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Autonomous cars are going to kill people, lots of people. They are going to kill passengers, bicyclists, pedestrians etc. It has already happened and will con
by djyaz1200 9y ago
Autonomous cars are going to kill people, lots of people. They are going to kill passengers, bicyclists, pedestrians etc. It has already happened and will continue. Even though autonomous cars will be (and Tesla argues already are) safer than human drivers the fact that these deaths will be at the hands of machines rather than people will outrage the public. The industry will become even more heavily regulated, and there won't be any tolerance for testing unproven autonomous systems in the wild soon.
Related... it will be interesting to see how well autonomous cars handle mechanical failures as they (and their tires) age. Good drivers really distinguish themselves in the moments where the inputs and behaviors that are expected do not occur (ex: tire blow out).
- ghaff 9y agoThe liability question will be an interesting one--far more so than trolley problems IMO. There aren't a lot of examples where we just accept things sold to consumers killing people when used according to directions and properly maintained because "hey, sometimes stuff happens." Drugs are probably the best example. But even that isn't a case of your drugs killing someone else. I do think it will figured out in some future where there's true autonomy and they're proven far safer statistically. But you're right that the general public isn't going to shrug when $AUTOMAKER's car runs over a skateboarder and the company says "We are committed to safety and we'll try harder next time." There's also the uncanny valley when no one's paying attention although they're legally supposed to be.
- 6d6b73 9y ago>But you're right that the general public isn't going to shrug when $AUTOMAKER's car runs over a skateboarder and the company says "We are committed to safety and we'll try harder next time." Unfortunately many examples from recent years (acceleration pedals, air bags, tires) show that after few weeks everybody will forget about the issue and move on.
- ghaff 9y agoThe general population may forget but, in the cases you cite, there were significant lawsuits in each case and settlements.
- 6d6b73 9y ago>Good drivers really distinguish themselves in the moments where the inputs and behaviors that are expected do not occur (ex: tire blow out). Autonomous cars will be much better at handling these types of situations - in your example, the machine will know what's going on few milliseconds after it happens and will be able to adjust speed and direction almost instantaneously. All you need is lots of sensors.
- kevin_thibedeau 9y ago> All you need is lots of sensors. Which rapidly reduces the MTBF at which point you're stuck with an overpriced manual drive vehicle.
- icebraining 9y agoDo you also replace cars when a tire gets punctured?
- damnfine 9y agoWhen the tires cost more than the car you do.
- rgbrenner 9y agoand when the sensors start failing?
- joewadcan 9y ago> Autonomous cars are going to kill people, lots of people. They are going to kill passengers, bicyclists, pedestrians etc. It has already happened and will continue. I wouldn't be surprised if Tesla (and other autonomous driving providers) directly offer customers their own insurance and liability coverage. The auto insurance companies of the world see the writing on the wall, yet have no data to accurately model or price such a product. It might be a good thing too, since it providers a second layer of incentive to improve the underlying autonomy technology.
- 0xbear 9y agoI would be absolutely stunned if they do. They'd be always one software bug away from bankruptcy then.
- icebraining 9y agoThat's what stop-loss insurance is for.
- cperciva 9y agoI'm confident that autonomous cars will handle mechanical failures and other "black swan" events far better than human drivers do. Human drivers are unlikely to encounter any such incident more than once, and so are unable to learn from them; but autonomous cars can learn from all of the weird situations encountered by other cars.
- JumpCrisscross 9y ago> the fact that these deaths will be at the hands of machines rather than people will outrage the public I keep hearing, and used to assume, this. But observe public reaction to e.g. the Tesla autopilot accident: measured and muted. Counterbalancing negative reactions to machines are generational shifts in our perception of technology. I haven't seen a study on this, but from memory, what was the last new (or, for franchises, first-in-franchise) film that portrayed a man-vs-machine war? The closer we get to a population of people mostly born after the mid-1980s, the better the reaction appears to likely be.
- maxerickson 9y agoThe Matrix comes to mind as a movie that portrayed the aftermath of an apocalyptic war between man and machine. There's quite a few recent rogue AI movies, but they typically have a few characters stopping the machine rather than a war. Avengers 2, I Robot, Eagle Eye.
- cakedoggie 9y agoMaybe. But cars seem to get a free pass with regulation, since they kill about 1.3 million people a year. We have all pretty much decided that this is acceptable, and having something traveling at 50 miles an hour a few feet from where you are walking is ok.
- TeMPOraL 9y agoOne has to wonder, how much longer - given that trucks are becoming the new favourite tool of mass murderers.
- amelius 9y ago> Even though autonomous cars will be safer than human drivers the fact that these deaths will be at the hands of machines rather than people will outrage the public. Of course. If somebody is a much-better-than-average driver, then suddenly their probability of getting killed is going to be equalized with the rest of the population and may become higher as a result.
- putsteadywere 9y agoWorse yet - due to the Dunning-Kruger effect, the average driver is confident that they are much better than average.