separation of powers, dealing a b…
