Confused self-driving taxi runs away - YouTube Ok, so, the video linked to above shows 2 news items. 1. A guy sleeping while his autopilot drives his car. 2. A self-driving taxi runs away with its passenger. Now it's been a philosophical debate about who is responsible if a self-driving vehicle causes problems in traffic. Well, reality is playing out that debate in real life. A person must have their hands on the wheel and be alert to take over at any moment. It's not the car company's fault if something goes wrong with their auto-pilot system and you didn't take over. It's the driver's/person's responsibility. On the other hand, a self-driving taxi has no publically accessible controls, so I would think it would be the car company's fault. The news video above didn't say that, but the car alone is doing the driving in the taxi.
Right now there are about 1400 "self driving" cars on the road, compared to 600 self driving taxis. I predict there will be one or two very terrible accidents, and then there will start to be a huge backlash against these self driving cars, with numerous states passing laws against them. Some states might only ban the self driving taxis.
Do you find this surprising? If so, why? Technological advancements are getting more amazing every year. However, just because we can, doesn't mean we should. I honestly don't understand why anybody would put money behind this. It sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. If a woman can get several hundred thousand dollars for putting a cup of hot coffee between her legs...well, you do the math.
Well we had the prius's that went supersonic even when the driver was at the controls. New technology can be fatal. It is why most of our regulations are written in blood so to speak.
