I’m scrolling to the bottom with ad blocker disabled. That ought to boost the metrics a scosh.

The second factor is a factor just not a common one, which is why I listed it second. I’ve never personally seen a wiper motor die, but I have seen the transmissions break, and wiper blades that get torn and wiper arms get bent in (extremely) icy conditions. Your point about most drivers being distracted & driving like shit kinda makes it a bigger concern, since there’s no way distracted drivers would notice the additional wiper of a “'self-driving”’ camera has gone bad or gotten bent.

I don’t disagree with you on the other points though. There are NO level 5 fully autonomous self-driving cars currently, only pretenders that give people who can’t pay attention a false sense of security.

I’m not on the production/manufacturing side so I could only speculate on the costs. The entire industry’s use of the windshield mounted cameras would suggest the costs are lower. Even at the ultra high end like Bently, where there’s plenty of profit margin to experiment with, they’re still using the windshield mounted cameras.

The other factor to consider would be that the driver can very easily know when the windshield wipers aren’t working (an therefore ignore or deactivate suggested lane departure corrections), but a tiny wiper mounted above the roof would be impossible to see while driving.

Yes, a design decision initiated by Tesla and a trend the entire industry followed outside of a few autonomous taxis that have the lidar units on the roof.

However, the alternative requires a separate lens cleaning system as the former just reuses the windshield wiper. So it does reduce the complexity somewhat.

Or maybe I’m missing your point entirely?

The cameras that track the lines on the road and other cars are mounted to the windshield. these windshields are more expensive because the camera brackets have to be precisely aligned and the glass (in that area) must be completely free of optical distortions. Both of those things raise the price of the windshield, and increase design complexity

You’re not technically wrong since they were just early to the party with driver assistance & Lane departure warning/avoidance systems, but since the USA made those types of systems mandatory for all cars in 2023, most vehicles 2023+ will now have a similar cost.

Sometimes they’re capable of not saying the quiet part out loud. If they called him the Secretary of keeping people well enough to work but sick enough to prevent revolt, it would be giving the whole game away

Since you’re out of words I’ll just leave a few here for you:

Leopards Faces Thoughts Prayers Shockedpikachu.gif

It’s a relatively small price to pay for the power they gained, and most of the losses are elons anyway

And GWB too

Bluetooth

I believe this is the sort of reception you can expect:

https://www.indystar.com/story/news/crime/2025/03/09/secret-service-shooting-white-house/82123738007/

Do you happen to know if super hell accepting applications for volunteer torturers?

I’ve had fantasies of my city getting public transit. Such a cruel dream.

Let them eat quiche

I kind of appreciate the juxtaposition of ‘100 billion dollars’ and ‘poor’

You’re forgetting the other profit motive. The president is also a (shitty) real estate magnate looking to scoop up cheap properties afterwards.