Ha, yes, maybe self-driving cars would be safer if they also functioned as safety monitors.
--
"Take me to the ski resort, HAL."
"I'm sorry Dave, I can't allow you to do that. It's snowing along the way."
"Yeah, I know--that's the idea. I want to make some fresh tracks."
"Driving through the snow would be more dangerous than driving on dry pavement. In addition, I calculate that skiing is 4.76 times more likely to result in injury than reading a book. Please return to your couch; I will download a new book to your Kindle."
--
Incidentally, this was a major theme of Asimov's Robots/Foundation series--that intelligent robots programmed to prevent humans from coming to harm would become nannies of humanity in order to execute that command.
This would have been a much more interesting origin story for the Matrix, esp to play off of what machines would optimize for regarding human longevity.
It's pretty similar the whole way through, so if you found the early stuff boring, you'll probably feel the same way at the end.
That said, if you're much older than the first time you gave it a try, you might consider trying again. I've found that some boring books were actually fascinating when I tried again years later. My tastes have changed considerably over the years, even within science fiction.
--
"Take me to the ski resort, HAL."
"I'm sorry Dave, I can't allow you to do that. It's snowing along the way."
"Yeah, I know--that's the idea. I want to make some fresh tracks."
"Driving through the snow would be more dangerous than driving on dry pavement. In addition, I calculate that skiing is 4.76 times more likely to result in injury than reading a book. Please return to your couch; I will download a new book to your Kindle."
--
Incidentally, this was a major theme of Asimov's Robots/Foundation series--that intelligent robots programmed to prevent humans from coming to harm would become nannies of humanity in order to execute that command.