Mind Boggling

I understand that 5G communications is a line of sight (LOS) technology. Can you imagine how many 5G transmitters/receivers will be necessary to cover fully the United States (or the world) with 5G? And how often they will need modifications to correct for LOS dead spots ... say when new small branches grow on trees or new structures are built? 

Or what happens when a driverless car hits a LOS dead spot (say from passing trucks) at a critical moment?

It boggles my mind ...

Afterthought: These technological challenges suggest to this blogger that 5G might be either a huge market opportunity ... or a (China-driven) gigantic wet fart.

Oops!

 

Pundits are not shy about making predictions ... and this includes non-pundits like myself. And some of these predictions take on a life of there own and become generally-accepted memes.  A few examples of these popularized memes being — global warming, Russian collusion, cold fusion, AI hegemony, 5G, vaccination dangers, simulated reality, driverless cars, a social media society, meatless nutrition, totally renewable energy, colonizing our solar system, etc.

Some of these memes have an enormous economic cost ... and the rub comes if and when they turn out to be wrong. Oops! What happens then? What if global warming driven by human fossil fuel usage is finally debunked? Is Al Gore going to be made to pay for all the economic dislocation he caused? He certainly benefited greatly from his prediction. Perhaps he could be made to pay alimony to the American people as well as Tipper?

Wrinkles

Qualcomm announced today that it was acquiring NXP Semiconductor for $38 billion ... based upon its expectations of the growth of autonomous car technology. And many other companies are crowding into this end-user field, Tesla, Google, Bosch, etc. The expectations for the future of driverless cars, trucks, buses are dramatic and, I think, frothy. I have outlined my Luddite concerns in the past ... see: More on Driverless Cars, Google Strudle and Boiloing the Ocean.

I, personally, am not ready anytime soon to surrender my steering wheel and control pedals for many reasons. I have thought some more on this issue and have come up with a few more possibly serious wrinkles for the AI algorithms controlling driverless cars to deal with. Here are just a few more:

- Hand or spoken directions from flag men, crossing guards or policemen during various street or road restrictions

- What about drive-thru fast food and car washes .. or service stations?

- Any noises requiring a driver response -- honking horns, screeching tires, shouts, sirens, etc.

- Traffic merging situation where the gestures of the other driver(s) determine your actions

- Maneuvering around or through live traffic accident situations

- Dealing with car chase situations ... of which every one will be unique

- Driving between countries were the rules of the road and signage are different

- Dealing with extremely aggressive other drivers who might be performing foolish or hostile actions

- Anticipating the possible rash actions of children, mentally-ill people, motorcycles, protesters, etc.

- Dealing with weather extremes -- black ice, pea-soup fog, very high winds, floods, etc.

- Driving adjustments necessary for unique events -- funerals, road races, "walks for ...", etc.


There are likely many more. Thus, I think I'll be the last in line for this technology.

Headlines

These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites.

Man arrested for wearing home-made Saran Wrap bikini on beach

Chicago Tribune endorses Gary Johnson as 'principled option'

Report: 1,000+ illegal voters in Virginia ...

Pope Francis: Gender theory part of 'global war' to destroy marriage

White House denies -- Jerusalem is in Israel

6 teammates join Kaepernick in Anthem demonstration

Michael Moore: People don't trust Democrats anymore

Obama rushes to make story of Israeli Prenier, Shimon Peres, about himself

San Andreas megaquake warning ...

California opens pathway for cars without steering wheels

Hillary mocks Bernie supporters 'living in parents basement' ...

EU antitrust regulators hit GOOGLE again ... LARGE fine expected

Google Strudle

I have in the past commented twice on possible problems with self-driving cars ... such as are being created and tested now by Google, Uber and Tesla ... see: As I Predicted. Now more of my prescience is being displayed in the tests run by Google wherein the real problems with driverless cars are the other cars with human drivers ... see: New York Times Story. Reading this NY Times story leads me to believe that this Google "moon shot" technology, to be successful, will require many more years of refinement and many probable lawsuits. In the meantime, let us not place to much hope in this Google strudel.