3 ms·

The problem is a nigh-unbounded problem space: so many variables that there are myriads of corner cases.

• CamperBob2 8y ago
  The AI people would argue that simply following the prime directive ("Don't hit anything") covers a multitude of driving sins, and they're not wrong in a technical sense. But the prime directive doesn't cover all of them. Driving defensively involves much more than just not hitting stuff. My favorite example is a humorous image that went around several years ago, a photo that depicted someone driving in a Miata or similar convertible with the top down. The convertible was driving behind a sewage truck, the kind that has a large tank with a hose attachment to clean out septic tanks. The sewage truck, in turn, was heading straight for an overpass that obviously had nowhere near enough clearance. An alert human driver would have no problem anticipating what was about to happen, but the oblivious one in the Miata was clearly about to find out the hard way. Every time I find myself idly wondering if would be fun to work on self-driving cars, I flash back to that image. Then I get back to work on whatever I'm actually supposed to be doing.