I suppose that everyone has already heard of Google’s automated cars that can drive themselves, with minimal human intervention? It might already be old news, but I find this very, very cool.
I am amazed every time I sit in a car that I am basically in command of a dangerous 4000 pound piece of machinery, and that I literally have my own life as well as the lives of others in my hands. Isn’t it incredible that in today’s day and age, pretty much anyone in a western country can afford to buy a car and whisk themselves miles away in a matter of minutes? These machines manage to compress distances in a way that has radically changed and reshaped the world.
At the same time, their speed comes with danger. Have you ever looked at the landscape to the side while driving down a city street at 50 to 60 km/h? 50 km/h is the limit for most streets and is not all that fast, but if you ever look at the parked cars and people from the side, they are literally flying by. It doesn’t happen often, but if someone steps out from between those parked cars without looking and gets hit by a car going 50 km/h dead center, they are probably going to end up on a wheelchair or in the morgue. Some cars travel much faster than this even where it is dangerous to do so, and the consequences can be that much worse.
When I was younger I didn’t care as much about these things, and I would drive more aggressively than I should have. This sort of driving can lead to problems. I do think that speed limits are often not set very appropriately (they are often too low, sometimes too high, and usually politically-motivated), and I also believe that on the highway, Autobahn-style unrestricted speeds may be appropriate. Nonetheless, I also think people probably drive too fast in situations where they shouldn’t, like in bad weather or on residential streets where there are lots of kids around.
Over time, I have mellowed out, and being involved in a few accidents (some while riding a bicycle!) has also placed some fear into me. I actually shared responsibility for only one of these accidents; the others were all non-fault. The insurance companies don’t care much about that when calculating rates, though! One of these accidents was caused by a drunk driver in a stolen SUV who tried to pass me and some other cars by driving onto a snowbank at 100 km/h. Thankfully damage caused was “only” a few thousand dollars and pretty minor. I have never been involved in a serious accident where anyone was injured or a car was totaled, but I have seen enough pictures on the internet and enough Youtube videos out of a morbid sense of curiosity to scare me for the rest of my life!
Right now, about half a million people die each year from automobile accidents, and who knows how many more are left permanently injured and disabled. The automobile has been an amazing force for social mobility and change, but we all probably know someone who has been hurt or killed by them. My own grandfather died in a car accident when I was a baby, so I never got to experience life with him.
If you multiply half a million people dead per year by the decades that we have been driving, that is as bad as a world war!
Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could do something about this? Offhand, I recall that about 90% of all of these fatalities are ultimately due to driver error. What if we could offload the responsibility to a driver that does not get pissed off or nervous, does not text while driving, and cannot get drunk? That is ultimately what I find very amazing and inspiring about the continuous progress toward automated driving, and advancing technology is going to help us get there. The immense prospects for the lives said and the time freed would have a huge impact on the world. I would personally miss being able to have manual control over a car and drive, but I’m sure there will always be a place for that, too.
Posts of the week
- Challenging Your Thoughts and Beliefs – This is a post about challenging the preconceptions which we take for granted, and learning not to see everything as black & white.
- The Great Credit Contraction And How To Use Gold As Money – This is a very interesting post by Trace Mayer about the ongoing credit contraction, and how to use gold as your measuring stick, even without owning it.
Invest It Wisely around the web
Gen Y Wealth wrote a comprehensive post on sharing finances with your significant other, and included a lot of great commentary from fellow personal finance blogs, including Invest It Wisely. Looking to start things off on the right foot with your significant other? Then be sure to give this well-written post a read.
Challenging your thoughts and beliefs: A roundup
On November 30th, I will be publishing a roundup about challenging your own thoughts and beliefs. The idea is to play devil’s advocate and look at things in ways you may never have looked at them before.
First Gen American has already published two great posts on this theme:
I would love to include your post in the roundup as well, so if you’re interested in participating, then please send your link my way!
Giveaways
Young and Thrifty is currently running a giveaway with more than $250 in prizes. There are a lot of great prizes here, so be sure to check it out and enter!
