4 ms·

I've mentioned to a few people now that the first generation of self-driving cars don't scare me that much. It will be weird, but I assume that special care wil

I've mentioned to a few people now that the first generation of self-driving cars don't scare me that much. It will be weird, but I assume that special care will be taken and the cars themselves will be quite risk-averse. I'm scared about the next generation of self-driving cars when we have "solved it" and the race is on to get cars out quickly and at low cost (and things like in-depth testing are out of budget). Hopefully regulations and testing frameworks catch up by then, but who knows.

deleted 7y ago
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paxys 7y ago
IMO to be "scared" of self driving cars they need to be more dangerous than any other random car on the street today, and the bar for that is pretty low.
- ClumsyPilot 7y ago
  Nope, with other cars you know the factors that increase your risks (fog, drunk driving, distractions). You can make decisions, like not getting into a car with a drunk friend. With machine learning you never know when it might mistake the back of a semi for an overpass or soemthing.
  - gibspaulding 7y ago
    Also, not to fear monger too much, but if this ends up happening there will inevitably be a period where people still assume that self driving cars are foolproof, and as a result, a lot of pedestrians/other drivers will get blamed for incidents that weren't in fact their fault.
  - pcwelder 7y ago
    Thank you for pointing this out. Every time they show road accident statistics as an argument for the safety of self-driving cars or airlines, I wonder how is the risk conditional on me in the vehicle. Surely the risk substantially decreases than the population statistics in case of road accidents, since I am much more prudent than the average. However, the risk remains the same in the case of airlines or self-driving cars since I am not in control.
  - SifJar 7y ago
    No pedestrian makes the decision to get hit by a drunk driver, which is the more relevant situation in the context of this post I think
pavel_lishin 7y ago
> I assume that special care will be taken and the cars themselves will be quite risk-averse. Bold assumption that's already got a counterpoint: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Elaine_Herzberg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Elaine_Herzberg
- a_bonobo 7y ago
  Wikipedia already has a list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_self-driving_car_fatalities https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_self-driving_car_fatal... Along with your pedestrian death there were five (!!!) driver deaths. There's a reason why places like Germany don't want Tesla to use the term 'autopilot' because it's reckless endangerment.
  - illinformed 7y ago
    But no country bans women from driving during the 3rd and 4th trimester of pregnancy, as no medical expert has quantified the effects of choline deficiency on the brain and driving performance, despite insurance statistics showing pregnant woman have more road accidents in this time period than stoners, plus medical experts have quantified the 1st 1000 days of choline intake affects intelligence of the foetus/new born. Road Safety is beyond logic, but that is what you get when humans organise themselves.
  - carlmr 7y ago
    >There's a reason why places like Germany don't want Tesla to use the term 'autopilot' because it's reckless endangerment. If Tesla weren't a US company I'm sure they'd have already been sued for billions for labeling their assisted driving system autopilot. The US is the country where you can pay millions for not having a sticker on the microwave showing that you shouldn't dry your cat in there.

deleted 7y ago

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paxys 7y ago

IMO to be "scared" of self driving cars they need to be more dangerous than any other random car on the street today, and the bar for that is pretty low.

ClumsyPilot 7y ago
Nope, with other cars you know the factors that increase your risks (fog, drunk driving, distractions). You can make decisions, like not getting into a car with a drunk friend. With machine learning you never know when it might mistake the back of a semi for an overpass or soemthing.
- gibspaulding 7y ago
  Also, not to fear monger too much, but if this ends up happening there will inevitably be a period where people still assume that self driving cars are foolproof, and as a result, a lot of pedestrians/other drivers will get blamed for incidents that weren't in fact their fault.
- pcwelder 7y ago
  Thank you for pointing this out. Every time they show road accident statistics as an argument for the safety of self-driving cars or airlines, I wonder how is the risk conditional on me in the vehicle. Surely the risk substantially decreases than the population statistics in case of road accidents, since I am much more prudent than the average. However, the risk remains the same in the case of airlines or self-driving cars since I am not in control.
- SifJar 7y ago
  No pedestrian makes the decision to get hit by a drunk driver, which is the more relevant situation in the context of this post I think

pavel_lishin 7y ago

> I assume that special care will be taken and the cars themselves will be quite risk-averse. Bold assumption that's already got a counterpoint: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Elaine_Herzberg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Elaine_Herzberg

a_bonobo 7y ago
Wikipedia already has a list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_self-driving_car_fatalities https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_self-driving_car_fatal... Along with your pedestrian death there were five (!!!) driver deaths. There's a reason why places like Germany don't want Tesla to use the term 'autopilot' because it's reckless endangerment.
- illinformed 7y ago
  But no country bans women from driving during the 3rd and 4th trimester of pregnancy, as no medical expert has quantified the effects of choline deficiency on the brain and driving performance, despite insurance statistics showing pregnant woman have more road accidents in this time period than stoners, plus medical experts have quantified the 1st 1000 days of choline intake affects intelligence of the foetus/new born. Road Safety is beyond logic, but that is what you get when humans organise themselves.
- carlmr 7y ago
  >There's a reason why places like Germany don't want Tesla to use the term 'autopilot' because it's reckless endangerment. If Tesla weren't a US company I'm sure they'd have already been sued for billions for labeling their assisted driving system autopilot. The US is the country where you can pay millions for not having a sticker on the microwave showing that you shouldn't dry your cat in there.