Saturday, November 28, 2015

Why the dearth of dashcam videos of Toyota SUA incidents on YouTube?

eye screen, you screen, we all screen for "bad" things ...



Haaretz: Censoring the Internet Is No Way to Make a Living

A New York-based artist-couple delves into the murky world of 'content moderators,' the poorly paid workers meant to protect us from horrific Internet images.

[I am presuming that in Toyota's view, moving images of runaway vehicles qualify for this type of corporate-sponsored censorship.]


Here is a fascinating article that sheds light on the dark underbelly of the Internet:


“I do have a common frustration,” the ["content moderator"] worker says. “When I see an image that needs to be tagged because it is really graphic or illegal, I flag it and then move onto the next image or the next task. There is no follow-up. I never know what happens, or if anyone saw that it was flagged, or that anyone took care of it. Maybe I flag the image and they remove it from their data set, so it’s not visible online anymore, but what if there was something illegal in the image....that needed to be reported to the police?
“Does anyone at the company call the police?..... I have no idea. Since the requesters are almost always anonymous, I can’t contact the company to even ask these questions. I click to flag the image, but after that I don’t know if anyone ever cares.”
...
The [artist couple] Matteses themselves both say they were surprised to discover that many [technology] companies bow to political pressure. “We were absolutely blown away by the scale and extent of censorship online,” Franco said. “Initially, this project started as a survey of content moderation and it emerged from our ongoing fascination with the dark side of humanity. But very quickly the research took a surprising turn when we started to learn about political censorship on the Internet. For example, when Osama bin-Laden was killed, many companies ordered their content moderators to remove any video or content about the assassination from their websites.”
....
Today, content moderation is an obscure and mysterious process. We don’t know who removed the content, and why. Without transparency, Internet users cannot know what guidelines content moderators follow, and we don’t know what happens to the content once it’s removed. Since these are private companies, they act as if they have no accountability.
Eva: “If we care so much about freedom of speech, we have to redefine and openly debate its limitations and contours. That process should not take place in the shadows.”

...Toyota SUA videos are not there on YouTube--not because the events did not happen, but because they have almost certainly been screened out of online reality by the corporate power that wants to maintain information control.

Where have the videos gone?

Are rich people even aware of the poor people who spend countless hours on the internet defending them?

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Takata engineer Bob Schubert says the company "prettied up" test data

I feel pretty...


"Japanese-style business practices" exposed...sounds familiar

http://www.wsj.com/articles/takatas-u-s-employees-flagged-reporting-issues-over-air-bags-1448411043

In January 2005, a U.S. Takata engineer, Bob Schubert, detailed what he said was altered information with a different inflater. He said Takata dressed up data, in some cases removing unflattering test results.
Mr. Schubert said Takata was “prettying up” data in a way described as “the way we do business in Japan,” according to an earlier undated draft of the memo to another employee. “The practice confounded my engineers,” he wrote, adding that they addressed it by ensuring products were still compliant with supporting data.
“It has come to my attention that the practice has gone beyond all reasonable bounds and now most likely constitutes fraud,” Mr. Schubert wrote. He said his conscience required reporting the discrepancies.



Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Japan's corporate executives and their apologies - subject of today's TBS broadcast

Executives apologize for scandalous conduct--
does this mean really taking responsibility, or is it just a formality?


Message:
こんにちは。 『外国人記者は見た!日本 in ザ・ワールド』です。 本日のテーマは『謝罪』! 今年だけでも随分、謝罪の光景を目にしたような気が致します。 本日の放送では、”謝罪”をする意味が日本と海外で違うことが良くわかる収録内容となっていると思います。本日も、是非ご覧下さい。

translation:
Hello. This is a message from [the TBS TV series] "Japan in the World, as seen by Foreign Journalists." Today's theme is "apology"! Even just this year, it feels like we saw many spectacles of apology. From the content of today's broadcast, you will understand the difference between the meaning of making an "apology" in Japan and the meaning of making one in any other country. Please tune in later today.

Monday, November 9, 2015

Driver with 18 years of cab driving experience, after Toyota crash: "I stepped on the brake and the car wouldn't stop."


Livery cab driver Bialo Diallo speaks to a reporter. He is "convinced the car malfunctioned."
He was not charged.

The car, after the children were pulled out from underneath.

4 Young Children Among 5 Hurt When Livery Cab Crashes Into
Group of Pedestrians in Bronx: Witnesses, Officials
Published at 8:43 AM EST on Sep 30, 2015
By Brynn Gingras and Katherine Creag

Toyota goes for rock-solid AI designs from Gil Pratt and other American geeks

Rock-solid


Hans Greimel has written an interesting explainer on the background and details of Toyota's push into the auto AI race and the life and motives of Gil Pratt, Toyota's new AI leader.

Reading between the lines, it is obvious to me that Toyota is admitting that it cannot become a serious contender for leadership status in autonomous vehicles unless it taps into American brainpower in the field of AI/robotics.

I am glad. If their Japanese engineers could not get even build a safe, robust ETC, (my strong impression is that they developed and tested software as if it were hardware), they certainly could not hope to leapfrog Google and Apple to eventually take the lead in infinitely more complex cutting-edge embedded AI systems. As the head of the new Toyota Research Institute, Pratt "described the move as transitioning the world's biggest automaker away from a past of bending metal and toward a future of programming silicon." Well, it's about time.

I also think this is move that may amount to killing two birds with one stone. Toyota cannot rewrite its ETC and related software now without coming under yet another dark cloud of suspicion that they knew all along that it was defective. But Toyota can rewrite its embedded software from scratch, no problem, if it is rewritten in the context of leaping ahead to the next era in automotive history.   

Friday, November 6, 2015

Driver: "Freakish random acceleration?" -- Yes, ma'am, but it is by design, actually

11-05-2015, 08:54 PM  #1
[Lexus LS - 3rd Gen (2001-2006)]
-------------------------------------------
DriftGirl
Location: Wa
 
freakish random acceleration??
 
Today was the second time this has happened in my 430.

The first time I was parking and inching up to the wall in the parking garage
and the car launched forward. It barely tapped the wall...of my newly painted
car. I figured I just spaced out for a sec  no damage / no big deal...just
thought it was strange. that was a few weeks ago

Today, I was moving cars around in my driveway. My S13 and GS300 were
side by side. I was just going to park directly behind them...accelerator sped
up (REALLY fast) as I was moving about 5ft from the rears of the cars. I
slammed on the brakes with BOTH feet until I could feel the Antilock brakes
vibrate like crazy....the car was still acting like I was giving it gas. 

I turned the wheel sharply to avoid (hitting) my other cars and almost ran into
the side of my house. it stopped less than a foot from the house and my GS.

The first time I thought it was me..now im thinking this could be an issue with
the car 

Any else ever have that happen???