Weekend Reading
- Stock Trades: Bought and Sold Petaquilla Minerals (Beating The Index)
- Mich talks about the importance of going with your gut, and also mentions how he’s been dissed by gold, yet again. 😉
- 7 Dollars and the World Around You (Wealth Artisan)
- Wealth Artisan shares a thoughtful and inspiring story on how $7 + a bit of love and attention can make a difference in someone’s life. He has also revamped his theme recently, and the new theme is looking pretty good! Timothy blogs with passion and creativity, and his blog is one of my favorite reads.
- Budget Fight! (Buy Like Buffett)
- Buy Like Buffett shares an amusing video on budget fights over in Argentina.
- Debt Free is Not Enough (MomVesting)
- Jessica over at MomVesting reminds us that simply being debt free should not be the goal we strive for. It is simply one stop on the way toward our financial dreams.
- Do you think the Economy is Improving? (Hope to Prosper)
- Hope to Prosper gives his thoughts on recent moves in the economy, and where it’s going.
- Laid Off? How People Survive (Wealth Pilgrim)
- Neal talks about life after receiving the axe.
- New financial products may have a short shelf life (Canadian Capitalist)
- Canadian Capitalist warns us about the fickleness of some new financial products and services.
- Use It Or Lose It (Dividend Monk)
- Dividend Monk explains how money becomes more valuable to us when we have less of it, and we are likely to take better care of it. He extends this analysis to making the case for dividend-paying stocks. I found it an interesting read, and agree with a lot of what he had to say here, especially regarding budgets.
- What Are Your Financial Regrets? (Watson Inc)
- What are your financial regrets? This is another great post from Roshawn Watson.
- youngandthrifty Book Review: The Intelligent Investor (Young & Thrifty)
- Young & Thrifty reviews The Intelligent Investor, by Benjamin Graham.
Economics
- Has The Credit Market Really Improved Since The Great Crunch of 2008? (Credit Shout)
- Inflation With Gary North Or Deflation With Mish (Run To Gold)
- Quantitative Easing: It’s Sinking the Fed’s Status (Mises Daily)
- The Boiling Frog: Effects of QE2 On The Bottom 80% of the U.S. Population (Gonzalo Lira)
- The CATO Institute Finds That The Fed Must Be Abolished (Zero Hedge)
- The Real Reason for QE2 (The Conservative Economist)
Health
- Thriving, Not Just Surviving (Mark’s Daily Apple)
Investing
- Government Debt Reduction and Your Investments (The College Investor)
- INVESTING ADVICE FROM A PRO (Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance)
- The Stock Market vs. a Speculative Portfolio (101 Centavos)
Lifestyle
- Saving Young or Travelling the World? (Get Happy Life)
Miscellaneous
- “Armageddon Science”: Our coming apocalypse, explained (Salon.com)
- Burning Down the House (Mises Daily)
- Fertility: The Big Problem (Overcoming Bias)
- It’s the Flow, Stupid (FOFOA)
- Unemployed English Girl to Wed Soldier from Welfare Family (The Awl)
- What’s Really Causing The Down Economy? (Financially Poor)
Personal Finance
- How A Lemonade Stand Taught My Daughter To Love Monopolies (Len Penzo)
- How a simple “NO” can simplify your personal finances (Simple Financial Lifestyle)
- Kardashian Debit Kard – Ripoff or Teen Teaching Tool? (KNS Financial)
- The Credit Cards in My Wallet (Bucksome Boomer)
- What is Your Excuse? (Personal Finance By The Book)
Politics
- Will Internet censorship bill be pushed through lame-duck Congress? (KurzweilAI News)
Technology
- Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell on the future of software (Q&A) (CNET)
Retirement
- 10 Guiding Principles For The “New Retirement” (Redeeming Riches)
- Early Retirement Extreme (Beating Broke)
My roundup includes sites that mentioned Invest It Wisely over the past week; thanks for including me, and please let me know if I forgot to mention you!
