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If it's debatable what a human should have done in a given situation, you can't really expect a computer to perform better. That said, when they sell one of th

If it's debatable what a human should have done in a given situation, you can't really expect a computer to perform better. That said, when they sell one of these things to a person, how the heck are they going to handle the insurance?

krasin 11y ago
I see no issues for a robot taxi insurance, since it could be done with the same scheme, as the current testing vehicles are insured (a large deposit to the state). Once robot taxis are everywhere, I would expect that there will be robot car rentals and robot car long-term rentals. They are also not different from the taxis; people just rent them for longer. As for real ownership, the question is unclear. Probably, it will be so rare, that a deposit will work too.
- DaFranker 11y ago
  This brings up the point I'm most looking forward to if we can get this stuff widespread: massive carpooling. Forget Uber. Get a Google-AV subscription, find the nearest "unoccupied" AV (or call for one to come pick you up, preferably scheduled in advance to it's just waiting for you when you get out), hop in, state destination, get off. Car continues on its merry way to its next duty. Repeat when you want to go back home. Much less massive waste of space involved in all those parking lots. Much less opportunity cost waste. Less total cars in existence for the same amount of travelers. It's like a public transit pass, but the bus stops are exactly where you want them, and the bus passes exactly when you need it, and you don't have to deal with that insane, smelly old guy who dances in the middle of the bus and then shakes peoples' shoulders so they give him pocket change.
danso 11y ago
No argument...I have no doubt that an automated driver will perform better than the average driver, statistically...and even more so if automated driving becomes the norm (reducing the irregular situations encountered on the road). However, I think it'll be a very, very long time until humans aren't fixated on the the instances in which a robot/algorithm messed up, while subconsciously ignoring/accepting the many human-caused accidents. In fact, one of the strengths of automated processes will be something that leads to increased scrutiny...the fact that it's easier to audit/reproduce automated behavior...any time something goes awry, we have the ability to pick it apart in minute detail, including all prior documentation. This is not the same for human-caused incidents...though we do fixate on pieces of incidental data that might exist: is there a record showing that the driver sent a text right before they crashed? Are there credit car receipts for a bar? Or, in a more extreme case, the medical history of the Germanwings pilot who is believed to have downed his plane.
enneff 11y ago
Insurance companies will love insuring these cars because they will be involved in far fewer accidents, and will have a complete log of exactly what happened so it will be easy to assign blame.
- teraflop 11y ago
  Not just that, but human drivers have a lot of "hidden variables" affecting their accident risk -- level of experience, state of mind, aggressiveness, familiarity with local roads, and so on. Insurance companies have to try to account for all of that when calculating premiums, based on a limited number of data points. With autonomous vehicles, two cars of the same model running the same software should be more or less interchangeable. So even leaving aside the number of accidents that occur, the level of uncertainty should be a lot lower.
- VikingCoder 11y ago
  A competing viewpoint: Insurance companies will hate insuring these cars because the first human fatality is absolutely going to court, and it'll be a complete circus. The media will go apeshit.
zdean 11y ago
I know the insurance question keeps coming up, but I'm not sure I understand it. The way I see it, these cars won't be released into the wild until and if they can perform on par or better than human drivers...which will require that they be able to follow the rules of the road as well as or better than human drivers. That being the case, I don't see why the insurance would be any more of a factor for the autonomous cars than for current drivers. If they fail to follow the rules of the road and cause an accident (or negligently contribute to one), they'll be on the hook and insurance will have to cover it. If not, there's no insurance liability to consider. Am I missing something that the liability would somehow be greater in an autonomous vehicle in the case of the same accident that would otherwise be caused by a human?
- Bedon292 11y ago
  I think the real question is WHO should be liable. If the car is in an accident that is for some reason deemed that car's fault. Is the passenger / owner at fault, or is the manufacturer? Will you buy a vehicle and Google be liable for the damages?
fweespeech 11y ago
> That said, when they sell one of these things to a person, how the heck are they going to handle the insurance? There will be a large fluctuation prices as data becomes available but its like insuring any other system ultimately. They calculate the odds, add in their needs, and come up with a figure. I doubt it'd be significantly different than today since all of these can be switched to manual mode.

krasin 11y ago

I see no issues for a robot taxi insurance, since it could be done with the same scheme, as the current testing vehicles are insured (a large deposit to the state). Once robot taxis are everywhere, I would expect that there will be robot car rentals and robot car long-term rentals. They are also not different from the taxis; people just rent them for longer. As for real ownership, the question is unclear. Probably, it will be so rare, that a deposit will work too.

