Taking the Wheel
What to know: Driverless semi-trucks are carrying cargo between Dallas and Houston. According to CNN, “During the four years of practice hauls, the self-driving technology was able to complete over 1,200 miles without a human in the truck.”
The TPPF take: Just as with all other technology, self-driving vehicles are a tool that can induce positive and negative outcomes.
“As a first principle, and for the sake of innovation broadly, it is crucial that Texas continue to hold the line on the regulation-heavy instincts of states like California and Illinois,” says TPPF’s David Dunmoyer. “With responsible guardrails in place and the ingredients for an innovative hotspot, Texas will continue to lead the nation as the exemplar of responsible technology that seeks to serve humanity, and not the other way around.”
For more on driverless vehicles, click here.
Orwell’s World
What to know: According to the New York Times, “We’re all living in Orwell’s world now.”
The TPPF take: Shockingly, the New York Times is right—just not for the reasons it thinks. The doublethink is coming from the left.
“Today’s most glaring examples of modern doublethink are expressed in the left’s assertion that men can have babies, trans women are women, and that then-President Joe Biden was as sharp as a tack during his presidency,” says TPPF’s Kate Bierly. “Adopting the social justice ideology forces individuals to adopt claims that are steeped in doublethink, where contradictory beliefs are simultaneously embraced as truth.”
For more on Orwell and doublethink, click here.
That’s Not Free
What to know: Illegal immigrants cost Texas hospitals nearly $122 million in just the first month that the state began keeping track of how much that care truly costs Texans.
The TPPF take: Texas will now keep tabs on uncompensated health care for illegal immigrants.
“That doesn’t count the time lost by Texans who had to wait for care or who could not be given care because of overcrowding,” says TPPF’s Sherry Sylvester. “Texas has borne these less-visible costs of illegal immigration for decades, and Gov. Abbott was right to ask the state to start keeping records. No one is surprised by these numbers. It’s another cost of open borders.”
For more on illegal immigration, click here.