Self Driven Racing Cars Scream Like … Oxymorons

In silly news

How bought into the hype cycle must folks be to pay attention to self driven racing car records? Why is this different from racing your personal turtles or ants or chickens? Is it sportive? Is it useful? Is the only stake ownership … and blind hype?

CNN made this a front page news item a few weeks ago: https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2022/01/10/self-driving-racing-cars-orig.cnn-business . I guess in the general cataloguing of happenings this is another. And they tried to gather some interest around it instead of blandly reporting self driving and a number. Is this the fourth estate just reporting or sensationalizing or filling news slots?

Converting a racing car to be self driven is perhaps somewhat justified for the attempt at speed. However letting the implication that this is racing or sport continue is just sensationalism. Why is a car going in a straight line … albeit very fast interesting at all? The land speed record is fascinating as a limit of human endeavor. However, even self driven, this speed record is just silly. Firstly the car drove in a straight line. Secondly, there were only two cars. Thirdly, there was no jockeying for position or any competition. In fact, the self driving nature of it while technologically complex at such speeds seems trivial in terms of maneuverability or competition. All they really did is not crash or drive off the track at a high speed.

So is it a hot new toy? Maybe, but can you even play with it if it is self driven? Do you want to sit in it at that speed? What enjoyment do we derive from being driven at high speed by someone else or something else? The joy of speedy transportation? At most you can own one and show it off to your friends. Perhaps like PoliMOVE and the University of Alabama you could have built one with your own hands … but you know Elon Musk will eat your lunch shortly.

The notion of self driven is great for transporting the busy or the unable or perhaps even for regulating traffic. We are still years away from full self driven. A very fast self driven car however is more like a missile on wheels. I am not sure we want that for human transportation. Perhaps for transporting goods. Either way, our infrastructure, regulation and technology have a long way to go for just self driven never mind high speed…