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Self-driving amphibious vehicle to go on trial in eastern Japan

14 Comments

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14 Comments
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What could possibly go wrong?

12 ( +13 / -1 )

These vehicles, with drivers, were a tourist attraction on the Thames for a while, until a couple of nasty accidents had them banned. This won’t end well.

12 ( +12 / -0 )

I'm surprised the drivers' union and tour industry aren't protesting against self-driving vehicles, being they will put drivers out of work.

On the other hand, maybe the tour industry sees greater profit with self-driving vehicles since they don't have to pay for wages.

9 ( +9 / -0 )

No thank you, I prefer human interaction and a human behind the wheel of a car.

8 ( +10 / -2 )

The technology could have been better utilized.

For instance, self-driving amphibious vehicles that could travel through flood waters and carry vital survival goods to people stranded in their homes.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Will they go over 10kph unlike the human driven ones we see creeping around.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

The 240 million yen expenditure could have paid for a human driver for the next 80 years and saved all the astronomical ongoing IT support costs but hey that's progress right?

5 ( +6 / -1 )

This sounded okay till it got to the "remote islands" bit. As the Thames example mentioned above, amphibious buses are bad enough on a river, never mind the open sea.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

How come that JT has not got a picture of this mighty vehicle at the top of the article...

3 ( +3 / -0 )

So, there aren't even tour jobs for human drivers because of Corona, and this is their rational for making a vehicle that we all know will end up making Uber's self-driving car accident look like a tiny scratch?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I don't mind AI pilots and drivers so long as they have co-pilots. And those co-pilots and co-drivers should be human.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Work on the dam resumed after Gunma, Tokyo and four other surrounding prefectures demanded it.

I remember well. These governments were pushing for continuation of the dam project to protect jobs. Or so they said. Now they’re promoting driverless amphibious vehicles to cut jobs.

Who would’ve guessed it was all about corporate/yakuza/political greed all along. Makes me sick.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Paul14

Are you saying all technological advances should not be financed as a human replacement already exists?

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

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