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> You are no longer assigning blame for a real incident. You are theorizing about the potential damage that AI drivers can cause in similar situations. I am! B
by spondylosaurus 3y ago
> You are no longer assigning blame for a real incident. You are theorizing about the potential damage that AI drivers can cause in similar situations.
I am! Because I think that's a useful thing to do.
> But once you do that, you also have to consider the tradeoffs between human and AI drivers and all the deaths that human drivers cause.
Also yes—and one factor right now is that we have a robust EMS system designed to respond to medical emergencies, including road accidents. If the near-future tradeoff is that robotaxis (1) coexist alongside human-piloted cars, rather than replacing them outright, which means road accidents will continue to happen, and (2) robotaxis hinder ambulances from reaching humans in need, including (but not limited to) humans who were struck by cars piloted by other humans, I think that's a poor tradeoff.
If it were possible to jump past the messy middle part and immediately get to the "all cars are autopiloted, except ambulances, which aren't hindered by autopiloted vehicles in any way," then of course that sounds great! But it's precisely the messy middle part that worries me.
For better or worse, human drivers aren't going away anytime soon. And you rightfully point out that human drivers are prone to accidents. Which is all the more reason that EMS services are critical in the near-term.
(But also, counterfactually speaking, it is absolutely the robotaxi's fault that the person died. Had the ambulance been unhindered, they would have had a chance at life after receiving proper medical care; since the ambulance was hindered, they didn't get that care and died as a result.)
- slg 3y agoIf you are talking about these in general terms about a hypothetical future, I don't think one example of medical care being delayed is very strong data compared to the 42,939 motor vehicle deaths the IIHS reported in 2021. >(But also, counterfactually speaking, it is absolutely the robotaxi's fault that the person died. Had the ambulance been unhindered, they would have had a chance at life after receiving proper medical care; since the ambulance was hindered, they didn't get that care and died as a result.) I'll take the certainty of life for that pedestrian if they weren't hit by a human driver over the "chance at life" that would have come from quicker medical care.
- spondylosaurus 3y agoBut they were hit by a human driver. 42,939 people were struck and killed by human drivers. So in these present circumstances, delaying ambulance care (which is the immediate, not-hypothetical question here) is inexcusable.