The 12th day of Facebooklessmas, my truelove gave to me…

Harassment, autonomous cars.

My son is mocking me. He is reading posts on my Facebook page, which I have not looked at except in two accidental logins (and one posting to explain the accidental login).  One commenter says I need to reset my 40 day clock.  Another that, with 2 breaks of my fast, perhaps I have an addiction requiring professional help.  Get thee behind me Satans!

I’m doing fine, and even if I had checked in, I am not engaging and scrolling and wasting hours. Instead, I’m reading constantly.  WaPo articles, and a 300 year history of Bellevue Hospital (which I will review.)  I saw yesterday that I have 498 likes on my review of Daniel Kahnemann’s “Thinking, Fast and Slow.”  For what that’s worth.  Exactly zero dollars.

Autonomy and edge conditions.
Autonomous driving is coming fast.  I know the “trolley problem” confronts every automaker now — given the dilemma, should the car protect its one driver or the 5 people it is about to hit? — but I wonder how it will deal with variations from “safe” driving.  Especially when, like this GM vehicle, there is no steering wheel available to the “driver.”

First, what if I insist on traveling 9 mph over the posted speed limit? Can I set that parameter? Second, how will the car deal with instances where, because of rush hour traffic, a slightly more aggressive left-turn exit from my subdivision is required, into a slightly smaller than normally acceptable gap?

If the car only drives daintily, with a constant level of caution, I could sit at that intersection for 40 minutes while cars stream by.  I’ll bet my Facebook friends would know the answer.

Maybe I’ll… NO!!!!

Heading out to dinner with friends, so this weekend edition of “… Focusing” is brief.  If only we had a driverless car to bring us home after hitting a bar or two.