Of the six crashes involving robot cars that have already been reported in California in 2018, two involved humans attacking robot cars. Humans are literally trying to fight back against the eventual automation of all jobs.
In one of the incidents, the man attacked the car completely unprovoked.
California Robot Car Problems
In what was just days into the new year on Jan. 2, a man attacked the Chevy Bolt EV in San Francisco's Mission District after a collision. The car was involved in a crash when it was making a right turn from Valencia Street onto 16th Street. After the collision, while the car was waiting, the attack occurred.
According to the report, the man was not involved in the collision.
"A different pedestrian from the southwest corner of Valencia and 16th ran across Valencia Street, against the 'do not walk' symbol, shouting, and struck the left of the Cruise AV's rear bumper and hatch with his entire body," according to the report filed with the California Department of Motor Vehicles.
The man was uninjured, but the car had its left rear lightly damaged.
In a separate incident in on Jan. 28, another Chevy Bolt operated by General Motor's Cruise driverless car program stopped behind a taxi in San Francisco. This time, the driverless car had a person behind the wheel. Things took another unexpected turn in this situation.
"The driver of the taxi exited his vehicle, approached the Cruise AV, and slapped the front passenger window, causing a scratch." said the report of the incident.
Three of the crashes had the cars in autonomous mode, while the other three had the driverless cars in manual mode.
Automation
Automation is just around the corner for many jobs in the United States. Drivers are one of many jobs that are being threatened by the technology that is currently available. New research shows that automation could hit as much as one-third of the U.S. workforce by 2030.
That estimate could affect between 400 million and 800 million people worldwide. Jobs that are most susceptible to becoming automated are those that involve operating machinery and preparing fast food.
The report also shows that governments will have to help those in the workforce who have impacted by the new technology. That includes extensive retraining to help unemployed former workers and possibly a "universal income" as well. Changes will need to happen soon, as the technology is making larger inroads each year.
There have been recent studies into universal income, which may seem inevitable due to the rise of automation.