DaFranker 11y ago
This brings up the point I'm most looking forward to if we can get this stuff widespread: massive carpooling. Forget Uber. Get a Google-AV subscription, find the nearest "unoccupied" AV (or call for one to come pick you up, preferably scheduled in advance to it's just waiting for you when you get out), hop in, state destination, get off. Car continues on its merry way to its next duty. Repeat when you want to go back home. Much less massive waste of space involved in all those parking lots. Much less opportunity cost waste. Less total cars in existence for the same amount of travelers. It's like a public transit pass, but the bus stops are exactly where you want them, and the bus passes exactly when you need it, and you don't have to deal with that insane, smelly old guy who dances in the middle of the bus and then shakes peoples' shoulders so they give him pocket change.

danso 11y ago

No argument...I have no doubt that an automated driver will perform better than the average driver, statistically...and even more so if automated driving becomes the norm (reducing the irregular situations encountered on the road). However, I think it'll be a very, very long time until humans aren't fixated on the the instances in which a robot/algorithm messed up, while subconsciously ignoring/accepting the many human-caused accidents. In fact, one of the strengths of automated processes will be something that leads to increased scrutiny...the fact that it's easier to audit/reproduce automated behavior...any time something goes awry, we have the ability to pick it apart in minute detail, including all prior documentation. This is not the same for human-caused incidents...though we do fixate on pieces of incidental data that might exist: is there a record showing that the driver sent a text right before they crashed? Are there credit car receipts for a bar? Or, in a more extreme case, the medical history of the Germanwings pilot who is believed to have downed his plane.

enneff 11y ago

Insurance companies will love insuring these cars because they will be involved in far fewer accidents, and will have a complete log of exactly what happened so it will be easy to assign blame.

teraflop 11y ago
Not just that, but human drivers have a lot of "hidden variables" affecting their accident risk -- level of experience, state of mind, aggressiveness, familiarity with local roads, and so on. Insurance companies have to try to account for all of that when calculating premiums, based on a limited number of data points. With autonomous vehicles, two cars of the same model running the same software should be more or less interchangeable. So even leaving aside the number of accidents that occur, the level of uncertainty should be a lot lower.
VikingCoder 11y ago
A competing viewpoint: Insurance companies will hate insuring these cars because the first human fatality is absolutely going to court, and it'll be a complete circus. The media will go apeshit.

zdean 11y ago

I know the insurance question keeps coming up, but I'm not sure I understand it. The way I see it, these cars won't be released into the wild until and if they can perform on par or better than human drivers...which will require that they be able to follow the rules of the road as well as or better than human drivers. That being the case, I don't see why the insurance would be any more of a factor for the autonomous cars than for current drivers. If they fail to follow the rules of the road and cause an accident (or negligently contribute to one), they'll be on the hook and insurance will have to cover it. If not, there's no insurance liability to consider. Am I missing something that the liability would somehow be greater in an autonomous vehicle in the case of the same accident that would otherwise be caused by a human?

Bedon292 11y ago
I think the real question is WHO should be liable. If the car is in an accident that is for some reason deemed that car's fault. Is the passenger / owner at fault, or is the manufacturer? Will you buy a vehicle and Google be liable for the damages?

fweespeech 11y ago

> That said, when they sell one of these things to a person, how the heck are they going to handle the insurance? There will be a large fluctuation prices as data becomes available but its like insuring any other system ultimately. They calculate the odds, add in their needs, and come up with a figure. I doubt it'd be significantly different than today since all of these can be switched to manual mode.