Lime scooters and other modern day marvels
Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2019 10:00 pmA month ago I read a book, 'I still dream', by James Smythe, a good bit of scifi, and one of the best reads I've had for a while. So I found another of his books at the library, 'No Harm Can Come to a Good Man'. This was a harrowing read, a very bleak story which I just couldn't put down, and finished in the early hours of this morning. The premise is basic -- what happens when 'machine learning' is given free rein, in this case what can go horribly wrong from a tiny little flaw in the logic.
So today in the news I see that Auckland and Dunedin have suspended Lime's operation in their cities, because of a software 'glitch' which causes some scooters to brake while travelling. This causes the poor rider to fly over the handlebars, which is not as much fun as it sounds, apparently. Now, I love these scooters, we don't have them here but I was thrilled to see them so popular in Christchurch, with middle-aged folks tearing about with big stupid grins on their faces. But, it does seem to me that at the first sign of trouble they should have been shut down firmly, until it could be sorted out. The fact that Lime consider this a minor issue, and are happy to keep them running elsewhere, is really a sign of the terrible power we give to technology companies these days. Just because they do something cool, new and fun, doesn't outweigh the need to keep normal people safe on the roads.
But we know now that whether it's Facebook, Google or Lime, their 'right' to do business and make money seems to outweigh their need to do what's right and safe, and decent. And people just accept that, because, hey, it's a modern world we live in.
So today in the news I see that Auckland and Dunedin have suspended Lime's operation in their cities, because of a software 'glitch' which causes some scooters to brake while travelling. This causes the poor rider to fly over the handlebars, which is not as much fun as it sounds, apparently. Now, I love these scooters, we don't have them here but I was thrilled to see them so popular in Christchurch, with middle-aged folks tearing about with big stupid grins on their faces. But, it does seem to me that at the first sign of trouble they should have been shut down firmly, until it could be sorted out. The fact that Lime consider this a minor issue, and are happy to keep them running elsewhere, is really a sign of the terrible power we give to technology companies these days. Just because they do something cool, new and fun, doesn't outweigh the need to keep normal people safe on the roads.
But we know now that whether it's Facebook, Google or Lime, their 'right' to do business and make money seems to outweigh their need to do what's right and safe, and decent. And people just accept that, because, hey, it's a modern world we live in.
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