the "Headline That Caught My Attention or the WTF" thread

Avenger said:
I've been saying this for a long time while everyone is talking about self-driving cars. The first place you're going to see this technology is commercial trucks.

Interesting that the union is fighting it, but they can't supply enough human drivers to the industry.
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Driverless vehicles are a ca-zillion times safer on the roads than their human driver counterparts. And for big semi long distance trucks, there is no comparison. They are much safer, they can drive 24/7, no need for rests, no need for bathroom stops, food stops, no driver labor costs, no payroll to meet, etc.

However, it will probably put a hurting on the lot lizards business.
 
MakoMatt said:
Driverless vehicles are a ca-zillion times safer on the roads than their human driver counterparts. And for big semi long distance trucks, there is no comparison. They are much safer, they can drive 24/7, no need for rests, no need for bathroom stops, food stops, no driver labor costs, no payroll to meet, etc.

However, it will probably put a hurting on the lot lizards business.
Click to expand...

The problem is less about actual safety than about public perception. We accept a certain amount of carnage from human operated vehicles, but will people tolerate accidents caused by a computer?

However, the problems with driver recruitment are ever growing. Getting a CDL is challenging (for a citizen, otherwise they're handing them out like baseball cards) having to operate a manual transmission and learn all the rules, operating an articulated vehicle that size etc. Then there's the job itself. Long hours, time away from home and punitive work rules that make it harder to earn a decent income. Many fleets are moving towards automatic transmissions and changing routes to limit the time drivers are away from home, actively trying to recruit women and other non-traditional demographics to try to fill the void. There's still a massive shortage. Everything is conspiring to make it difficult and expensive to move goods.

So, certainly what they're describing, using them in southern states with long routes and generally good conditions is where it's going to start. Although if they can't manage to get the weight over 55K pounds I don't know if it's going to earn it's keep.
 
Avenger said:
The problem is less about actual safety than about public perception. We accept a certain amount of carnage from human operated vehicles, but will people tolerate accidents caused by a computer?

However, the problems with driver recruitment are ever growing. Getting a CDL is challenging (for a citizen, otherwise they're handing them out like baseball cards) having to operate a manual transmission and learn all the rules, operating an articulated vehicle that size etc. Then there's the job itself. Long hours, time away from home and punitive work rules that make it harder to earn a decent income. Many fleets are moving towards automatic transmissions and changing routes to limit the time drivers are away from home, actively trying to recruit women and other non-traditional demographics to try to fill the void. There's still a massive shortage. Everything is conspiring to make it difficult and expensive to move goods.

So, certainly what they're describing, using them in southern states with long routes and generally good conditions is where it's going to start. Although if they can't manage to get the weight over 55K pounds I don't know if it's going to earn its keep.
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Generally speaking, I think the public is becoming more accepting of all driverless vehicles every day. I’m in CA and WA several times a year and out there on the Left Coast there are driverless taxis everywhere.

What the public is not willing to accept right now, is pilotless aircraft. Not that the industry is offering any, but I wouldn’t fly on any aircraft unless there was a pilot up front.

I have to wonder if a pilotless aircraft could have pulled off the “Miracle on the Hudson”. 🤔
 
MakoMatt said:
Generally speaking, I think the public is becoming more accepting of all driverless vehicles every day. I’m in CA and WA several times a year and out there on the Left Coast there are driverless taxis everywhere.

What the public is not willing to accept right now, is pilotless aircraft. Not that the industry is offering any, but I wouldn’t fly on any aircraft unless there was a pilot up front.

I have to wonder if a pilotless aircraft could have pulled off the “Miracle on the Hudson”. 🤔
Click to expand...

Well, if statistics show, and I think they do, that the majority of accidents are caused by pilot error then you could make the case. They are pushing for single pilot aircraft which also provide for ground control in case of pilot incapacitation or hijacking.

I think I'd take my chances with that before I'd get in a plane with Chat GPT at the controls. Although my last trip around JFK there was nobody driving the train.
 
They have had those driverless shuttle trains at airports for many years.

IIRC I think on the first day they operated the JFK shuttle train there was an accident and someone was killed. It may have been an employee of the shuttle system on a test run.
 
MakoMatt said:
They have had those driverless shuttle trains at airports for many years.

IIRC I think on the first day they operated the JFK shuttle train there was an accident and someone was killed. It may have been an employee of the shuttle system on a test run.
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That's what it was. They had an unsecured mass in the train to simulate a passenger load and it slid forward and killed the test operator.

