This article is a good example of stupid tech reporting. Someone who's supposed to be a knowledgeable reporter does some speculating, without bothering with an

This article is a good example of stupid tech reporting. Someone who's supposed to be a knowledgeable reporter does some speculating, without bothering with any actual data, and comes up with a so-called "problem" and idiotic suggestion for "solution". The article suggests that, though self-driving cars don't crash into other cars, they "cause" crashes (mostly fender-benders) by driving in a different manner than humans. No evidence that they cause more fender-benders than humans, who drive all sorts of different ways. Apparently, the author thinks this is so obvious, no data is required. Then, the article seems to propose that self-driving cars should be like humans, who allegedly violate laws in a "safe and principled" way. This ridiculous statement ignores the tens of thousands of people killed in crashes caused by human-driven cars every year, and the many tens of thousands severely injured, by these "safe and principled" violation of driving laws. Most accidents do not involve complying with traffic laws, actually. That's why we have traffic laws -- to prevent this carnage. Individually, however, we still tend to believe that even if we engage in risky behavior like speeding or running lights, we're not the one personally who will crash. As to some people who think self-driving cars should speed because so many people speed, please check the mortality rates for accidents at various speeds (they're widely published) -- survival rates go down lots as speed goes up, especially if a pedestrian is involved. On the other hand, if you do the math, on most trips the amount of time actually saved is much smaller than the exhilarating sense of going faster than the next guy you get from even moving a couple of mph faster. This is why many major cities are reducing speed limits and taking other steps to reduce traffic speeds. Speeding, the most common rule violation in driving, is neither safe nor reasonable, and the author, supposedly an expert on driving, cannot provide any evidence to indicate that it is. Well, except that he seems to assume that tens of thousands of traffic deaths are acceptable and unavoidable. Perceptive readers will notice that I haven't cited stats to support my assertions in this comment. That's because it's a comment and I'm not holding myself out as a journalist who's done sufficient research to report on issues of motor vehicle safety. I'm a mere commenter, but be sure, if you do the work to find out what the real numbers are (regarding both driving safety and actual driving times) it bears out what I'm saying.