Washington Post (January 29)
“Self-driving cars appear to be safer than those with human drivers.” We should welcome their introduction. For example, “Waymo robotaxis have logged 33 million miles, mostly ferrying passengers in San Francisco and Phoenix.” In those two cities, “compared with cars driven by humans, Waymo vehicles have been involved in 62 percent fewer police-reported crashes, 78 percent fewer crashes that resulted in injury and 81 percent fewer crashes severe enough to deploy the air bags.” Moreover, the reality is probably even better as some of these accidents were caused by other drivers.
Tags: Accidents, Air bags, Crashes, Human drivers, Injury, Passengers, Phoenix, Police, Robotaxis, Safer, San Francisco, Self-driving cars, Waymo
Reuters (March 14)
“Boeing’s belatedly grounded jets” serve as “an apt symbol of the erosion of U.S. soft power. After saying there was no problem in the wake of two crashes,” the FAA followed the lead of other governments and banned the 737 MAX.” These days, “even allies are increasingly skeptical of Washington’s leadership.” It is challenging to measure “the influence a country wields though its cultural, technological and economic strength,” but the U.S. fell “to fourth in the Soft Power 30 ranking last summer, from top of the list just two years earlier.”
Tags: 737 MAX, Allies, Belated, Boeing, Crashes, FAA, Grounded, Influence, Leadership, Skeptical, Soft power, U.S.
Institutional Investor (October Issue)
We are living in “disparate times.” Income inequality hit a record in 2012, with the top 10% accounting for 50.4% of total earnings. Much as hypertension can lead to a coronary event, “inequality my leave markets prone to crashes.”