When a bright child questions a parent who hasn’t got a good answer, the parent often will sometimes say, because I said so!
Government works on the same principle.
It says A and B are the law – that we must not do something – because of this rationale. But when we – its children, as it considers us – notice and ask why C is allowed or even required, despite it being contrary to the same rationale given for A and B, we are told – in essence – because I said so!
Examples abound but the latest is an exemption from federal saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety requirements for cars without drivers just granted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
The Nuro R2 – named, obviously, to summon warm associations with the cute little R2 D2 robot from Star Wars – will not have to conform to FMVSS crashworthiness standards that apply to other cars.
Well, to cars that still have drivers.
FMVSS is ukase code for Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards – there’s that word again! – which among other things decree the crashworthiness of new cars with someone behind the wheel. How they impact things.
This includes people.
Driverless cars like the Nuro R2 are to be exempted from such tomfoolery, even though it’s a fact that they are quite capable of crashing into things.
And people.
Because driverless cars aren’t infallible.
They have demonstrated this. Repeatedly.
But NHTSA considers the R2 an acceptable risk – to our safety – because it has a maximum speed of “only” 25 miles-per-hour. Walk into traffic moving 25 MPH and see how saaaaaaaaaaaaaafe it is to be hit by a vehicle traveling “only” 25 MPH.
If, of course, you survive the experience.
Since the R2 doesn’t have a driver to see things in its path such as other cars – and people – it is up to sensors and cameras and programming to apply the brakes and not run into them.
It’s inevitable that the R2 won’t see someone, eventually. Perhaps you.
Maybe your kid.
Our safety – at the mercy of technology which has established its fallibility.
Including its greater susceptibility to being stumped by rain and fog and snow and ice, its programming stymied – because its sensors cannot see.
Oh well.
Where to send the hospital bill?
Meanwhile, we’re not allowed to temporarily turn off defective air bags that have established their lethality until such time as it can be arranged to have the murderous things replaced. As you read this sentence, there are tens of thousands of cars being driven around with air bags prone to disintegrate upon deployment, shredding the driver’s face with high-velocity shrapnel.
The law requires the owners of these cars to continue driving around with these time-bombs inches away from their faces; or rather, the law – NHTSA – will not issue a stay of execution by permitting the owners to have a dealer turn them off until they can be replaced (so many cars are affected that it will take years to replace all the known-defective air bags)..
Even though NHTSA knows that the cars equipped with these dashboard Claymores are extremely not saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafe.
Oh well.
What would NHTSA’s reaction be if it were discovered that Toyota or Honda or Chevrolet had been selling cars that didn’t meet the federal 5 MPH bumper-impact requirement?
It’d be volcanic.
So why are driverless cars exempted?
It is because NHTSA wants to facilitate the process of getting drivers out of cars. There is no other sane explanation for the serial kid-glove treatment of dangerous driverless cars, including (most notoriously) Tesla electric cars that drive a great deal faster then 25 MPH – without a driver.
Or rather, with drivers who have turned over driving to the car – and then gone to sleep behind the wheel.
Tesla advertises this capability as a selling point – and NHTSA doesn’t so much as belch. Other car companies are champing at the bit to do the same and many already offer partial self-driving capability – encouraging the driver not to.
Multiple deaths have already occurred – and more inevitably to follow.
No recall. No requirement that “Autopilot” be disabled – even temporarily.
But if you don’t wear a seatbelt, you risk the unfriendly attentions of armed government workers, who rarely “buckle up” themselves. These AGWs will literally threaten your life for – at the very worst – putting your own saaaaaaaaaaaafety slightly at risk.
Driverless cars that put other people’s saaaaaaaaaaaafety at risk?
That’s just fine.
Because we said so!
. . .
Got a question about cars, Libertarian politics – or anything else? Click on the “ask Eric” link and send ’em in!
If you like what you’ve found here please consider supporting EPautos.
We depend on you to keep the wheels turning!
Our donate button is here.
If you prefer not to use PayPal, our mailing address is:
EPautos
721 Hummingbird Lane SE
Copper Hill, VA 24079
PS: Get an EPautos magnet or sticker or coaster in return for a $20 or more one-time donation or a $10 or more monthly recurring donation. (Please be sure to tell us you want a magnet or sticker or coaster – and also, provide an address, so we know where to mail the thing!)
