Why Are People Afraid of Self-Driving Cars?

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From article, "These 20 companies are racing to build self-driving cars in the next 5 years"

(Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced in late October that cars currently in production — which includes the Model S, Model X, and future Model 3 — will be built with new hardware that will enable them to be fully driverless, pending regulatory approval and further software validation.

It's a smart move on Musk's part — equip the cars with the necessary technology now so they are ready once self-driving cars gain federal approval. Musk said a Tesla will drive itself from Los Angeles to New York City as a demonstration of the technology by the end of 2017.

Musk has been committed to having a fully self-driving car ready by 2018.)

Me, "It is Regulatory approval that has stymied development of self-driving cars. No one ever thought a car could drive itself. That's the problem. Everybody grew up watching the coyote chase the roadrunner and watch the coyote constantly fall off a cliff in failure. Well, that's the fear. No driver wants that to happen to them. Everyone agrees there needs to be rules governing the use and adaption of self driving cars, but no one is sure what they should be so they over regulate or delay these new rules which delays roll out of the product. So, far this has benefited car companies who are still working on the technology but sooner or later it is going to start becoming a problem. A solution is to equip the cars with the technology and enable it later, as Tesla us dong."

Continuing from article, (Uber released Ford Fusion cars modified with the company's self-driving tech as part of its Pittsburgh pilot in September. A select few Uber users can hail the cars as part of the program. But the cars still have a safety driver as well as an engineer up front because they do fail from time to time.

Uber and Volvo have also agreed to a $300 million alliance to develop driverless cars. Uber has made a play for the self-driving car space by poaching staff from Carnegie Mellon University's robotics department.

Uber also acquired self-driving truck start-up Otto in August. The self-driving truck completed a 120-mile route in October.)

Me, "Uber's use of some self-driving cars in its taxi hailing company shows that Uber believes there is a market for safe self driving cars. They continue to provide a back up human driver just in case. Once again coyote falling off a cliff fears!"

Continuing from article, (Chris Urmson, former head of Google's self-driving car project, suggested during a March 2015 TED Talk that he and his team were working on a 2020 deadline for its self-driving car. But Google's self-driving car program has suffered from executive departures, and Google co-founder Larry Page reportedly said he was heartbroken by its slow pace, according to Bloomberg.

Google is taking a different approach from other automakers in that it isn't looking to roll out semi-autonomous features overtime, but produce a fully driverless car without a brake or steering wheel. Bloomberg also reported that some Google teammakers have pushed for partial automation, but Page is set on releasing a fully driverless car.

The cars have driven over 2.3 million miles in autonomous mode as of November.)

Me, "Probably the most famous self driving cars on the road comes from Google. Most people trust and know Google from its internet search engine. Now they want to be the first to have a fully autonomous self-driving car. Besides the fear of the car going off of a cliff and the ex-driver not being able to do anything about since there is no steering or foot pedals, there is a fear that Google may not come out with a car at all but will instead concede defeat and like Apple, partner with a brand name car company. 

The problem here is two fold. 

While Tesla is a very high end car company it can afford to add a self-driving option. The people who buy their cars have the extra money for it. Uber, a glorified taxi company, is trying to court the low end market of people who can't afford or choose not to drive. Google, drivers thought, might court the middle class driver. Now depending on what car company they partner with there technology may end up in the hands of the rich for years until it migrates down into the bare bones models. This uncertainty may lead the middle class driver to stick with regular driving cars and forgo even trying a self driving car being that it is out of their financial reach. 

The last quotes from this article let's you see how soon you have to start worrying about driving off a cliff."

From article, (Toyota is looking to have a driverless car ready to go by 2020. BMW will test 40 of its self-driving cars in Munich next year. Volvo is aiming to make its cars "deathproof" by 2020 by rolling out semi-autonomous features in its cars, eventually working up to fully driverless ones.Nissan is committed to have a commercially viable autonomous car on the roads by 2020.Ford is aiming to have its fully autonomous car ready in four to five years.General Motors has partnered with Lyft to build electric, fully driverless cars that will be available to just about anyone.Daimler, the maker of the Mercedes-Benz, is aiming to have its driverless trucks ready by 2020.The Audi A7 drove 550 miles by itself in 2015, but there's no word about when it's hitting the market.Baidu, a Beijing-based search company, is aiming to have a commercial model of its driverless car ready by 2018.Honda is aiming to produce cars that are completely driverless on highways by 2020.Hyundai is aiming to have driverless features in its cars by 2020, but won't have a fully autonomous car ready until 2030.Auto supplier Bosch has been working on driverless technology for several years with the ultimate goal of releasing fully driverless software within the decade.PSA Groupe, the second largest car manufacturer in Europe, is aiming to have fully driverless cars ready by 2020.Start-up Faraday Future is working on an electric car and is developing autonomous technology for it.LeEco, a Chinese tech company, is also working on an autonomous, electric car. Apple has reportedly ditched its efforts to build a self-driving car, instead turning its focus to autonomous software.Didi Chuxing, Uber's former fierce rival in China, is also building a self-driving car, but details on the project are scarce.)

