After a brutal 2023, the vibes around #self-#driving #cars are improving.
#Cruise, the industry leader whose vehicle was involved in a #horrific San Francisco #crash last fall, has #rebooted under new management,
while rival #Waymo is #expanding to serve broader swaths of the Bay Area and Los Angeles
and #Tesla is promising a new #robotaxi service.
Although Americans say they remain #wary of autonomous driving,
boosters insist there is nothing to fear.
In fact, they foresee roads full of self-driving cars that are both #safer and #cleaner than the status quo,
a tantalizing prospect in a country where transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions and residents are several times more likely to die in a crash than those living in other rich nations.
Enticing though they are, such arguments conceal a #logical #flaw.
As a classic 19th-century theory known as a #Jevons #paradox explains,
even if autonomous vehicles eventually work perfectly
— an enormous “if”
— they are
likely to increase total #emissions and crash #deaths,
simply because 
️people will use them so much.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/2/24232386/self-driving-car-jevons-paradox-robotaxi-waymo-cruise
Please join in Friday, June 21 
THEINER-THON SIT-REP 