My latest eBook is also available for your favorite price – free! Click here. If that fails, email me at EPeters952@yahoo.com and I will send you a copy directly!
I was under the impression that crash standards were maintained universally in the unfortunate event of a collision. Offensive or defensive. Just because a car has a top speed of 25 (impeding flow of traffic everywhere except in playground zones and parking lots) does not mean it will not be struck by a Tesla accelerating to 80 mph and veering into R2D2’s lane. We MUST maintain equal standards!
Well, except motorcycle.
Seat belts universally – NO exceptions!
Well, except motorcycle.
Similarly, a truck driver has to have a medical exam every 3 or 5 years to maintain his license… But that doesn’t account for a driver of a car in the oncoming lane having a heart attack and causing the exact same collision. Just another tax if you want to drive a semi truck…
I was under the impression that crash standards were maintained universally in the unfortunate event of a collision. Offensive or defensive. Just because a car has a top speed of 25 (impeding flow of traffic everywhere except in playground zones and parking lots) does not mean it will not be struck by a Tesla accelerating to 80 mph and veering into R2D2’s lane. We MUST maintain equal standards!
Well, except motorcycle.
Similarly, a truck driver has to have a medical exam every 3 or 5 years to maintain his license… But that doesn’t account for a driver of a car in the oncoming lane having a heart attack and causing the exact same collision. Just another tax if you want to drive a semi truck…
Sorry, please delete comment above… first time commenter, didn’t appear to be accepted first attempt. I didn’t want to be a comment clover.
All good, Arctic – thanks!
My mother used to say that. It would really piss me off…..but what to do. My dad would just shake his head cause he didn’t want to hear screaming ass-chewing. I finally figured it out when I realize they couldn’t take away the pickup unless they wanted to hire a hand(wasn’t even a consideration when you already have a hand), they couldn’t use physical force since I could have whipped both of them at the same time. What to do when you lose your power over someone? I don’t know since I’ve never done this to anyone.
Once they(my mother only)pushed me to the point of no return, she was free to fume and have fits as I rapidly put distance between us. That bad thing about it I was just like my dad, a really nice guy who hadn’t a bit of the authoritarian in him.
This is the result of indoctrination 24&7 by schools, corpmedia and corpgov. “We are a “Law abiding nation”,,, “It’s the law!”,,, law enforcers protect us,,, call 911 when you need help,,, etc. Americans and really citizens worldwide are under the notion that once a law is decreed,,, any law,,, even if that law will harm them, they have to obey. NO MATTER WHAT. Even worse, they think a gaggle of black robed gurus will right any wrongs.
90% or more of all laws are wrote by corporations and passed by their paid off legislators and presidents they got elected by millions of dollars worth of ads bullshitting the electorate.
Almost all insurance laws are written by the insurance folks that brought you Obamacare and other great scams for your health and safety.
Same with Auto safety, gun safety, child safety, drug safety, appliance safety, bike safety, and any other safety racket they can dream up.
Worse,,, in many cases we beg them for it…
Oh, it’s worse than that. Some of the people I interact with on other forums, they would blow your mind with how robotic they are – and by that I mean they, allegedly human beings, have less soul than most robot characters from popular entertainment media. One of these (whose avatar is a picture of one of the Beatles, ironically enough) has outright stated that the need for entertainment (i.e. the arts) is just an “evolutionary frivolity” that we “wouldn’t care about” if we didn’t have it.
People at this point basically have pre-programmed responses. They don’t think about things, they just react to signal words – “safety”, “environment”, “children”, and so on. So it’s like they have two conflicting sets of instincts working inside them – on one hand, there is an innate THEORETICAL recognition of the dignity of the individual and of people’s rights to make choices for themselves, but on the other hand, once you try to bring that into the practical realm, their authoritarian-collectivist greater-good programming kicks in and suddenly the government should be able to do anything, force people to do anything, and force people to pay for anything which appears necessary to save people from themselves or just make the numbers look better. Either they don’t trust people to make decisions for themselves, or CORPURASHUNZ R EBUL, or they just default to “fewer airbags = more people die in accidents = bad”. Yes, a lot of corporations have done evil things (see Big Ag + Big Pharma), but what is the government going to do when the evilest corporations already own them?
