Drive-thru might involve some surprises by customers.
Time to share some lighter news, though with surprisingly revealing insights included.
A recent news item that received rather startling reactions involved an Oklahoman that decided to get some fast food by using a drive-thru at a Taco Bell, which might not seem especially newsworthy except for the fact that the man was driving his car while completely unclothed. Yes, he was driving around in the buff, as it were, and the police upon responding to a call from the fast-food chain’s staff were able to catch-up with the driver, stop him, and then detain him for his societal transgression.
According to the police, the man was mystified at being stopped and said that his clothes were being washed, thus the sans clothing journey to get a quick bite to eat, and that he had not realized that driving in a stark manner might be an illegal act.
This seemingly quirky story sparked some to question whether it indeed is somehow illegal to drive without a stitch on you and summarily rejected the notion that he should have been detained by the police. Bitter remarks showcased that are those in society that believe driving around in such a manner is perfectly fine (perhaps they also frequent clothing-optional beaches). Interestingly, a British newspaper earlier this year claimed that perhaps a million Britons have admitted to driving in their most natural condition, though the reporting needs to be taken with a grain of salt since it was based on a small poll and the results potentially can be questioned. In any case, if those stats are to be believed, perhaps those across the pond are more amenable to the unusual driving approach.
Meanwhile, it seems a relatively safe bet that most of the public here would probably never even give the absence-of-clothes driving method a moment’s thought or consideration.
When analyzed as a lawful versus lawless act, the overall gist appears to be that driving in the nude is not necessarily a crime unto itself, by-and-large across the states throughout the United States, but that if someone is seen in that condition they are then susceptible to being ascribed with lewdness or indecent exposure. In the case of the drive-thru, the man was reportedly completely in view by the window workers of the fast-food eatery. One can imagine that other instances might naturally and inevitably arise, such as a local transit bus that perhaps travels alongside such a car driver, and then those seated within the bus get an unwanted and unfettered glimpse.
An intriguing offshoot of the overall scenario is the assumption by many drivers that shoes are a requirement when driving a car. As such, someone that is entirely without any clothing, presumably meaning that there are not wearing shoes either, those shoeless drivers would presumably be subject to getting pinched by the police, while the tangential aspect that they have nothing else on would be logically superfluous. On this point, it seems that the requirement to wear shoes while driving is predominantly a myth since catalogs of state-by-state driving laws suggest that there is rarely such a law. That being said, authorities generally and strongly recommend that shoes always be worn while driving, considered a much safer way to drive in contrast to doing so barefoot.
All of this brings up a captivating question about the future: Once there are AI-based true self-driving cars avidly on our public roadways, will the clothing question be put to bed or will it continue to be a potential open issue?
Let’s unpack the matter and see.
Understanding The Levels Of Self-Driving Cars
As a clarification, true self-driving cars are ones that the AI drives the car entirely on its own and there isn’t any human assistance during the driving task.
These driverless vehicles are considered a Level 4 and Level 5 (see my explanation at this link here), while a car that requires a human driver to co-share the driving effort is usually considered at a Level 2 or Level 3. The cars that co-share the driving task are described as being semi-autonomous, and typically contain a variety of automated add-on’s that are referred to as ADAS (Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems).
There is not yet a true self-driving car at Level 5, which we don’t yet even know if this will be possible to achieve, and nor how long it will take to get there.
Meanwhile, the Level 4 efforts are gradually trying to get some traction by undergoing very narrow and selective public roadway trials, though there is controversy over whether this testing should be allowed per se (we are all life-or-death guinea pigs in an experiment taking place on our highways and byways, some point out, see my indication at this link here).
Since semi-autonomous cars require a human driver, the adoption of those types of cars won’t be markedly different than driving conventional vehicles, so there’s not much new per se to cover about them on this topic (though, as you’ll see in a moment, the points next made are generally applicable).
For semi-autonomous cars, it is important that the public needs to be forewarned about a disturbing aspect that’s been arising lately, namely that despite those human drivers that keep posting videos of themselves falling asleep at the wheel of a Level 2 or Level 3 car, we all need to avoid being misled into believing that the driver can take away their attention from the driving task while driving a semi-autonomous car.
You are the responsible party for the driving actions of the vehicle, regardless of how much automation might be tossed into a Level 2 or Level 3.
Self-Driving Cars And Going In Reverse
For Level 4 and Level 5 true self-driving vehicles, there won’t be a human driver involved in the driving task.
All occupants will be passengers.
The AI is doing the driving.
Okay, that seems to settle the matter about whether a human driver needs to be clothed or not, since for AI-based true self-driving cars there isn’t any human driver involved. No human driver means there is no need to contemplate whether they should be with or without clothes and nor whether they need shoes. If you are wondering whether the AI needs to be wearing clothing, it’s a smarmy thought and silly due to the aspect that the AI driving system are most likely not going to be a humanoid robot (and, even if it were, would we really be debating the clothes issue about the robot?), though some researchers are toying with driving robots (for my coverage on such pursuits, see this link here).
Realize that likely for decades there will be an intermixing of both self-driving cars and conventional cars on our streets and byways, thus, those conventional cars will still have human drivers and the clothing matter for them will still be existent for quite some time ahead.
It would seem that self-driving cars are then off the hook on this topic.
Not so fast.
Suppose the passengers inside a self-driving car opt to go without clothing. There aren’t any regulations yet about whether you can be completely unclothed while inside a self-driving car. With so few self-driving cars currently being tried out, this is not a topic that has yet come to noticeable attention. Perhaps, once self-driving cars are abundant, the matter will surface and become one of those hand-wringing considerations about rights and freedoms.