Sadly, he was probably just there in case the automation failed. Poor guy.
 
www.newsday.com

Man, 58, dies after boat capsizes in waters off Captree State Park

State police said the boat's sole occupant was trying to launch it from the piers when it capsized.
www.newsday.com

A man died late Friday after his boat capsized as he attempted to launch it into the waters off Captree State Park, state police said Saturday.

Fire and police officials responded shortly after 8:30 p.m. to a call to perform a water rescue for a man “under a boat” in the water at the boat basin, which is at the eastern tip of Jones Beach Island, according to Suffolk County Fire Rescue and Emergency Services officials.

Members of the West Islip Fire Department removed the sole victim from the water, First Assistant Chief Michael Delgado said.

The 58-year-old man, who officials have not identified, was transported to Good Samaritan University Hospital in West Islip, where he was pronounced dead, state police said in a news release.

An investigation showed the man was trying to launch his 16-foot Boston Whaler at the Captree State Park Piers, according to state police, who said witnesses saw the boat "striking the docks multiple times before capsizing."

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New York State Parks Police, Suffolk County Marine Patrol and the U.S. Coast Guard all responded to the incident, state police
 
Talk about Snowflakes!!! Guess Mommy & Daddy are upset Jr is flunking out in his first semester. As Oprah would say, "You get a 4.0!!, You get a 4.0!!...You get a 4.0!!, although Barney said it better, "You get a Lap Dance, You get a Lap Dance!!"

To Improve Student Mental Health, University of Michigan Eases Grading​

The university will make first-semester grades pass or fail, to encourage students to try different classes and lessen fears of what a low grade could mean.

The University of Michigan will replace traditional letter grades for some first-semester freshmen with a pass/fail-style grade, to more gently ease new students into academic life.

The plan will go into effect in the fall of 2027 at the university’s College of Literature, Science and the Arts. It is intended to relieve pressure on freshmen and help them “start strong and curb the mental health crisis unfolding among college-aged individuals,” the university said in a statement.

Under the plan, first semester letter grades will still be recorded internally by the school for things like compliance reporting and eligibility for academic honors, the university said. Student transcripts, however, will reflect either “pass” for each course or “no credit.” First-semester grades will not factor into grade-point averages.

The new grading plan, reported earlier by The Chronicle of Higher Education, is similar to how the Massachusetts Institute of Technology records grades. First-semester freshman grades at M.I.T. are reported as either pass or no record, to allow students time to get accustomed to an increased college workload and different teaching methods, the M.I.T. Registrar’s Office explains on its website.

In many courses at Brown University, a student may choose between two grading options, according to the university’s Office of the Registrar. One is a grade of A, B, C or no credit. The other is a grade of satisfactory or no credit.

The University of Michigan said the point of the change “is to help first-year students acclimate to the demands of college,” and to allow students to set their early academic path with less grade pressure. “For example, they can explore a subject that may not come easily to them or take a course in a new field without the fear that a low grade may have long-term consequences,” the school said in its statement.

The College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, the university’s largest college, has about 3,500 first-year students, according to the university. The total number of university freshmen is about 8,000.

Summit Louth, student body president at the university, called the grading change “an incredible thing” and said that students he had heard from have overwhelmingly supported the new policy.

“It will do a lot to help get students into a routine that is healthy and sustainable for the time they are here,” he said.

Mr. Louth, 20, a junior, said that such a policy would have helped him when he was a freshman arriving on campus. “You’re just figuring out how to be an adult and live on your own,” he said. “It gets extremely stressful having to balance that with also wanting to be a straight-A student.”

The policy faced immediate criticism from people who have argued that making academics easier for students does not ultimately help them. Rick Hess, a senior fellow and director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, said the policy is “exactly the wrong diagnosis.”

“It turns out that swaddling college students does not actually improve their mental health,” he said. “It creates entitlement. It creates a lack of productive tension.”

Mr. Hess urges the opposite approach. He called for “ratcheting up rigor” in coursework and “ratcheting up expectations” on students, with things like robust minimum reading requirements and curbs on cellphone use on campus.

Jonathan Alpert, a psychotherapist and author, agreed that getting a bad grade can feel awful and make students anxious. “But feeling bad isn’t the same thing as being unwell,” he said. “I worry that therapists and institutions have blurred that distinction.”

“College should be one of the places where young people learn that evaluation isn’t always pleasant,” he said. Students might get a C or worse, hear criticism from a professor or fail to get the internship they wanted. “Those experiences can hurt, but learning that you can tolerate them and move forward prepares you for adulthood,” he added.

Chris Hulleman, a professor of education and public policy at the University of Virginia, said it was a positive sign that “institutions are thinking about grading and doing it differently.”

