Florida Political Ad Attacks Driverless Cars

Google’s driverless cars are now finding themselves being attacked by association in a new political ad concerning Florida’s Senate District 22 primary race. House member Jeff Brandes was attacked by the Committee to Protect Florida and, as you can see in the video below, a big portion of that attack was centered around his support for driverless cars. Brandes fought for the cars, saying “I had to convince the Senate it wasn’t witchcraft.” The ads did little good, as at the time of this writing Brandes has secured the Republican candidacy for the Senate seat.

Not only does the ad question Brandes’s priorities, fighting for driverless cars when the area needs jobs, it also attacks driverless cars themselves, questioning their safety with an out-of-context quote from Forbes magazine.

Spreading fear and ignorance is nothing new in politics, but it’s interesting to see politics adapting to a truly futuristic, automated world. I, for one, can’t wait until I have a robot butler to do my bidding, but it’s going to be an uphill battle convincing people that their robot butlers won’t “get hacked” and murder them in their sleep.