These folks are awesome, and they’re on Mastodon!
I read the article but I’m still not completely sure what the protestors’ objective is. They don’t like cameras and think cars are bad?
Sure you read the article? Maybe you disagree with their objections, but the article lays them out:
A video from the group that has gained almost 5 million views on Twitter points out that AVs block buses, emergency vehicles, and everyday traffic. It also claims that they’re partnering with police to record everyone all the time without anyone’s consent. And, most importantly, they require streets designed for cars, not people or transit.
You’re right, I had glossed over that part. The first point seems like an issue, the second and third just seem like normal life in the US. Most roads here are made for cars, and people should already expect that if you’re in public you can or will be recorded, as recording in public is a first amendment right, and everyone already has a camera in their pocket.
Turns out not everyone wants life to be that way in the US, hence, protestors.
Presumably then the protestors have already given up their pocket cameras and make no use of the road network?
Imo, that’s a silly false equivalence. Personally-controlled cameras in the pocket aren’t the same as being routinely surveilled by law enforcement, and there are often no viable alternatives for transport in the US, given the existing infrastructure, which is a big part of the reason people are upset.
Can you give a better source than the original article that the cars are being used as surveillance for law enforcement? The original article had this to say:
It also claims that they’re partnering with police to record everyone all the time without anyone’s consent.
To me that seems very biased. I found another article that seems a little more nuanced (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-06-29/self-driving-car-video-from-waymo-cruise-give-police-crime-evidence?leadSource=uverify%20wall).
It says that police need a warrant to access footage, just like any other cctv you might find at a brick and mortar business, which are also filming you at every street corner 24/7.
In December 2021, San Francisco police were working to solve the murder of an Uber driver. As detectives reviewed local surveillance footage, they zeroed in on a gray Dodge Charger they believed the shooter was driving. They also noticed a fleet of Waymo’s self-driving cars, covered with cameras and sensors, happen to drive by around the same time.
Recognizing the convenient trove of potential evidence, Sergeant Phillip Gordon drafted a search warrant to Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo, demanding hours of footage that the SUVs had captured the morning the shooting took place. “I believe that there is probable cause that the Waymo vehicles driving around the area have video surveillance of the suspect vehicle, suspects, crime scene, and possibly the victims in this case,” Gordon wrote in the application for the warrant to Google’s sister company.
Back to your other point - people are free to be upset at our car based society. I just think it’s arbitrary to take it out on driverless cars when it’s our entire society they seem to have a problem with. They’re free to protest however they see fit, my opinion is still that it seems hypocritical.
Skyrim moment, right there.
Aww, unicorn