Research suggests that pass/fail grading helps reduce burnout in students, and that “from a motivational perspective, grades that compare students with each other tend to increase anxiety,” he said.

Other prominent schools, such as Harvard University, have taken the opposite tack with grades — making them more competitive. The Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted overwhelmingly in May to restrict the number of A-grades professors may award in undergraduate classes. The school capped A’s at roughly 20 percent of the grades in a class after extensive study and debate over how to address grade inflation.
 
Roccus7 said:
Talk about Snowflakes!!! Guess Mommy & Daddy are upset Jr is flunking out in his first semester. As Oprah would say, "You get a 4.0!!, You get a 4.0!!...You get a 4.0!!, although Barney said it better, "You get a Lap Dance, You get a Lap Dance!!"

To Improve Student Mental Health, University of Michigan Eases Grading​

The university will make first-semester grades pass or fail, to encourage students to try different classes and lessen fears of what a low grade could mean.

The University of Michigan will replace traditional letter grades for some first-semester freshmen with a pass/fail-style grade, to more gently ease new students into academic life.

The plan will go into effect in the fall of 2027 at the university’s College of Literature, Science and the Arts. It is intended to relieve pressure on freshmen and help them “start strong and curb the mental health crisis unfolding among college-aged individuals,” the university said in a statement.

Under the plan, first semester letter grades will still be recorded internally by the school for things like compliance reporting and eligibility for academic honors, the university said. Student transcripts, however, will reflect either “pass” for each course or “no credit.” First-semester grades will not factor into grade-point averages.

The new grading plan, reported earlier by The Chronicle of Higher Education, is similar to how the Massachusetts Institute of Technology records grades. First-semester freshman grades at M.I.T. are reported as either pass or no record, to allow students time to get accustomed to an increased college workload and different teaching methods, the M.I.T. Registrar’s Office explains on its website.

In many courses at Brown University, a student may choose between two grading options, according to the university’s Office of the Registrar. One is a grade of A, B, C or no credit. The other is a grade of satisfactory or no credit.

The University of Michigan said the point of the change “is to help first-year students acclimate to the demands of college,” and to allow students to set their early academic path with less grade pressure. “For example, they can explore a subject that may not come easily to them or take a course in a new field without the fear that a low grade may have long-term consequences,” the school said in its statement.

The College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, the university’s largest college, has about 3,500 first-year students, according to the university. The total number of university freshmen is about 8,000.

Summit Louth, student body president at the university, called the grading change “an incredible thing” and said that students he had heard from have overwhelmingly supported the new policy.

“It will do a lot to help get students into a routine that is healthy and sustainable for the time they are here,” he said.

Mr. Louth, 20, a junior, said that such a policy would have helped him when he was a freshman arriving on campus. “You’re just figuring out how to be an adult and live on your own,” he said. “It gets extremely stressful having to balance that with also wanting to be a straight-A student.”

The policy faced immediate criticism from people who have argued that making academics easier for students does not ultimately help them. Rick Hess, a senior fellow and director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, said the policy is “exactly the wrong diagnosis.”

“It turns out that swaddling college students does not actually improve their mental health,” he said. “It creates entitlement. It creates a lack of productive tension.”

Mr. Hess urges the opposite approach. He called for “ratcheting up rigor” in coursework and “ratcheting up expectations” on students, with things like robust minimum reading requirements and curbs on cellphone use on campus.

Jonathan Alpert, a psychotherapist and author, agreed that getting a bad grade can feel awful and make students anxious. “But feeling bad isn’t the same thing as being unwell,” he said. “I worry that therapists and institutions have blurred that distinction.”

“College should be one of the places where young people learn that evaluation isn’t always pleasant,” he said. Students might get a C or worse, hear criticism from a professor or fail to get the internship they wanted. “Those experiences can hurt, but learning that you can tolerate them and move forward prepares you for adulthood,” he added.

Chris Hulleman, a professor of education and public policy at the University of Virginia, said it was a positive sign that “institutions are thinking about grading and doing it differently.”

Research suggests that pass/fail grading helps reduce burnout in students, and that “from a motivational perspective, grades that compare students with each other tend to increase anxiety,” he said.

Other prominent schools, such as Harvard University, have taken the opposite tack with grades — making them more competitive. The Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted overwhelmingly in May to restrict the number of A-grades professors may award in undergraduate classes. The school capped A’s at roughly 20 percent of the grades in a class after extensive study and debate over how to address grade inflation.
Click to expand...
“It is intended to relieve pressure on freshmen and help them “start strong and curb the mental health crisis unfolding among college-aged individuals,” the university said in a statement.”

“Mental health crisis???”
😂❄️
 

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