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Hilarious Attack Ad In Florida Suggests That Legalizing Autonomous Vehicles Puts Old People At Risk

Politics

from the run-for-your-lives dept

Thu, Aug 16th 2012 1:31pm — Mike Masnick
It's political silly season, so you expect to see all kinds of ridiculous campaign ads, and in local elections they can get particularly bizarre. Most of them have little to do with technology and innovation and things that we focus on, but here's one that's been making the rounds that seems worth discussing here. A local campaign ad in Florida attacked candidate Jeff Brandes for... legalizing "driverless cars" in Florida. First, just watch it:
The voice over and the graphics are pretty funny, but hilariously wrong. The idea that driverless cars are going to run down little old ladies in the street seems pretty odd -- especially when you consider the driving ability of some of those little, old ladies themselves. I've spent plenty of time in Florida, and I'd feel a hell of a lot safer with autonomous vehicles on the road than some of those little, old ladies behind the wheel.

Then, the ad "quotes" Forbes supposedly saying that "Driverless Cars for All: More DANGEROUS Than Driving." Here's the screenshot:
Except... as Alex Knapp at Forbes points out, if you look at the actual article in question, it's got absolutely nothing to do with the physical safety of autonomous vehicles, but is more of a political discussion about the idea that, someday, in someone's imagination, we'll all be required to use autonomous vehicles, rather than be able to make bad distracted driving choices on our own. In other words, completely unrelated to what the ad appears to be suggesting.

But, more seriously, the ad then attacks the candidate by saying he should be focused on the economy and jobs. Um. You know one good way to do that? It's to help advance job-creating technology and innovations. You'd think that seniors in Florida would be excited, not worried about autonomous vehicles, in that they could help make them a lot more mobile.

Either way, the ad is silly, and pure misleading luddism targeted at Florida seniors. And, clearly, they didn't work, as the guy won his primary anyway. Oh, and it's worth noting that his opposing candidate -- the one that ad wanted the little old ladies to vote for? Yeah, he voted in favor of the same proposal to allow autonomous vehicles on the roads in Florida too. Ah, politics...
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Filed Under: attack ad, autonomous vehicles, jeff brandes, politics

25 Comments

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  • icon
    Vog (profile), 16 Aug 2012 @ 1:32pm

    I'm disappointed that this ad is seriously meant to be anything but amusing.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Dark Helmet (profile), 16 Aug 2012 @ 1:37pm

    Honest Question:

    I noticed that after the video is concluded and the usual amalgamam of suggested next videos pops up, the one in the lower right hand corner is called "oracle advice" and shows a picture of the The Oracle from the sequels of The Matrix movies.

    Is this because the voiceover in the political ad is done by that woman? I can hear some similarities in the voice.

    More importantly, is this a subtle trick by The Machines to derail not only this candidate, but driverless cars as a whole, because of the mechano-fear that an AI simulating an AI would start a Matrix singularity that would unravel the entire--

    *POP*

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    mickmel (profile), 16 Aug 2012 @ 1:44pm

    Remote controlled?

    I notice it called them "remote controlled" as well, which shows how they don't quite understand the technology they're fighting against...

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Glen, 16 Aug 2012 @ 1:48pm

      Re: Remote controlled?

      I wouldn't expect a politician to understand what he is voting for or against. That would fry their circuits.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      :Lobo Santo (profile), 16 Aug 2012 @ 1:48pm

      Re: Remote controlled?

      ...and that would be: perfectly normal!

      Since when does any politician bother to truly understand what s/he's fighting for/against?

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 16 Aug 2012 @ 1:50pm

      Re: Remote controlled?

      Maybe they've been watching too much Mythbusters and just assumed all cars worked that way.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Ruben, 16 Aug 2012 @ 1:50pm

      Re: Remote controlled?

      ....as is almost always the case....

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 16 Aug 2012 @ 1:56pm

    This reminds me of that time we had to vote to approve a government supplement for Old Glory Robot Insurance so the elderly could afford to protect themselves from roving bands of androids bent on eating their pills at night.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    radarmonkey (profile), 16 Aug 2012 @ 2:23pm

    SNL prophecy!

    Oh my various gods!

    I wish work would let me search/post the Sam Waterston SNL commercial for "Robot Insurance"

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Digitari, 16 Aug 2012 @ 2:46pm

    Re:

    will it run on android?

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Chronno S. Trigger (profile), 16 Aug 2012 @ 2:56pm

    Did anyone else notice that the car didn't stop a the stop sign? Ignoring the fact that the cars will be programmed to watch for pedestrians, a robotic car that doesn't stop for stop signs, will never make it onto the road in the first place.

    Another way these people just don't have a clue what technology they're fighting against.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Zimzat (profile), 16 Aug 2012 @ 3:24pm

      Re:

      I did notice that, but I also noticed some other oddities. For a car that was supposed to just run through the intersection, and potentially run the old lady over, it still seemed slow down at the stop sign and/or by the old lady, so the framing and cutting of the video makes me think, a little, that it did actually stop but they cut that out of the video!

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      jupiterkansas (profile), 16 Aug 2012 @ 4:54pm

      Re:

      The streets will eventually be far safer with these things on the road and I'm happy to see governments are already working to legalize them. Plus I can't wait to go to sleep in my car and wake up in another city. It's going to change everything we know about transportation - as long as the luddites let it happen.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        Ninja (profile), 20 Aug 2012 @ 6:41am

        Re: Re:

        I can't wait to see viruses and hacks that work on these cars. Start your car and take a nap. And wake up 100 miles away of the point you wanted to go. Could be a brothel for added lulz.

        [ link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          jupiterkansas (profile), 20 Aug 2012 @ 8:40am

          Re: Re: Re:

          Just like the hacks in navigation software today that leads people to the wrong place?

          [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 16 Aug 2012 @ 3:19pm

    My only worry is the programming. So long as they do extensive and good programing it should work just fine.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    jupiterkansas (profile), 16 Aug 2012 @ 4:50pm

    When are we going to start calling them Robocars?

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Ben (profile), 17 Aug 2012 @ 12:47am

    History repeats itself

    I remember the political scaremongering around horseless carriages.

    "HORSES DONT DRIVE DRIVE!"

    "Horses: lowering your carbon hoofprint"

    "Cruise control: more dangerous than a demented horse!"

    "Horses: biodegradable"

    "1 Horse = 1 horse power. None of these funny metric units here"

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Togashi (profile), 17 Aug 2012 @ 1:07pm

    I think it's telling that the best quote they could find from him was "I had to convince the Senate it wasn't witchcraft". I'd be less worried about a governor who wants to legalize driverless cars than a senate that thought they were powered by witchcraft.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

The Last Word

“
The streets will eventually be far safer with these things on the road and I'm happy to see governments are already working to legalize them. Plus I can't wait to go to sleep in my car and wake up in another city. It's going to change everything we know about transportation - as long as the luddites let it happen.
—jupiterkansas
 ”

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