Remember that old saying about how a single death is a tragedy but a million deaths is a statistic? Now, people have that backwards: a million deaths is a tragedy but a single death is a statistic. Someone who gets maimed or killed by an air bag is an edge case, or an acceptable sacrifice for all the people airbags will save – robotic thinking masquerading as compassion. Thinking about these issues in terms of straight statistics dehumanizes everyone involved.
Chuck, I’ve noticed the same disconnect of staffers that have been recorded unknowingly in the Sanders campaign. They are the only smart people with everyone else being “children” or “stupid”. If Bernie wins, they’re going to find out those stupid children can be pretty lethal.
Of course the stupid children will give more quarter than the “geniuses” of the Bernie or any other Democrat crowd. Of course the people who are most affected by illegal immigration will be the gun crowd working class who don’t need uncle in any way, shape or form.
“Because I said so, that’s why!”” LOL I remember getting that answer from my mom a lot…….when I was about ten years old. That’s the trouble with all these control freak bureaucrats, they think they’re our parents and we need to obey because they said so. My parents provided food and shelter when I was ten, so that was the trade off. Sadly there are way too many people who are perfectly happy with that way beyond their 18th birthday, just substituting Uncle for their parents.
If these vehicles aren’t going to travel faster than 25 MPH what business is it of the NHTSA? Highway speeds are minimum 45 MPH. There’s no reason for the federales to be involved at all. Except that the startup’s business plan doesn’t involve sending out hoards of lobbyists to every municipality to get permission to use local roads. Or the chance that some might not approve the vehicle.
We’re seeing this play out in the plans for building out 5G networks. The FCC issued a blanket authorization for cellular phone companies to build out without necessarily getting approval from the local municipal government. Locals are having a hissy fit (as they should), but they’re blaming Trump, not the system itself.
The real tragedy of the China story isn’t that their country is built on a house of cards, it’s that all the other government types around the world are envious of the “one party” system and rigid, central control. They all want to build the 3 Gorges dam, no matter the cost, and the opportunistic entrepreneur is happy to take advantage of the authority’s gullibility.
I suppose next the “pilot-less” aircraft will not require emergency exits, and “captain-less” vessels will be exempt from having lifeboats/jackets on board as well.
Forget the drink! I need a big bottle of Tylenol ’cause I got a serious migraine after reading this.
“Forget the drink! I need a big bottle of Tylenol ’cause I got a serious migraine after reading this.”
And some sleep, apparently ’cause I just posted that in the wrong article. Whoops! lol
Pretty amazing what can be accomplished and avoided when the “right” bureaucrat makes a phone call. Los Angeles city agency’s are simply exempting themselves – from their own building code quicksand pit – by saying no, we don’t need to do all that for our new taxpayer funded homeless housing condos.
My airbags are in the trash. Tired of waiting for the recall to replace th defective pieces of government mandated killing machines. Now I have a new glovebox on the passenger side and a hidden compartment in the steering wheel. And I don’t ave to worry about being killed by shrapnel. Of course, I do have to drive as carefully as I always do to avoid injury and or unpleasant demise from other drivers or an unlikely lapse in my judgement.
Speaking of “Because I say so”… here’s an armed West Virginia storm trooper pulling a “Your papers, NOW — because I say so!” on a citizen who is committing NO CRIME… and then calls the citizen a “Goddamned fucking cocksucker” to his face and threatens him with arrest for asserting his rights!!!
MUST SEE… gets pretty wild around the 6:30 – 7:00 mark…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp14ZEHh-4E
HI X,
Atrocious. But the kid mishandled the AGW’s authoritarian pantomime. The AGW can certainly ask anything he likes. But the kid is under no legal obligation to answer.
Yet another area where people will decide the government is stupid instead of working out what the institution and those who run it and influence it gain.
Stupidity is a useful mask especially when the lower level people carrying out an agenda are stupid.
Well said JWK. This is about power and control- and of course preservation of the bureaucracy in which the busy-body kleptoparasite “works”.
Anyone who actually believes the US Sociopaths In Charge give a flying fuck about their safety is a moron. Their one and only concern is their own welfare, and the more power they accumulate, the more secure their welfare is. Their ultimate goal is the populations complete submission, which will be fulfilled by making your life as small as possible, whereas all you can do is work and pay taxes, eat, sleep, and sit in front of a propaganda delivery device. America, the land of the tax slave, and the home of the subservient.