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The main assumption made by Cory Doctorow is that the autonomous cars will be fully automated and under the control of somebody other than the driver. That sce

The main assumption made by Cory Doctorow is that the autonomous cars will be fully automated and under the control of somebody other than the driver. That scenario - with a Uber-like owner of a point-to-point fleet of self-driving cars - is indeed a bit concerning, considering that you, the passenger, give up control of the vehicle and you have to trust the machine with your life in order to get you from point A to point B. But this is exactly why I think that the consumer version of the self-driving car will always have a manual drive setting that will completely disengage the auto-pilot. The insurance companies will never insure at an acceptable cost point a car that cannot yield control to its passenger that is the designated driver. Also, passenger will want the reassurance that at any point they can take over the car and switch it off the auto pilot. iPhones and any other mobile devices are a bad analogy with a self-driving car. The more apt comparison is with the current modern airplanes: even if these planes can drive themselves, the pilot is able at any time to take over. This option is needed even more on the roads, where you don't have the dedicated flight path a plane has in the air.

maxerickson 11y ago
If an autonomous system reaches a point where it is better than some drivers, it will certainly be cheaper to insure than those drivers (insurance companies are one of the things we have that is closest to the much hypothesized rational economic actor, they will respond to actual costs of insurance over passenger comfort). I also find it comforting that the worst drivers on the road will eventually be self driving cars that do what some evil profit motivated company says, rather than drunks and fools and the like.
stefanix 11y ago
Airplane auto-pilots are very primitive compared to the what's going on in self-driving cars. They require a lot of work by the pilot to operate and aren't making any difficult decisions. Obviously you want to be able to overwrite them. Car auto-pilots are super sophisticated comparatively and aim for complete automation. Once you make the "statistically safer" and "efficient traffic flow" argument you are basically talking about an always on system. At this point turning the auto pilot off is an act of carelessness. This would be especially true if you don't have many recent manual driving hours. The fact the discussion has already passed the feasibility and usefulness stage and focuses on rare obscure cases should be a good indication that it's hard to argue for manual driving. What seems to be left are old habits even before the tech is fully available ;)
irq-1 11y ago
> The insurance companies will never insure at an acceptable cost point a car that cannot yield control to its passenger that is the designated driver. We insure medical devices, satellites, soldiers lives and many other more complicated and important things. The insurance industry will figure out how to collect payment for automated cars as well. > Also, passenger will want the reassurance that at any point they can take over the car and switch it off the auto pilot. Bus, train, plane, escalator, elevator, moving walkway and wider analogies say otherwise.
sliken 11y ago
I think it's just the opposite. Once a huge number of driven miles shows a strong statistical advantage to computer driven cars, I expect insurance companies to heavily favor computer driven cars. Similar is happening already with autonomous braking. Safety standards are being redefined in Europa and the USA to mandate autonomous braking to get a good score (and an insurance break).

maxerickson 11y ago

If an autonomous system reaches a point where it is better than some drivers, it will certainly be cheaper to insure than those drivers (insurance companies are one of the things we have that is closest to the much hypothesized rational economic actor, they will respond to actual costs of insurance over passenger comfort). I also find it comforting that the worst drivers on the road will eventually be self driving cars that do what some evil profit motivated company says, rather than drunks and fools and the like.

stefanix 11y ago

Airplane auto-pilots are very primitive compared to the what's going on in self-driving cars. They require a lot of work by the pilot to operate and aren't making any difficult decisions. Obviously you want to be able to overwrite them. Car auto-pilots are super sophisticated comparatively and aim for complete automation. Once you make the "statistically safer" and "efficient traffic flow" argument you are basically talking about an always on system. At this point turning the auto pilot off is an act of carelessness. This would be especially true if you don't have many recent manual driving hours. The fact the discussion has already passed the feasibility and usefulness stage and focuses on rare obscure cases should be a good indication that it's hard to argue for manual driving. What seems to be left are old habits even before the tech is fully available ;)

irq-1 11y ago

> The insurance companies will never insure at an acceptable cost point a car that cannot yield control to its passenger that is the designated driver. We insure medical devices, satellites, soldiers lives and many other more complicated and important things. The insurance industry will figure out how to collect payment for automated cars as well. > Also, passenger will want the reassurance that at any point they can take over the car and switch it off the auto pilot. Bus, train, plane, escalator, elevator, moving walkway and wider analogies say otherwise.

sliken 11y ago

I think it's just the opposite. Once a huge number of driven miles shows a strong statistical advantage to computer driven cars, I expect insurance companies to heavily favor computer driven cars. Similar is happening already with autonomous braking. Safety standards are being redefined in Europa and the USA to mandate autonomous braking to get a good score (and an insurance break).