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I think people intuitively ascribe a moral dimension to whether people are involved in accidents, hence why they are more worried about dying on an airplane tha
by yters 7y ago
I think people intuitively ascribe a moral dimension to whether people are involved in accidents, hence why they are more worried about dying on an airplane than in a car, even though the former is much less likely than the latter.
If I die in a plane, I have no control over the matter. If I die in a car, then at least I may have had control, and it could be chalked up to my inattentiveness, bad driving behavior, etc. The latter then implies the individual has direct control over whether they live or die, and can thus ensure life by being a responsible driver. I bet the same reasoning will be applied to self driving cars, even if they are orders of magnitude safer, just as the case with airplanes.
- dmix 7y agoThe great part of self-driving cars is that just like when there are major airplane accidents there is a thorough learning process afterwards and all flights become safer as a result on a frequent basis. This is the same reality for self-driving cars. The edge cases will happen but they won't keep happening with rigorous improvements in the models and trained behaviour. Flight safety has improved dramatically over the past century and the ability for self driving cars to adapt will be even faster, as it's mostly just software. Of course this implies that an accident had to happen for such an improvement to take place. But we have both simulation improving drastically to help alleviate that plus the alternative is the current situation where the same types of accidents keep happening again and again with only the occasional improvement to car technology and safety features.