|
Forum: General Talk
07-31-2018, 11:22 PM
|
| |
You seem to think that the "nanny state" is when the state enforces laws that will prevent people from killing or harming other people. Having laws against manslaughter, maiming and even murder would by your logic also be part of a nanny state.
The difference between the likes of car accidents, use of asbestos and smoking compared to rock-climbing, sailing or other potentially lethal sports is that in the former a person is making decisions which risk not only that person's life but the lives of others, which they have absolutely no right to do. If someone wants to climb a rock face and risks falling off then that's his decision and he has every right to take it as long as he doesn't endanger anyone else.
|
|
Forum: General Talk
07-31-2018, 02:08 AM
|
| |
True, but many more lives will be saved than lost.
This is the problem - people like to make their own decisions, like going through that red light because it's only just changed or going at 50 in the 40 zone because it's only slightly over the limit and there are no radars etc etc. People make these decisions every day and every day they result in deaths, either their own, their family or someone else. Autonomous cars can drastically reduce that, but only when the tech is ready and people need to be aware that the number of road accidents will never be zero.
A few months ago there were two news stories within the space of a week or so about accidents that involved driverless test vehicles because the media likes to hype things like this up. What they didn't really push in the stories was that in both cases people were to blame - in one a woman was hit by the vehicle as she ran across the road in front of it, clearly her own fault, and in the other the "driver" had over-ridden the car's recommendation that something was wrong and he should take control. He didn't, he left it in auto, and the car ran into another vehicle.
The moral is that nothing is fool-proof: even when systems are designed to save lives, stupid people will find a way around them that results in death or injury.
|
