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Re:Drivers react to Tesla’s full self-driving beta release by 6gvONxR4sf7o on Saturday October 31, 2020 @01:48PM (#24953582)
By the same logic, in march we should just have started distributing whatever attempts at covid vaccines companies thought might be promising. Sure, it might kill a lot of people, but think how many others could be saved! It's reckless to require demonstrated safety and efficacy of drugs!

What's missing, using this analogy, is that it is only a net loss to slow down the vaccine that actually works, which we don't know a priori. But if you fast track something that kills a bunch of people, then it might have been a waste. You might not learn enough for it to be worth the cost.

What if we push out Tesla's cars and all we learn is that vision based neural networks with the particular models tesla's using today aren't good enough? How many lives would you sacrifice to learn that when a big investment in a more careful testing strategy might say the same thing?

To say nothing of the criticisms of the utilitarian perspective. If we believed in it as a society, we'd round up the poor/unskilled/uneducated for mandatory medical experimentation, but thankfully that idea is horrifying.

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