4 ms·

I know its bad having a machine-controlled car killing someone, but.. it will happen and we must accept it and my guess is that it will happen far less than wit

I know its bad having a machine-controlled car killing someone, but.. it will happen and we must accept it and my guess is that it will happen far less than with human operators in the long-term.

smallgovt 8y ago
The problem is that deaths per mile driven are currently much higher for self driving cars than humans. We don't have to just accept it. Progress can be made while still being safe -- at least, safer than how the free market would act. > The NHTSA reports a fatality rate of 1.25 deaths per 100 million miles[2], twenty five times the [4 million miles] Uber has driven. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16620736 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16620736
- smileysteve 8y ago
  One of the issues is that the car's stock system was disabled;
  - JimmyAustin 8y ago
    Absolutely not an issue. The last thing you want when developing a prototype piece of software for a 1 ton chunk of metal is another bit of software plugged in that you dont control or understand.
    - hopler 8y ago
      That's nonsense. The car had a human backup driver and human pedestrians, all not under the autonomous cars control. An automatic emergency brake doesn't prevent a computer or human driver from braking when it wants to. If the autonomous system can't even avoid interaction with emergency brake, the prototype belongs in a lab, not on a public road.
steelframe 8y ago
The problem is that people deeply care about the reason a bad thing happened, much more than they care that a bad thing happened.
InclinedPlane 8y ago
Your guess is a bad guess. It certainly is for Uber's self-driving vehicles so far. This isn't a situation where laissez-faire is a good idea. If we want autonomous vehicles to be safer than human drivers then we need to ensure that is the case with proper regulation, audits, standards of testing, and liability. We who work in the software industry should know better. Yes, you can make software to a very high standard, even high enough to bet your life on it. Is all software made that way? Will software be made that way without some sort of pressure to do so? No, of course not. Every shortcut will be made, technical debt will be piled like cord wood until it reaches the sky. And people will die. If autonomous vehicle technology is real, and if it can improve on human drivers, then let it be set to that standard from the start.

I know its bad having a machine-controlled car killing someone, but.. it will happen and we must accept it and my guess is that it will happen far less than with human operators in the long-term.

smallgovt 8y ago

The problem is that deaths per mile driven are currently much higher for self driving cars than humans. We don't have to just accept it. Progress can be made while still being safe -- at least, safer than how the free market would act. > The NHTSA reports a fatality rate of 1.25 deaths per 100 million miles[2], twenty five times the [4 million miles] Uber has driven. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16620736 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16620736

smileysteve 8y ago
One of the issues is that the car's stock system was disabled;
- JimmyAustin 8y ago
  Absolutely not an issue. The last thing you want when developing a prototype piece of software for a 1 ton chunk of metal is another bit of software plugged in that you dont control or understand.
  - hopler 8y ago
    That's nonsense. The car had a human backup driver and human pedestrians, all not under the autonomous cars control. An automatic emergency brake doesn't prevent a computer or human driver from braking when it wants to. If the autonomous system can't even avoid interaction with emergency brake, the prototype belongs in a lab, not on a public road.

steelframe 8y ago

The problem is that people deeply care about the reason a bad thing happened, much more than they care that a bad thing happened.

InclinedPlane 8y ago

Your guess is a bad guess. It certainly is for Uber's self-driving vehicles so far. This isn't a situation where laissez-faire is a good idea. If we want autonomous vehicles to be safer than human drivers then we need to ensure that is the case with proper regulation, audits, standards of testing, and liability. We who work in the software industry should know better. Yes, you can make software to a very high standard, even high enough to bet your life on it. Is all software made that way? Will software be made that way without some sort of pressure to do so? No, of course not. Every shortcut will be made, technical debt will be piled like cord wood until it reaches the sky. And people will die. If autonomous vehicle technology is real, and if it can improve on human drivers, then let it be set to that standard from the start.