3 ms·

My biggest worry would be bad repair work on the sensors or people who know the car is buggy but won't take it in for repairs. You can legislate against that,

by Natsu 11y ago

My biggest worry would be bad repair work on the sensors or people who know the car is buggy but won't take it in for repairs. You can legislate against that, but people only listen if they get caught. But there are a lot of up sides, too, for driverless cars (no distractions / intoxication / etc.) so I hope we can work things out. But we can debug computer failures in a way we cannot for driver failures, so I do think we'll see some predictable level of social backlash and fear of the unknown, even if it's statistically irrational. I mean, driving is already one of the biggest intentional risks that we underrate every day and I doubt computers are ever going to be perfect.

greggman 11y ago
I'm totally for self driving cars but if press myself I can think of harder to solve problems than bad repair. How about hackers who tinker for fun and adjust all the parameters to the edges of tolerance. Drive like a race car mode or drive like a James Bond city chase mode. Or of course cheap and easy slow moving cruise missile bombs. Kind of like anonymity on 4chan what will anonymity on cheap cars do? Send a car full of shit to your ex. Send a car to crash into their house. Use face recognition and phone tracking to run over a specific person. I'm sure some of those aren't likely but computer run cars and drones certainly open new ways for mischief
- DonHopkins 11y ago
  >Send a car full of shit to your ex. That's an example of a task that a horse drawn carriage could perform better than a driverless car.
- Natsu 11y ago
  Hackers might be able to do worse, but someone being cheap on repair (either the person or the mechanic) is likely to be a far more common risk (the kind we underestimate).
- mc808 11y ago
  Also, what will police do when they can't count on almost everyone carrying a state-issued ID card on them at all times? Dollars to doughnuts (no pun intended), carrying ID will become mandatory as driver's licenses become less common.
  - lmm 11y ago
    Eh. I live in London. Many (most?) people don't drive. No mandatory ID laws. Society continues to function.
    - mc808 11y ago
      Not yet, but wasn't there recently a big national ID program enacted and then repealed? Eventually people will be too weary to push back. In the US, it's very common for police to "request" identification in routine encounters with pedestrians and fly off the handle if they don't get what they want. People say it's a post-9/11 world, but this happened to me many times in the '90s.
      - Natsu 11y ago
        As I understand it, you cannot refuse to identify yourself, but you don't have to produce ID if you don't have it on you.
      - lmm 11y ago
        > Not yet, but wasn't there recently a big national ID program enacted and then repealed? Eventually people will be too weary to push back. The then-government announced a proposal. They were opposed by the other main parties, and voted out at the next election. Prediction is hard, but I don't see it happening.
        rjsw 11y ago
        It was more than a proposal, the cards were available and some people received them. All this was before immigration became such a hot topic, I could see mandatory ID being proposed again in the UK.

by Natsu 11y ago

greggman 11y ago

I'm totally for self driving cars but if press myself I can think of harder to solve problems than bad repair. How about hackers who tinker for fun and adjust all the parameters to the edges of tolerance. Drive like a race car mode or drive like a James Bond city chase mode. Or of course cheap and easy slow moving cruise missile bombs. Kind of like anonymity on 4chan what will anonymity on cheap cars do? Send a car full of shit to your ex. Send a car to crash into their house. Use face recognition and phone tracking to run over a specific person. I'm sure some of those aren't likely but computer run cars and drones certainly open new ways for mischief

DonHopkins 11y ago
>Send a car full of shit to your ex. That's an example of a task that a horse drawn carriage could perform better than a driverless car.
Natsu 11y ago
Hackers might be able to do worse, but someone being cheap on repair (either the person or the mechanic) is likely to be a far more common risk (the kind we underestimate).
mc808 11y ago
Also, what will police do when they can't count on almost everyone carrying a state-issued ID card on them at all times? Dollars to doughnuts (no pun intended), carrying ID will become mandatory as driver's licenses become less common.
- lmm 11y ago
  Eh. I live in London. Many (most?) people don't drive. No mandatory ID laws. Society continues to function.
  - mc808 11y ago
    Not yet, but wasn't there recently a big national ID program enacted and then repealed? Eventually people will be too weary to push back. In the US, it's very common for police to "request" identification in routine encounters with pedestrians and fly off the handle if they don't get what they want. People say it's a post-9/11 world, but this happened to me many times in the '90s.
    - Natsu 11y ago
      As I understand it, you cannot refuse to identify yourself, but you don't have to produce ID if you don't have it on you.
    - lmm 11y ago
      > Not yet, but wasn't there recently a big national ID program enacted and then repealed? Eventually people will be too weary to push back. The then-government announced a proposal. They were opposed by the other main parties, and voted out at the next election. Prediction is hard, but I don't see it happening.
      - rjsw 11y ago
        It was more than a proposal, the cards were available and some people received them. All this was before immigration became such a hot topic, I could see mandatory ID being proposed again in the UK.