The self-driving cars that could soon dominate our roads, perhaps even making human-driven ones illegal some day, could end up being programmed to kill you if it means saving a larger number of lives.
The self-driving cars that could soon dominate our roads, perhaps even making human-driven ones illegal some day, could end up being programmed to kill you if it means saving a larger number of lives.
But humans are not allowed to make economic decisions involving life and death. It is costing car companies maybe $35 billion in recalls because air bags caused the deaths of 5 people. That would be 5 deaths out of over 30,000 deaths annually in the US from traffic accidents, but it’s too many.
No need to worry about this. The deaths caused by poor software design, bugs and deliberate hacking will far outnumber the 5 > 1 moral dilema scenarios.
I’d worry more about the NSA hijacking your car to run over a person of intrest then blaming you.
“I’d worry more about the NSA hijacking your car to run over a person of intrest then blaming you.”
Or you could be that person of interest that gets run over by your own car, or the software bug could drive your car off a bridge because NSA was interested in you.
Why would people trust government to have complete control of their cars?
When did government earn this level of trust?
Did they become transparent and accountable when I wasn’t looking?
So if you’re driving alone you would want to have ballast on each seat with the seat belts latched so the car believes it is fully loaded with five people, thus increasing the probability that the other vehicle and its occupant(s) will be sacrificed by the silicon gods.
Myself, I’m buying an indestructible Mercedes diesel from the ’80s and rustproofing it so I never have to buy another car.
I don’t think it follows that the government has any control of your car just because it’s self driving. Do they have control of aircraft when they are on auto pilot, or boats when they are using autohelm, or me when I am using a GPS to navigate on foot?
I am far from an expert in self driving cars, but I assume it uses a combination of gps to know where it is and sensors so that it stays on the road, and doesn’t hit other vehicles. It would still be totally autonomous. I suspect that you could build a robot that you put into a 1973 Ford Pinto and have the robot drive it.
One day we will have a robot that cooks our food, does our laundry, cleans the house and drives our car. It will not be so much a self driving car, as a multi purpose robot that can drive our car for us if we want it to.
I would not be as worried about the government killing me using my car and software as I would be of some twisted genius of a teenager that “Did it for the LULZ!”
Google will buy Uber.
Rather the “authorities” commandeering your car for political reasons and controlling the population. Just Say No.
“I am far from an expert in self driving cars, but I assume it uses a combination of gps to know where it is and sensors so that it stays on the road, and doesn’t hit other vehicles.”
The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a space-based satellite navigation system that provides location and time information in all weather conditions, anywhere on or near the earth where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites. The system provides critical capabilities to military, civil, and commercial users around the world. The United States government created the system, maintains it, and makes it freely accessible to anyone with a GPS receiver.
Yeah, …that United States Government.
Same government that owns and operates the NSA among other agencies.
a.k.a. Colossus: The Forbin Project
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus:_The_Forbin_Project
All GPS satellites do is send out radio signals to be used as a beacon. A GPS receiver picks up those signals and uses math to figure out where you are. It is a passive system. The satellites send out the signal all the time and if the receiver is turned on it picks up the signal, no different than an AM radio. There are no mind control rays coming out of GPS satellites.
If threatened the US has the ability to degrage the acuracy of GPS signals or even turn them off. It is likely they have other capabilities that are not publicly known.
Yes ! As your self-driving car drives you around you will be forced to watch endless Google Ads. Death by the NSA may not be so bad after all . . .
I prefer the Russian GPS satellites GLONASS versus the NSA American ones.
Oh wait!
Potential buyer to car dealer “So, is this driverless car programmed to sacrifice me if it will save others?”
LOL, I can see the lemmings lining up for those!