In this episode, Robert and Zaira discuss recent self-driving marketing campaigns and opposition to that technology by teamsters and unions. We also talked about the difference between the terms self-driving and driverless (hint: they are the same thing).  This was the first episode filmed on Facebook Live.

We also changed our recording and audio editing techniques in order to deliver a more natural show. We are trying our best to deliver the best quality audio and hope that we get a little better with each episode.  Thank you.

We start this show by discussing a letter that the Consumer Union wrote to Congress in opposition of The SELF DRIVE Act. Although the letter made some good points, we think that it is really an effort to save jobs. We then reviewed the recent Intel commercial featuring Lebron James and a series of commercials by Waymo. While the Lebron commercial relied on name recognition and status, the Waymo commercials appealed more to everyday people. In our opinion, they were more impactful and invoked sympathy for busy families, the blind, elderly, and other disabled individuals. Well done Waymo.

So what is the difference between the terms driverless and self-driving? Really, they are the same thing and both refer to a high level of automation. We think that the main reason why self-driving is used more often is because most of our laws and regulations are written around the responsibilities of the driver. In order to ensure that that responsibility is transferred from individuals to the car manufacturers, we will likely continue to see the use of self-driving to stick responsibility on the car companies. This personification of autonomous cars is very interesting and will probably lead to a whole entire episode about agency and in the future. But we aren't' changing our podcast name; we prefer Driverless.

This episode sponsored by:

SolanoFirm.com or (404) 835-2626