I've said this before, so apologies to those who've heard it already, but I believe testing big fast robots in public is irresponsible. These machines have alr

I've said this before, so apologies to those who've heard it already, but I believe testing big fast robots in public is irresponsible. These machines have already killed people. We know that human drivers kill and maim tens of thousands of people every year, so it's pretty obvious that robotic drivers will do so too, unless and until they become better drivers than humans. If somebody wanted to let their killer robots move around in public with limited supervision it would be obviously illegal, but somehow dressing up as cars falls into a weird blind spot. I've encountered at least two major objections: > Human drivers kill people so it's okay if robot drivers do too. But is it really okay for human drivers to kill people? Our complacency in the face of automotive mayhem is the result of a deliberate campaign of social engineering: "The Real Reason Jaywalking Is A Crime" (Adam Ruins Everything) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxopfjXkArM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxopfjXkArM We went from decrying "speed demons" (reckless drivers who hit pedestrians) to victim-blaming "jaywalkers". Now, for example, more Americans have been killed by cars than by all the wars we've fought. (And that's just counting collisions, not deaths from air pollution, etc.) > The machines will eventually be safer than human drivers (a belief I share) but they need to practice in real world conditions to do it. So build a model city, populate it with people willing to take the risks, and test them there. (This is setting aside the additional idea of doing extensive modeling in simulated cities.) It would be expensive but it would avoid killing people who haven't e.g. signed a release agreeing to be test dummies in the robot car experiments. The obvious way to make large, heavy, fast robot cars is to start with small, light, slow robot cars. Imagine a self-driving golf cart covered in nerf (soft foam) that doesn't go faster than about 5mph. There are applications for that and it would be much more difficult for such a robot to injure or kill people. Going straight for self-driving cars (and can we please call them "auto-autos"?) seems to me to be hubris.