I am not writing about technical “infrastructure” in autonomous vehicles for surely I'd be delving into algorithms, AI, sensors, radar, LiDAR, GPS – convergence technology on a platform known as a car. Reading a sampling of definitive statements on car company websites supported by the daily media about technology in autonomous cars, I see a perfect example of the grand leap model in innovation.
This psychological model plays to the public’s identity currently with one foot in the 20th century and the other in the 21st and maybe 22nd and 23rd centuries. Many find the new alternative to natural driving so alluring that they’ll leap right into a “sold” mentality when predictive social-oriented promises from Waymo, Uber, Hitachi, Tesla, Ford and VW hit the newsstand. Cognition; a driver’s ability gained through experience, must be shelved, put aside, de-commissioned for self-driven cars. How in the hell can psychology explain that? It must be a true grand leap.
Psychologists know that stating a hypothesis only begins the real work of validation. Predictive behaviors sold as absolute foregone conclusions about autonomous car values such as guaranteed safety, better social welfare, a new life for senior citizens and stress-free living are common. Car companies will tell us personal freedom and social intelligence are converging, to say; “I will trust (a behavior) computer systems to drive (a cognition) better than I can drive; I have become progressive and intelligent" (the leap). In addition to decommissioning cognition is the surrendering of privacy. Autonomous car systems tracks and stores data relative to performance, location and installed apps for passenger entertainment.
The cognitive illusion comes by ceasing to critically think through the behaviors that we will de-commission. But there’s a more subtle behavior in some technologies grand leap model and that is to believe everyone else has accepted de-commissioning cognitions as well.
Robert P. Waters, Author
This psychological model plays to the public’s identity currently with one foot in the 20th century and the other in the 21st and maybe 22nd and 23rd centuries. Many find the new alternative to natural driving so alluring that they’ll leap right into a “sold” mentality when predictive social-oriented promises from Waymo, Uber, Hitachi, Tesla, Ford and VW hit the newsstand. Cognition; a driver’s ability gained through experience, must be shelved, put aside, de-commissioned for self-driven cars. How in the hell can psychology explain that? It must be a true grand leap.
Psychologists know that stating a hypothesis only begins the real work of validation. Predictive behaviors sold as absolute foregone conclusions about autonomous car values such as guaranteed safety, better social welfare, a new life for senior citizens and stress-free living are common. Car companies will tell us personal freedom and social intelligence are converging, to say; “I will trust (a behavior) computer systems to drive (a cognition) better than I can drive; I have become progressive and intelligent" (the leap). In addition to decommissioning cognition is the surrendering of privacy. Autonomous car systems tracks and stores data relative to performance, location and installed apps for passenger entertainment.
The cognitive illusion comes by ceasing to critically think through the behaviors that we will de-commission. But there’s a more subtle behavior in some technologies grand leap model and that is to believe everyone else has accepted de-commissioning cognitions as well.
Robert P. Waters, Author