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I don't always understand this POV. My current car has radar guided cruise control and auto braking - if these fail, who's responsible? Isn't auto-driving cars

I don't always understand this POV. My current car has radar guided cruise control and auto braking - if these fail, who's responsible? Isn't auto-driving cars the same thing on a larger scale?

gsnedders 11y ago
You have controls to override the car if they fail and you shouldn't be purely relying on them, so you're at fault. If you don't have any means to override them and you're expected to purely rely on them, surely you can't be at fault because what could you have done?
- trimble-alum 11y ago
  A fully-loaded, double trailer is an nearly unstoppable killing machine in traffic if it's not managed well.
- NeutronBoy 11y ago
  How do I override the automatic brakes if they decide to engage while I'm driving down the freeway?
  - gsnedders 11y ago
    I always assumed it was similar to cruise-control insofar as it can be turned off?
JumpCrisscross 11y ago
Suppose 100% of the responsibility is borne by manufacturers. How is this different from adaptive cruise control or ABS today? For one, the liability cross-section increases dramatically. In 2013, the U.S. auto insurance industry incurred $125 billion in damages [1]. With human error eliminated, this number will shrink. But it will also shift to manufacturers' balance sheets. What about insurance? Insurance works with un-correlated risks. You mowing down a pedestrian doesn't cause everyone around you to do the same. This keeps insurance companies' instantaneous expected losses manageable. Coding errors and recalls are not un-correlated. If your car has an error, so does–likely–every other car in its run. This concentrates losses and makes them difficult to insure. There are solutions. But systems will need to be built to allocate risk. [1] http://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/auto-insurance http://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/auto-insurance
- the8472 11y ago
  > Coding errors and recalls are not un-correlated. If your car has an error, so does–likely–every other car in its run. That is assuming that errors are the main cause of insurable incidents and not simply situations for which the software could not compensate beyond stepping on the brakes in the hopes of minimizing impact energy. Traffic is chaotic and not fully predictable, so there's always some baseline risk that may exceed the risk of non-catastrophic bugs.
protomyth 11y ago
Given the legal environment in the U.S. where lawsuits are going to be brought, we don't have the case law and law firms are going to go after the biggest pocketbooks. It's not a technical issue, but a social. Look at the early days of cars for a preview.

I don't always understand this POV. My current car has radar guided cruise control and auto braking - if these fail, who's responsible? Isn't auto-driving cars the same thing on a larger scale?

gsnedders 11y ago

You have controls to override the car if they fail and you shouldn't be purely relying on them, so you're at fault. If you don't have any means to override them and you're expected to purely rely on them, surely you can't be at fault because what could you have done?

trimble-alum 11y ago
A fully-loaded, double trailer is an nearly unstoppable killing machine in traffic if it's not managed well.
NeutronBoy 11y ago
How do I override the automatic brakes if they decide to engage while I'm driving down the freeway?
- gsnedders 11y ago
  I always assumed it was similar to cruise-control insofar as it can be turned off?

JumpCrisscross 11y ago

Suppose 100% of the responsibility is borne by manufacturers. How is this different from adaptive cruise control or ABS today? For one, the liability cross-section increases dramatically. In 2013, the U.S. auto insurance industry incurred $125 billion in damages [1]. With human error eliminated, this number will shrink. But it will also shift to manufacturers' balance sheets. What about insurance? Insurance works with un-correlated risks. You mowing down a pedestrian doesn't cause everyone around you to do the same. This keeps insurance companies' instantaneous expected losses manageable. Coding errors and recalls are not un-correlated. If your car has an error, so does–likely–every other car in its run. This concentrates losses and makes them difficult to insure. There are solutions. But systems will need to be built to allocate risk. [1] http://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/auto-insurance http://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/auto-insurance

the8472 11y ago
> Coding errors and recalls are not un-correlated. If your car has an error, so does–likely–every other car in its run. That is assuming that errors are the main cause of insurable incidents and not simply situations for which the software could not compensate beyond stepping on the brakes in the hopes of minimizing impact energy. Traffic is chaotic and not fully predictable, so there's always some baseline risk that may exceed the risk of non-catastrophic bugs.

protomyth 11y ago

Given the legal environment in the U.S. where lawsuits are going to be brought, we don't have the case law and law firms are going to go after the biggest pocketbooks. It's not a technical issue, but a social. Look at the early days of cars for a preview.