Video of the week
Youtube: Enemies Become Best Of Friends
I no longer remember where I saw this (it may have been on The Biz of Life as he shares a lot of interesting videos), but it was an inspiring video to watch. Were it not for the useless and destructive ideological differences that separate us apart and set us against each other…
I am grateful for all of the great commentary, feedback, and mentions that I get from each and everyone of you, and I greatly appreciate it. Thanks for stopping by, and if ever you have any questions or feedback, just let me know!
In closing, I want to share a quote I read this week that I liked: “…liberty is at the root of all that is valuable in man. Without liberty, man is an automaton. Without liberty, man is a slave.”, from Faculty Spotlight Interview: Gerard Casey (Mises Economics Blog).
Have a great weekend, guys.
Hi Kevin – thanks for the mention. That’s a good link roundup. Feeling lazy enough tonight to not even web surf, just open up tabs from this page and that’s it…
That’s what I like about roundups. 🙂
Kevin,
Thanks a million for the link.
I also used to get a lot of tickets when I was young. I lost two friends to drunk driving accidents. I drive a lot more carefully now.
I followed the Google cars and I think it makes a lot of sense. I think this type of technology will start out as an “assist”, like in the Mercedes cars, then fully auto cars will become available. If it avoids a lot of accidents, it could be one of the greatest new technologies of this century.
I’m sorry to hear about that, Bret. I really do hope to see these technologies become more widespread so we can avoid these types of tragedies in the future.
Thanks for the double mention Kevin 🙂
That Audi pic is really sexy!
I agree with you- I don’t understand those that drive aggressively (there are a lot of BAAAD drivers here in Vancouver). Sometimes I think that aggressive driving can be reflective of a person’s character.
Before my blood would boil a little when someone speeds up and cuts me off, but now I think: “meh. they must be in a rush.” and it doesn’t bother me at all.
Auto cars would be awesome though!
I definitely had more of a hot head when I was younger, myself. Although I keep up with the traffic or go a bit faster when traffic is moving, I just laugh at the guys that zoom past me… straight toward a red light.
Having known 2 people who got into head on collisions, one family that died and another that almost did and has severe health issues now, driving really should be treated with a little more respect.
I scare myself when I think back to my teenage years. It takes a while to develop defensive driving skills and often in big cities you also have to learn offensive driving skills. If you leave a few car spaces ahead of you in busy traffic that can be more dangerous with people cutting your off constantly.
I love your series idea. I’m going to do at least one more article this week..maybe 2.
It is really scary. In the city you do need to be a bit assertive; I think it basically consists of taking what’s yours and yielding what’s not, and exchanging the space by not being a hog. Things seem to flow much better when you keep those principles in mind.
What gets me are the idiots that literally glue themselves to the bumper of the car ahead and alternate between gunning the gas and stomping on the brake because they don’t want anyone to merge in front of them, even though by convention they should, because two streams of traffic are merging into one. They think that by being 10 feet ahead they are somehow winning. Idiots.
P.S. Ok, ok, I’ll admit it: I’ve acted that way in the past, too, but only if I see someone blatantly cheating. 😛 I won’t do it to someone who is part of the normal stream of traffic.
Robotic cars is one of the concepts that have always amazed me – it would very good for the humanity if cars got auto-pilot controls and better yet – drive us where we want without having to worry about anything. Best of all, it would save lives, reduce our stress and possibly involve more order in the traffic overall.
Automated cars have the potential to double the amount of traffic that roads can safely carry, if not more. Highways could see 5X capacity increases. This would definitely change the whole dynamic of cities…
Yes and imagine how many lives would be saved – this is the first thing I am excited about
Thanks for the mention. 🙂
Thanks for the great mentions, too! 🙂
The google car is pretty cool. I’d go for a self driving car if it meant fewer accidents on the road, less congestion and I could kick back and relax while the car did all the driving.
