Perhaps in retrospect it looks like it had always been obvious, but I remember the a-ha moment I had years ago riding in an Über–I even tried to buy www.guber.com (it was taken by a guy named Guber 🙁 ) for the nexus of google & Über that I had foreseen as the gig economy was created only to be destroyed as Über drivers were replaced the world over by Johnny Cab and a highly controlled society…for my earlier work on this topic, see:
Über Alles…
Posted on February 23, 2016
The Übermorphosis Is Nigh…
Posted on August 25, 2016
Today, though, the flags I had highlighted were writ large and none-too-subtly as the media reported a crash of one of Uber’s autonomous vehicles. The first headline below is just too “that-happened-so-we-need-to-do-this”–it’s the kind of thing that flags a false flag if you ask me, though simple opportunistic crisis-exploitation works just as well–mishaps on the road would be inevitable:
Uber’s Self-Driving Crash Proves We Need Self-Driving Cars
Meanwhile, today’s Wall Street Journal casually mentioned that what has been sold to us as the poster child for a grassroots bottom-up gig economy emerging organically is really a business model that never worked with human drivers (as I suspected):
Uber Resumes Self-Driving-Vehicle Program After Arizona Accident
Testing was suspended after auto was hit by another one
Like Google parent Alphabet Inc. and other technology companies, Uber is investing heavily in self-driving vehicles in the belief they will reduce fatalities and improve fuel and traffic efficiency by limiting human error. For Uber, valued at the $68 billion, the technology also is considered essential to achieving consistent profitability, as it would eliminate the expense of paying legions of drivers.
If you want to know more about why I’m worried about this, read my posts linked above.
Reblogged this on .
Progress? Like a speeding train, it’s coming even if it’s gonna kill us ?