3 ms·

Imagine if every failure in a traditional car became news.

qayxc 5y ago
This is relevant, though. There are traffic laws and regulations in place for human drivers and this incident poses a conundrum: how are minor transgressions handled with autonomous vehicles? Who gets fined? The owner? The manufacturer? Do the rules not apply to machines or to a lesser degree and if so, why? Lots of interesting legal questions that are much more relevant in practise than hypothetical (and IMHO completely misguided) trolly-problem related ethical discussions.
- Ekaros 5y ago
  I think it is reasonable that the owner or operating entity gets the fine. Then they can sue the manufacturer or service provider for any issues.
  - zip1234 5y ago
    I would venture that manufacturers should prevent drivers from breaking the law when possible. For example, autonomous cars rolling stops and speeding should not be possible.
martopix 5y ago
The news here isn't the headlights failure.
bo1024 5y ago
It’s the first real autonomous testbed, and the same software presumably drives all their cars (up to A/B tests). Unlike in traditional hardware, the cause of these errors is very opaque and difficult to understand (at least for us and possibly the company as well). That makes it plausible that equally dangerous and simple errors still exist. Imagine if a traditional company had just released a new car model and someone was driving it and the front right wheel just fell off the car. It would be news because it indicates that something very basic was misunderstood by the designers and engineers. You probably wouldn’t want to get in such a car. Now imagine the general reaction is “cars are complex systems, the other three wheels actually did quite well, we fully expect to update the design to keep the front right wheel on in the future.”
datadata 5y ago
I feel this will happen at the end of the adoption curve, should we reach it. Media will begin to shame legacy drivers and accidents will become newsworthy curiosities. Sort of like the last known cases of a pathogen that becomes eradicated.

This is relevant, though. There are traffic laws and regulations in place for human drivers and this incident poses a conundrum: how are minor transgressions handled with autonomous vehicles? Who gets fined? The owner? The manufacturer? Do the rules not apply to machines or to a lesser degree and if so, why? Lots of interesting legal questions that are much more relevant in practise than hypothetical (and IMHO completely misguided) trolly-problem related ethical discussions.

Ekaros 5y ago
I think it is reasonable that the owner or operating entity gets the fine. Then they can sue the manufacturer or service provider for any issues.
- zip1234 5y ago
  I would venture that manufacturers should prevent drivers from breaking the law when possible. For example, autonomous cars rolling stops and speeding should not be possible.

martopix 5y ago

The news here isn't the headlights failure.

bo1024 5y ago

It’s the first real autonomous testbed, and the same software presumably drives all their cars (up to A/B tests). Unlike in traditional hardware, the cause of these errors is very opaque and difficult to understand (at least for us and possibly the company as well). That makes it plausible that equally dangerous and simple errors still exist. Imagine if a traditional company had just released a new car model and someone was driving it and the front right wheel just fell off the car. It would be news because it indicates that something very basic was misunderstood by the designers and engineers. You probably wouldn’t want to get in such a car. Now imagine the general reaction is “cars are complex systems, the other three wheels actually did quite well, we fully expect to update the design to keep the front right wheel on in the future.”

datadata 5y ago

I feel this will happen at the end of the adoption curve, should we reach it. Media will begin to shame legacy drivers and accidents will become newsworthy curiosities. Sort of like the last known cases of a pathogen that becomes eradicated.