Returning to the earlier point that the act of being without clothing while inside a car is not unto itself the problem per se, and instead, it is the chance of being seen by someone outside the vehicle, this does indeed pose a concern for self-driving cars. A local transit bus that arrives at a red light at the same time as a self-driving car might allow for the bus riders to see more than they bargained for when having paid their bus token.
Yes, self-driving cars are squarely in the same stew.
The twist of course is whether self-driving cars are going to have windows, and also if they do have windows whether those windows need to be visibly transparent.
Some self-driving cars are being devised to have no windows at all.
The concept is that you will be riding inside a shell. For those that cannot tolerate an absence of windows, the interior walls of the self-driving car will have LED display screens and the cameras of the self-driving car will be able to showcase the outdoors for you. When you look “out the window” this will instead be you looking at a screen which is showing the video from a camera on the exterior of the self-driving car.
The beauty of the no windows approach is that you can have utter privacy while inside the self-driving car. Besides privacy, since the walls are lined with electronic LED screens, you can carry on Zoom or Skype kinds of interactive dialogues with others that are remote from your vehicle. You can take a class or simply watch a movie or relish your favorite cat videos. And so on.
In theory, you could presumably be fully bereft of clothing while inside such a self-driving car. But, we also don’t yet know what the owners of self-driving cars are going to require (for my analysis about the ownership of self-driving cars, see this link here). For example, suppose a large company decides to buy thousands of self-driving cars and deploy them in a ride-sharing fleet. The fleet owner might declare that anyone riding in their self-driving cars must be clothed. If you do not like such a rule, they would seemingly instruct you to use someone else’s self-driving cars.
This brings up the notion of self-driving cars that are oriented towards particular interests. There might be some fleet owners that decide they want to court certain kinds of riders. Just imagine a fleet that is purposely aimed at those that prefer to ride around without wearing any clothing. Makes the mind boggle. And yet, where there is a buck to be made, service will be provided, it seems.
The scofflaws amongst you might be tempted to think that you will ride without clothing inside a self-driving car despite any fleet owner that might have declared it is against the rules to do so. Your first thought is that they will never know that you flaunted the rules. You’ve outfoxed them.
Maybe you can do so, though you might readily get caught.
Here’s how.
Self-driving cars are likely to have cameras pointing inward, doing so to allow the fleet owners to detect whether riders are spray painting graffiti or ripping to shreds the seats. Those same cameras are also used to enable you to undertake those Zoom and Skype sessions. In any case, there are other potential uses of the cameras, including catching rule-breakers. The video streaming from inside the self-driving car might be monitored by remote agents, hired by the fleet owner to watch over their vehicles.
Likely, the labor-intensive act of monitoring will gradually be replaced by the AI doing the same thing. The AI will be watching you, during your driving journey, and can detect various conditions. This is something we might welcome. For example, suppose a sole rider suddenly has a heart attack. The AI might detect this occurrence and immediately contact 911, plus the AI could reroute the self-driving car to the nearest hospital.
The downside to these inward-facing cameras will be the privacy of those riding in self-driving cars. Undoubtedly, not everyone is going to be elated to have their every move captured on video while riding in a self-driving car. Imagine that you went out to the bars after work, and took a self-driving car home, doing so while drunk as a skunk inside the self-driving car. Where will that video go? Who owns the video? These are questions yet to be resolved (for an in-depth discussion on these rising AI Ethics issues, see the link here).
Going back to the notion of windowless self-driving cars, not everyone believes that the absence of windows is the way to go. Most of the automakers and self-driving tech firms are assuming that riders will likely want to have windows. The question then becomes what the nature of the windows will be.
One clever approach consists of a special kind of glass that can be electronically switched from being transparent to being opaque. This would allow you to make the windows clear when you want to joyfully observe the roadway and revel in the scenery. Then, at the mere push of a button, the windows would become dense and potentially impenetrable. The nice thing about switching to the opaque condition is that you might be heading to work and want to catch a nap, thus, you can blot out the light from outside of the car and get a snooze.
Or, you might want the privacy to do the sans clothing, one supposes.
Conclusion
Though the premise of this discussion might seem outlandish, the overarching points are nonetheless insightful about the future of self-driving cars.
Consider these emerging questions:
· Should passengers inside self-driving cars be allowed to have privacy regarding not being seen by outsiders?
· Is there a societal basis for requiring that the inside of self-driving cars must be viewable by those outside the vehicle, such as police or other authorities?
· Should videos of riders that were inside a self-driving car be owned and utilized by the fleet or by the rider or by whom?
· Will the ability to switch from transparency to opaqueness be in the hands of the riders, or by the fleet, or possibly by authorities?
· Does it make sense to have cars, self-driving cars, which have no windows whatsoever, or does an enclosed shell have downsides such as not being able to readily escape during a crash, thus otherwise negating the utility of a shell structure?
· And so on.
Aspects that we tend to take for granted in our conventional car world will potentially be upset or disrupted due to the advent of self-driving cars. We are so used to conventional cars that it is hard to conceive of what might differ when riding in a self-driving car.
A key aspect to keep in mind is that since there will no longer be a need for a human driver and since the AI is doing the driving, the years of always figuring out how to design our cars, shape our driving laws, and decide how we use our cars, will inexorably change.
I might add, if I may, that’s the bare truth about the advent of AI-based self-driving cars.
