Another hallucinating AI? (Driving licences)

Aug 02, 2025 Last reply: 11 months ago 37 Replies

I asked DuckDuckGo’s AI a question about the number of UK driving licences held, broken down by age ranges, following yet another TV news item regarding the carnage in the roads caused by medically-challenged older drivers. The response I received included these consecutive statements:



QUOTE



Older Drivers (55+ years): There are 7 million drivers aged 65 and over, with a higher number of female licence holders (5 million) compared to males (2 million).



🚗 Gender Trends



The data indicates that male drivers outnumber female drivers across all age groups, although the gap narrows in younger age brackets. For instance, in the 17-24 years category, the difference is less pronounced compared to older age groups. UNQUOTE



It would seem that the AI bot doesn’t check what it writes.



One incidental question arising from this is where have male drivers over



65 gone, if outnumbered 5 to 2 by female drivers?

Across all the age ranges mentioned, the number of driving licences held is a consistent 7 million.



The AI stats came from Statista and gov.uk sources.


They are dead, women live longer than men because we look after them so well.

They have died. Men tend to live shorter lived than women. I knowmquite a number of ladies about my age (85) whose husbands have died.

I know of two widowers and two widows so far amongst my immediate circle of acquaintances and generation

At 85 everyone is fairly lucky to be alive!

Cracking! As much data as one could wish for.

Thanks for the link!

The weird aspect is that AI is so self-confident.

I asked Google AI about 45rpm records. Amongst all the truth was:

45rpm records are called "singles" as they are recorded on one side only

I don't know if it is a product of AI, but this morning our (Eco-conscious) dishwasher self-diagnosed that it was suffering from:

"Consumption"

but it added that this was "OK".

Some of us remember when singles had three sides.

Four, if you count the hole in the middle. :-)

Wax cylinders could be played at a range of speeds - depending on how hard you cranked the handle. Those were single sided.

Mmmm. Google AI is returning: 'Usually, 45s contain one song per side, which is why they are commonly referred to as singles'.

Maybe your Goggle AI's broken ;-)

Or it is monitoring Usenet and learning...

...Great minds ...

Go Usenet. Although I suspect the OP might have snipped some of the original AI answer.

Yes! The AI was definitely hallucinating!

Thanks to the link provided by Nick Finnigan, using the latest official data available gives the following breakdown:

Total number of licences for 65+…9764727

Of these: Males…5312891 (54.4%) Females…4451836 (45.6%)

Perhaps males aren’t carking it as much as was thought…

Interestingly, there were 42629310 licences on issue, so holders aged 65+ account for 22.9% of the total.

Despite the current media campaign concerning health checks for this age group, the proportion of deaths in which this group of drivers are involved at circa 23% suggests that if health concerns are an issue in this group, all licence holders should be similarly tested.

Licence holders in the 40-60 age group alone account for circa 40% of fatalities, strongly suggesting that this group should be retested and rechecked during this age range.

Source? I would have said under 30s account for the majority of accidents and fatalities

Unfortunately I didn’t keep the url, but I did write down the figures on the back of an envelope (literally). These were:

Age range…deaths

17-25…79 25-40…216 40-60…400 60-70…216

These figures may be for GB rather than UK, as the deaths total 1047.

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