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Comment Re:Desktop Linux needs to stop sucking is all (Score 3, Insightful) 129

You should try it on PC hardware. That people have been able to get Linux working tolerably well on Apple hardware is a testament to their fortitude and bullheadedness, given how hard Apple has made it. I like Apple's laptops, and I'd rather run Linux than OS X, but it's just not worth it. Running Linux on a PC laptop or desktop is great, though. Suspend/resume and even hibernation work perfectly on the desktop Debian machine I'm typing this on.

Comment Re:needs to work with no network as well! (Score 1) 129

The point is that in California there currently appears to be NO penalty or state-wide mechanism for addressing traffic violations by a robotaxi. Police apparently have little choice but to just let them go on their way without any action (at least that is what police are doing).

Is that what they're doing? It seems to me that the appropriate action is to report the event to the regulator and have them follow up.

Do you have a link to information about what police are or aren't doing?

Comment Re:Education Funding (Score 1) 87

Decades ago people were going to school with shotgun racks on their vehicles.

Heh. My dad used to keep a rifle and ammunition in his school locker. He'd carry the rifle into the school and put it in his locker every morning, and reverse the process every afternoon. Why? He hunted jackrabbits every afternoon, on his way home from school. The local farmers paid a bounty for jackrabbit ears because the rabbits ate their crops. He tried using a shotgun for a while, but the shells were a lot more expensive, so assuming sufficient skill to hit fast-moving rabbits with a rifle, it was the better choice.

Simpler times...

Comment Re:Education Funding (Score 1) 87

Imagine if those millions of dollars were spent on teaching students.

I'm sure the district would love to spend the money that way, but we live in a society that values easy access to guns more than it values safety, so the district's hand is forced.

This is Beverly Hills, and school districts are funded by property tax revenues. This school district has money coming out of its metaphorical ears.

That, of course, is also a problem, that some school districts are lavishly funded and others struggle mightily. But if the Beverly Hills school district weren't blowing $5M on questionable safety equipment, they'd be blowing it on something else.

Comment Re:needs to work with no network as well! (Score 1) 129

I think the whole notion of applying a behavior-management program designed for individual drivers to a company operating a fleet of robot drivers makes no sense. It's a different situation, and calls for different regulatory strategies. I'm not saying there shouldn't be regulation of autonomous vehicles, just that it should be tailored to address that problem, rather than applying a solution designed for a different problem.

And, frankly, California's strategy seems like a good one. They're allowing systems to be built and tested on public roads because the systems will, when fully operational, yield enormous benefits to the people; safer roads, lower-cost transport, recovery of vast amounts of space currently devoted to parking lots, etc. They're also overseeing this testing, requiring regular reports, being ready to intervene and impose additional requirements or revoke permission to operate, etc.

Comment Re:needs to work with no network as well! (Score 1) 129

In California it's still not clear who gets a ticket in case of a moving violation and who gets points on their record when autonomous cars violate the law and who pays the fines and fees - so nobody does.

Are those mechanisms relevant or useful for regulating autonomous vehicles? It seems to me that you're applying a system designed to incentivize and manage the behavior of individual human drivers to an entirely different context. That doesn't make sense.

What does? Well, pretty much what California is doing. There's a regulatory agency tasked with defining rules for licensing self-driving systems to operate on state roads. Failure to comply with regulatory requirements, or evidence of failure to behave safely and effectively results in the state rescinding the license to operate. Of course, not every failure is of a magnitude that justifies license revocation, and how the maker of the system responds to problems is a key factor in determining an appropriate response.

In this case, Waymo had a significant problem. Waymo responded by immediately suspending service until, presumably, they figure out how to address the problem. Assuming they fix it, that's reasonable behavior that doesn't warrant much response by the regulator, except perhaps to look into Waymo's design and testing processes to see whether this gap is indicative of others.

This all makes a lot more sense than trying to fit policies designed for humans onto machines.

Comment Re:needs to work with no network as well! (Score 1) 129

Section 227.32 on page 11 says the autonomous vehicle test driver is mandatory. Earlier it says there should be a communications link between the driver and the vehicle, but it doesn't say it must go through a "network."

Thanks. I guess this requirement goes away when the system graduates out of "test" mode?

Comment Re: needs to work with no network as well! (Score 1) 129

The requirement that there be a way to 'take over' the vehicle in case of a problem literally requires network access for a remote 'driver' to take over in case of a problem involving a 'driverless' vehicle.

How can a remote driver take over a vehicle's controls if there is no network?

I was looking for a reference. Luckily, ObliviousGnat was actually helpful.

Comment Re:needs to work with no network as well! (Score 2) 129

They legally are obligated to work on a network, as they should be.

https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/...

What part of that document says they have to be networked? I skimmed it and didn't see anything like that. I found some stuff about remote operators, but those appear to be optional.

Comment Re:Who's fault? Big Tech or the Graduates? (Score 1) 121

Nor is living when you are working for free.

AFAICT, approximately all software development internships are paid, most of them reasonably well. I have two insights into this, the first is as working SWE. My employers and all of the others around them pay interns pretty well. The second is as a member of the industry advisors board for my alma mater, a non-prestigious four-year state university. Talking to other industry reps and to professors and university job placement support staff, I've yet to encounter anyone who knows of any unpaid internships. The internships in the area where I live (Utah) are much less well-compensated than internships in the area where I work (Silicon Valley), but even the Utah internships are $15-30 per hour. Not great money, but not terrible for someone who doesn't have a degree or any work experience.

The closest thing to an unpaid internship I've seen in software is that my university has a grant program that will pay students to do internships at local companies, so the intern is free to the company they're doing work for, but the student is still getting paid $15/hour. This program exists mostly because it's been found that giving companies free interns helps them realize that hiring interns is a good idea, and nearly all of them go on to set up their own internship programs (funded by them, not the grant).

Other industries have unpaid internships, and it's certainly possible that as the software industry scales back its hiring of entry-level engineers, unpaid internships may become a thing, but AFAICT, this hasn't happened.

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