tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6976144462093297473.post161481996865468336..comments2024-03-26T19:10:00.791-04:00Comments on West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more): The rule for distinguishing the serious Hyperloop articles from the BSJosephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10760453165301871031noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6976144462093297473.post-81536310587388853852016-06-13T23:16:49.316-04:002016-06-13T23:16:49.316-04:00Andrew,
I think you're being overly cautious ...Andrew,<br /><br />I think you're being overly cautious with the “perhaps.” There is a substantial industry built around hyping just-around-the-corner breakthroughs and it can't survive if it limits itself to the current rate of technological development (you'd need to go back to the late 19th/early 20th Century or the height of the PostWar boom to find the necessary rate of actual advancement). The “those darned regulators” line is the caveat that allows everyone involved to keep to the narrative and maintain their reputations. <br /><br />Of course, there are cases of badly written rules and regulations hindering progress (I'll bet our friends in biomedical research would be happy to suggest a list), but in the cases you're most likely to hear about – Hyperloops, drone delivery, autonomous vehicles – obvious issues involving design or implementation costs or infrastructure are glossed over while vague and often hypothetical regulatory issues are held up as the reason you can't have _____. In that last example, regulatory concerns may have been the easiest part of the problem to crack. Not just here but in countries like Sweden and the UK, legislators have proven remarkably willing to change laws that block testing of driverless cars (at some point, the almost fifty-year old Vienna Convention on Road Traffic will probably have to be amended, but even there, Volvo has shown that a sympathetic government can buy you a lot of wiggle room). Markhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14705408455380402571noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6976144462093297473.post-52059929641716760452016-06-13T10:12:22.622-04:002016-06-13T10:12:22.622-04:00Mark:
One reason perhaps for proponents of this s...Mark:<br /><br />One reason perhaps for proponents of this sort of scheme to emphasize the regulatory aspects is that this gives them an automatic out when it doesn't happen: they can blame the regulators.Andrew Gelmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02715992780769751789noreply@blogger.com