by fragmede | 2025-10-16 18:34:11+00:00
"A new car built by my company leaves somewhere traveling at 60 mph. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now, should we initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one."

-Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club. 1999 for the movie, 1996 for the book.

That a corporation is acting in its own best interests at the cost of human lives neither shocks nor surprises me. NHTSA is investigating the issue, specifically about disengagements, but also the broader issues. They took down Cruise for lying to them Their CEO should have had to face criminal charges. Politics being what it is, it bothers me a great deal how fair any investigations will be, but let's not get distracted by that.

Tesla's far from the first car company to make a profit while human lives in the mix. It won't be the last.

You can totally find histrionic videos of constructed scenarios where the system fails and get all worked up about it. The algorithm thrives on engagement, and getting you all worked up makes them money. It's as if you were a fiddle, that gets content shown to you, and then they make money from it. Do you enjoy that? Mark Rober does have a good one though.

Over the many years of driving I've done, of the accidents I've gotten into, the accidents I've avoided, as a driver, as a passenger; of the accidents my friends and family have gotten into, what it comes down to for me is that human drivers drive when they shouldn't have been driving, every single day. I'm already forced to share the road with those assholes, what's one more?

Human drivers suck. They drive when they're tired, when they're drunk. From glancing at other drivers while I'm driving, texting's gotten quite popular for drivers. One accident I'm aware of, the driver passed out from doing fentanyl while driving. Not sure how that one happens.

Now, I'm sure you're an excellent driver. Better than FSD. But how are you at driving when you're passed out from a stroke or some other freak accident? Freak accidents happen to computers too, but in my mind, they're different. On top of that, a computer's not going to get hopping mad that it struck out at the bar at 1 am and drive home really mad and also drunk so hey let's drive by my ex's house while we're at it. Obviously, I'd rather that driver not do that in the first place, but since we can't prevent that, I'd rather live in a world where a computer drives their car than have them drive it around in that state. I'm a night owl. I frequently end up being outside at those hours. So no matter how good the good drivers are who would never do that are, statistically my chances of encountering bad drivers who do shit like that that are higher than average.

In life you have to contend with unknowns, and we, the general public don't actually know how many Tesla robotaxis are actually driving around right now. If you're in one of the supported locations you can try it out, and watch for yourself whether the human who's got one of the most boringest jobs ever is or is not actually driving the car. If it's so bad, shouldn't we be hearing about them crashing, non-stop? All I've heard of is the three in Austin at launch, but it doesn't seem like there have been any after that. I haven't heard about any crashes in San Francisco, but I also haven't gone looking super deep.

Do I wish both Tesla and Elon Musk behaved better than they do now? Absolutely. Not sure how much that counts or actually affects anything though.