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Makes me wonder what happens if a self driving car kills somebody because of a fault on the vehicle software or hardware. Can the big corporation behind it just

Makes me wonder what happens if a self driving car kills somebody because of a fault on the vehicle software or hardware. Can the big corporation behind it just pay a fine and nobody else will get prosecuted? How do you prove that a corporation was negligent?

ghaff 2y ago
Probably. Otherwise, absent a paper trail that senior executives knew the product was unsafe and deliberately concealed it, you're chasing after junior people who made a mistake somewhere--perhaps unknowable. Drug side effects kill people all the time but, absent effects that should have been foreseen, they're considered just part of how things are.
pests 2y ago
Well, that's how it works when when humans kills others by accident. You don't go to jail, you might not even get a fine. It's just a fact of life we live with in our car-centric world. It's when negligence gets involved is whwre I have questions.
- rvnx 2y ago
  True, but only if you are a large corporation, because if you are an individual you are in deep trouble.
  - pests 2y ago
    It is not as serious as you think despite the seriousness of the topic. If it was a true accident, no negligence, etc it would be very common to get away with just a fine or a ticket, not even going to jail. We (USA) are a culture very accustomed to cars and what they impose on society. A friends relative got killed after a car lost control on an embankment turn and crashed into their living room - driver walked away unscathed and without even a ticket.
gretch 2y ago
This isn't really a new thing in our society, just because of driverless cars. Big corporations (or even small ones) kill people accidentally all the time. Like when planes or trains malfunction. Or there is a construction site accident. Oil spills. Factory fire. Mine collapse. People rarely go to jail (and I don't think they should in most cases), and a civil suit pays out victims depending on the exactly how negligent the corporation was. You can see Boeing going through this process now

ghaff 2y ago

Probably. Otherwise, absent a paper trail that senior executives knew the product was unsafe and deliberately concealed it, you're chasing after junior people who made a mistake somewhere--perhaps unknowable. Drug side effects kill people all the time but, absent effects that should have been foreseen, they're considered just part of how things are.

pests 2y ago

Well, that's how it works when when humans kills others by accident. You don't go to jail, you might not even get a fine. It's just a fact of life we live with in our car-centric world. It's when negligence gets involved is whwre I have questions.

rvnx 2y ago
True, but only if you are a large corporation, because if you are an individual you are in deep trouble.
- pests 2y ago
  It is not as serious as you think despite the seriousness of the topic. If it was a true accident, no negligence, etc it would be very common to get away with just a fine or a ticket, not even going to jail. We (USA) are a culture very accustomed to cars and what they impose on society. A friends relative got killed after a car lost control on an embankment turn and crashed into their living room - driver walked away unscathed and without even a ticket.

gretch 2y ago

This isn't really a new thing in our society, just because of driverless cars. Big corporations (or even small ones) kill people accidentally all the time. Like when planes or trains malfunction. Or there is a construction site accident. Oil spills. Factory fire. Mine collapse. People rarely go to jail (and I don't think they should in most cases), and a civil suit pays out victims depending on the exactly how negligent the corporation was. You can see Boeing going through this process now