[paulcole]

Let’s say you and I were going to race each other by walking. You start on the east side of Los Angeles and I’m in Santa Monica.

Does your lead mean you’re in a much better position than me? What if the finish line is in Amsterdam?

That’s how I see AI (particularly self driving tech) today. Yes, technically there’s been advancements but we don’t even know whether it’s possible to get to the finish line today.

[richk449]

> Let’s say you and I were going to race each other by walking. You start on the east side of Los Angeles and I’m in Santa Monica. Does your lead mean you’re in a much better position than me? What if the finish line is in Amsterdam?

I can't figure out how to parse this. You refer to my starting location as a "lead", but they ask if it means I am in a better position - that is the definition of "lead". I think your point is that we are so far from what is needed that it is hard to know if we are even moving in the right direction.

Which is a weird argument. My brother drove me in his Nissan Rogue today, which does automatic lane following. You don't have to steer your car, or use the gas or brake for many driving conditions. That is unambiguously an improvement over full manual control.

[icoder]

It's an improvement in what it does now, but I think the point is it is not necessarily bringing the end goal closer. Like a side track that runs dead at some point.

No matter how much faster horses may have had become by selective breeding, that did not bring 100km/h travel closer.

[martin_a]

With regards to autonomous driving, improvements like this absolutely bring us closer to the end goal.

Each improvement in adaptive cruise controls, lane following/holding assistants and any other partly-autonomous assistance system does its part in acquiring experience and technology for "the end goal".

[paulcole]

You missed the word “much”. Is a lead of one step a much better position? If it’s a 2 step race, then for sure. If it’s a 2000 step race, almost for sure not. If we’re not sure how long of a race it is, then who can say.

[Robotbeat]

If by “finish line” you mean super-human cognition in every single sense, then sure (although it is possible). That might be a century away while AI has nonetheless been stupendously successful in several areas.