I went on a date with Leah tonight to a place called the Malted Vinyl in Petoskey. It is a lounge that serves drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic), micro brews, and snacks. As you belly up to the bar, they take your drink order than you are directed to choose from the nearly 400 albums they have. You pick the album, fill out a yellow post-it-note indicating the A or B side, put the album in the queue and sit back and enjoy your drink and the music. Hopefully there are not too many albums ahead of your choice in the queue. It was a very relaxing atmosphere. Looking through all the albums brought back a host of memories. We will be back.
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Yesterday, per the Guardian, Tesla announced they are recalling every car with Autopilot technology. The recall follows an investigation into Tesla’s driver-assistance system, Autopilot, which the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began in August 2021 after a series of accidents, some fatal, involving the technology. Autopilot is designed to control vehicles on its own when on highways. Tesla’s owners’ manuals tell drivers that they should keep their hands on the wheel and take over if anything goes wrong.
The recall reflects regulators’ concern that Tesla did not do enough to prevent drivers from misusing the system, including by turning it on while they travel local roads and by becoming distracted because they assumed that their car could drive itself.
Autopilot is a collection of features allowing the car’s technology to take over a vehicle’s control to varying degrees. The feature singled out in the recall, Autosteer, can keep a car in a lane without driver intervention.
There may be “increased risk of a crash,” the safety administration said, when Autosteer is engaged and drivers do not “maintain responsibility for vehicle operation.”
In my opinion, driver assistance technology is going to be a game changer when it comes to insurance and accidents. Up until now, car companies were rarely considered the party at fault in an accident. It was usually one driver or the other. In some instances, it may have been the conditions of the road or weather. In any case, it rarely was the automaker who was liable.
With the advent of Autopilot technology, that will change. When an accident occurs, will it be the fault of the driver, the other driver, the driver’s autopilot system, or the other driver’s autopilot system? Each of the parties will have a different insurance policy covering the risk of auto accidents. Determining who is the cause of the accident will be problematic. You can rest assured the car companies and their respective insurance companies will drag things out before they ever pay a claim. The driver’s insurance will blame the car companies and autopilot or the other driver. The car companies will blame the drivers. It will take years for the claims to be settled. In the meantime, the poor driver whose car was damaged will be left holding the cost of the repair until it gets sorted out.
This may be the single reason people will be reluctant to go to self-driving cars.
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As expected, Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green has been suspended indefinitely by the NBA for striking Phoenix Suns center Jusuf Nuric in the face during Tuesday night’s game, the league announced Wednesday.
Per ESPN, the Golden State Warriors are committed to forward Draymond Green despite his indefinite suspension for striking Phoenix’s Jusuf Nurkic in the face.
On Thursday, Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. said part of the decision to not put a hard number on Green’s suspension was to ensure there would be time for Green to get himself in a place where he can be around the team long term. The Warriors are truly approaching the timeline as indefinite and have no idea in mind as to when Green could possibly return.
Dunleavy couldn’t ensure there would ever be a change in Green’s behavior. “I can’t guarantee you that,” Dunleavy said. “I can just say we will continue to do the right things to help him. I think we’ve done a decent job at that in the past, and we’ll continue to work through it all. “His ability this year has been great; his availability has not,” Dunleavy said. Green has missed a total of eight games to suspension, injuries or personal reasons this season, and he has been ejected from three more.
Mike Dunleavy and the Golden State Warriors get my Orchid of the Day for recognizing this is a very serious problem that Green is facing.
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Twenty-one and counting. The Pistons set the franchise record for futility with their 21st loss in a row yesterday. There is no end in sight. For a team that won two of their first three games, the losing skid was totally unexpected. It is now a huge monkey on their back, which they cannot seem to shake off.
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This is a first. I have never heard about team fighting over a game ball, but that is what happened following yesterday’s game between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Indiana Pacers.
The Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo wanted the ball for his teammate Damian Lillard, who made his 2,451st career 3-pointer Wednesday night to pass Kyle Korver for fifth place in NBA history. The Pacers. Oscar Tshiebwe, scored his first NBA point, and the Pacers wanted the ball for him. Following the game, the Pacers staff took the game ball to their respective locker to present to Oscar. The Bucks’ Antetokounmpo wanted the game ball to give to his teammate Damian Lillard. A major scuffle occurred outside the Pacers’ locker room as a result. Security had to be involved.
All of this was unnecessary because there are always two game balls for every game. With a little patience this could have been sorted out without the incident. See my Quote of the Day.
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Quote of the Day: “Unfortunate situation. We don’t need the official game ball. There are two game balls there; we could’ve taken the other one. But it didn’t need to escalate to that. Really just unfortunate. Third game we played these guys within 2½ [weeks], three weeks, so things are heated with the competition, and I understand all that. But for it to come into the hallway, it didn’t need to happen that way.” Indiana Pacers Coach Rick Carlisle
Orchid of the Day: The Golden State Warriors for recognizing that Draymond Green has serious issue that needs to be addressed before he is allowed to plan another NBA game.
Onion of the Day: Quicken. Every time they implement a major revision, it screws up my records and I have at least two hours to recover my data.
Question of the Day: Have you ever been to a place like the Malted Vinyl?
Image/Video of the Day: Pentatonix “Little Drummer Boy”