Me, "So, get ready. If you haven't seen or ridden in a self driving car, they are coming. I'd pack a parachute."

Fear Itself!

From article, "Scientists are frantically copying U.S. climate data, fearing it might vanish under Trump"

(Alarmed that decades of crucial climate measurements could vanish under a hostile Trump administration, scientists have begun a feverish attempt to copy reams of government data onto independent servers in hopes of safeguarding it from any political interference.

The efforts include a “guerrilla archiving” event in Toronto, where experts will copy irreplaceable public data, meetings at the University of Pennsylvania focused on how to download as much federal data as possible in the coming weeks, and a collaboration of scientists and database experts who are compiling an online site to harbor scientific information.

“Something that seemed a little paranoid to me before all of a sudden seems potentially realistic, or at least something you’d want to hedge against,” said Nick Santos, an environmental researcher at the University of California at Davis, who over the weekend began copying government climate data onto a nongovernment server, where it will remain available to the public. “Doing this can only be a good thing. Hopefully they leave everything in place. But if not, we’re planning for that.”)

Me, "This is ridiculous. People are scaring themselves over nothing. Rick Perry did say he would get rid of the D.O.E. but he is now the going to be the Secretary of it. Obviously, his views on it have changed. And you can't go with what candidates say during elections. In the heat of battle things get said that are over-exaggerated. You can see this in a number of comments made by Trump during the presidential campaign that he has gone back on or said he didn't mean.
This unnecessary panic is being started by liberal democrats who did not like the outcome of the Presidential election and think Trump is going to rewrite or get rid of atmospheric observations. This isn't the first time we have had a Republican President who has said he does not believe in Global Warming. Look at former President George W. Bush. He refused to sign the climate treaty, that the U.N. was working on, at the time, because of it. But he didn't abandon or rewrite climate research. 
Republicans are not the enemy here, fear is. As a Democratic president said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself!"
It's time to put the past in the past and start looking at the positives a Trump Presidency can bring, and not made up bad things." 

Great Things To Come With Rick Perry As D.O.E. Secretary

From article, Trump taps former Texas Gov. Rick Perry to head Energy Department he once vowed to abolish

(As governor, he recruited out-of-state firms to Texas. In 2013, he starred in an ad that aired in California in which he declared that companies should visit his home state “and see why our low taxes, sensible regulations and fair legal system are just the thing to get your business moving. To Texas.”)

Me, "The key thing that is overlooked is Perry favored Low taxes, and sensible regulations. That is definitely a plus when it comes to his views on renewable energy, Oil, Gas, and Coal."

Continuing from article, (Salo Zelermyer, who served as a senior counsel at the Energy Department’s general counsel’s office under President George W. Bush and is now a partner at the Bracewell law firm, said Perry has proven “it is indeed possible to successfully balance appropriate environmental regulations with domestic energy production and use.”)

Me, "I think because of Perry's appropriate regulations, they, helped stimulate Texas energy economy."

Continuing from article (“During his time in office, Perry embodied the type of ‘all of the above’ approach to U.S. energy production that many have advocated on both sides of the aisle,” Zelermyer added. “Rick Perry’s Texas was not only a world leader in oil and gas production; it was also a global leader in wind power and renewable energy investment. This approach is a big reason Texas experienced such enormous job growth during Perry’s tenure.”)

Me, "Case closed?"

Continuing from article, (Wind power did expand under Perry during his tenure in Texas, although it is unclear what role he played in promoting that energy source.

It started with 116 megawatts of installed wind power when he took office, according to the World Resources Institute, and now ranks as the nation’s No. 1 wind producer with 18,000 megawatts. But during a 2015 Iowa Agricultural Summit in Des Moines, the former governor said he opposed extending the federal tax credit for wind power. “I do if a state wants to do it,” he said. “I don’t at the federal level. I think all of these need to be looked at, whether it’s oil and gas, whether it’s the wind side, whether it’s the [Renewable Fuel Standard program] — I think all of them need to be put on the table, prove whether or not these are in fact in the best interest of this country.”)

Me, "I don't think there is anything to worry about with Rick Perry as Energy Secretary.
Rick Perry is a great choice because of the results on how he handled energy projects in Texas. It may be a little unclear as to how he did it. But the proof is that whatever he did, increased Wind Energy massively. If he can bring these skills to the Energy department and bring many more Wind or other energy projects to other states, like he did in Texas, the U.S. has a bright energy future."