That would definitely be one of the big advantages. Think of the time freed up that you could use to read or do something else, and without having to be standing up on a overcrowded bus. A true revolution in public transport will probably involve automated cars.
I don’t know how long it would be before I trust a robot car. I trust my instincts much more than programming.
Thanks for including my article!
You might find this interesting:
Kevin – Thanks so much for the link love. It’s always nice when a post surprisingly pops up on a round up, so what are my financial regrets??? Too many to list 🙂 LOL Best Regards,
Shawn
Well, we all do, I’m sure. 😉 Interesting comments today, as well!
I have been thinking about this too. If a car did crash on the highway then every other computerized car could act and work together to ensure no other cars crashed or just crashed softly avoiding massive pile ups much better than human drivers would. Even just a computer that took over in near crash situations would be a great start.
I think being drunk in a car and hurting someone should be treated the same as carrying a loaded gun or being found with a knife. When you get into that car drunk it’s running into a crowd holding a knife in front of you and you know you could possibly make a mistake and hurt someone….
I almost agree. A car has a legitimate use which running around with a gun or knife would not have, so I don’t think we should punish them as far as we would actual murderers, but we definitely do need to be hard on drunk drivers.
That said, I think a sliding scale would be more appropriate. Taking away someone’s license for a year because they had two glasses of wine or doing the same when they had ten glasses of wine doesn’t make much sense. I understand it’s to scare people, but it also breeds contempt for the law. Because impairment starts with the first sip of alcohol, why not start punishing from 0% but not make it criminal until the BAC is somewhat higher? I think that would set a better incentive rather than having some arbitrary cutoff where if you don’t have one more sip, you’re perfectly legal to drive, but if you do, then you lose your license for a year and get a criminal charge. I think without the sip you’re just as impaired as with the sip!
Reading back what I wrote, I don’t think it’s ever going to become a political reality. Cell phones also impair drivers, fatigue impairs drivers… truth is, there are so many things out there and we can’t legislate against them all, because in the end driving is a populist movement so only the outliers will be punished, rather than setting standards so that driving would be safer overall.
So, I’m looking forward to robot cars where people can text, drink, and even sleep in the car, because they won’t be the ones doing the driving. 🙂
I agree but it’s something that really needs to be curbed somehow :(. The problem with a sliding scale is people will weight the odds up and think well 4 drinks isn’t likely to be so bad and then they could wind up killing someone. The sliding scale could work but the punishment needs to be harsh from sip one and just get harsher. Saying that I don’t think prison should be the answer for people caught just in DUI state as prison is damn costly for the tax payer and they are not exactly criminals so there needs to be some heavy community service or something.
I just don’t understand why people still drunk drive, it’s just a disgusting habit.
Honestly I don’t know… if a sliding scale was implemented but was also made more lenient so that even 4 drinks would be less punished (though I don’t think too many people would agree with that), your point would be valid. If made too strict, people will rail against it. With the current system, people get off scot-free if just one sip below the limit, but get a criminal record if one sip above it.
No matter which way you choose, there are problems attached to it. Do we prevent more deaths but at the cost of becoming draconian and criminalizing people having a glass of wine with dinner? At some point it would also be impossible to enforce unless you started installing breathalyzers in cars, but even that could be worked around.
In one sense we’ve already made the trade off by allowing people to drive in the first place, with all the distractions of modern technology. With robot cars we could cut millions of deaths to thousands of deaths, which would be a vast improvement. I think the only clear solution is in providing people an alternative so that they can have 10 glasses of wine if they want, yet still “drive” home safely since it would be a robot doing the driving.
I can’t wait until this computerized driving tech is standard…. I don’t look forward to the first virus though!
That’s what I had in the back of my mind…. 😛 So long as they’re not centrally controlled and manufactured by different companies that should hopefully be well under control… we don’t want someone sending a command to cars that sends them flying off the highway at full speed. :S
Just got done watching “Minority Report” again. Love the chase scene during the morning commute…. now there’s a whole bunch of robot cars.
Gotta watch that one again!