Europe demands driverless cars be driveable

Via Instapundit and Ars Technica:

Both BMW and Daimler AG, which owns Mercedes-Benz, have been working on autonomous vehicle concepts for years, such as BMW's self-driving 5 Series.

However, spokespersons for both companies have admitted to Wired.co.uk that marketable products in this category are a long way off. The reason? Simply put, it's because the legal framework that would enable the sale of such vehicles is more or less absent.

"The legislation is just not in place for us to be able to put these vehicles on the market," explains a BMW spokesperson.

Essentially, EU law has not yet worked out applicable assumptions and rules that would apply to the kind of intermittently autonomous vehicles currently available, never mind the sort of design just shown off by Google—which lacks a steering wheel.

Click the link to see more: Europe demands driverless cars be driveable | Ars Technica

Not surprising. It’s pretty obvious people would be nervous if there wasn’t a way to keep humans in the loop. Now imagine planes. We can make them pilotless, but that doesn’t mean we’d want to fly in one without a pilot.

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Sure to raise someone’s hackles

A review of a book on the shortfalls of our approach to economic development:

• “In the realm of benevolent intervention, the standing rule has always been that you can walk into a poor country and, with enough experts, supplies and bureaucratic correctives, make it rich and alleviate the woes of poverty. But according to Easterly, this is a fatuous idea that has sparked more havoc than good.”
• “According to Easterly, a deep racism and willful neglect of history have informed much of the West’s relationship with ‘the Rest,’ the poverty-challenged Southern Hemisphere.”
• “The result is a kind of development-office blindness, a failure to see that the poor deserve individual rights as much as any citizen of a flourishing society.”

It would be interesting to see a comparison of US economic development efforts in rural areas in America.

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Technology won’t lead to Utopia

Some points from Nobel Laureate economist Gary Becker:

• We’ll never have more time. This means time is a scarce resource, so no Utopia because there will always be scarcity: “For while the growing abundance of goods may reduce the value of additional goods, time becomes more valuable as goods become more abundant. Utility maximization is of no relevance in a Utopia where everyone’s needs are fully satisfied, but the constant flow of time makes such a Utopia impossible.” Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/gary-becker-on-utopia-2014-5#ixzz30m0VlxgH