Why I Pay Attention

I'm perfectly happy for our robot cars to work perfectly well, but they won't, and when they don't they'll be trying to get all the nuisances (pedestrians) out of the way. I don't why people think cities without pedestrians are desirable. That's what mall-ville is for. But they do.

Using $500,000 from the Volkswagen emissions scandal settlement and $300,000 in federal research funds, the DOT has hired Michigan-based May Mobility to run the “Little Roady” self-driving shuttles. Passenger service along the dozen-stop route is slated to begin in April or May.

Not sure why federal research funds should be spent on this shit either, but ok... and then there it is.

Although the shuttles seat six, one of the seats will be filled with a human driver during the pilot program, who can take control in the event of emergency.

In addition to giving people a new option to get around, the autonomous pilot program is designed to give public policymakers a better sense of what changes to the law, public safety procedures and infrastructure might be required if self-driving vehicles ever hit the mainstream.