To drive or not to drive

I am not sure if the Waymos and the Teslas of the world got the plot right when they actually pump a lot of money into their driverless car projects. Do we really need driverless cars? I'm sure there are enough takers in India and elsewhere for these jobs behind the wheels in the US. Yes, there are robots serving food in some places in the map; we could have done away with such machines too. But the point is trusting the machine to take you through the streets of Istanbul or a stretch of the B&R Initiative, is not the same as trusting it only to the point of serving you a plate of pongal-vadai without splashing the boiling sambhar on your face.

Traditionally machines were invented to - ease our efforts, reduce the risks, bring down the costs, or to better our lives. I am not sure where the driverless cars fit in. For that matter, I don't even like gearless cars. True, machines are created for fun too. But in this case who exactly is going to have fun? The traveler sitting alone in a car that does not have even a driver? Perhaps, no. As an industry expert, Sivam Sabesan, smartly put, 'Driverless cars are solutions looking for problems'. (He asked me not to quote him.)

Mind you, I'm not talking about the drones and other forms of unmanned vehicles like the Mars rover that can deliver you emergency medicines or pick up some stones from far away places. They are required, as long as they do not carry human beings. People like me keep worrying even when an aircraft goes in the autopilot mode midair. It's dangerous! For that matter, I would definitely think twice before getting into a driverless train. I mean, there is no match for the human brains when it comes to the speed of (right) decision making, especially when there is chaos around. Roads, are not a game of poker. Roads, are a game of life and death - for the humans. 

But going by the pace the deep learning thing is progressing, it is said the machines may take over the world in the next few centuries. Yes, centuries. All you have to do to know the progress in AI is to see the Wired video on standup comedy by digital assistants.

But in any case I would rather prefer getting killed by a barrage of boring jokes than by a driverless car. 

In the meantime, back at home, my around 4-year old son has invented (discovered?) a new number: feinteen. It comes somewhere between thirteen and twenty. Talk of human brains!