Comment by danielmorozoff | Hacker News Reader

Comment by danielmorozoff | Hacker News Reader

The tesla incident highlights the exact technical/ethical problems of using such systems. I was just at a conference speaking with the Google automated car team and the handoff problem is yet to be solved conceptually. The tesla accident is just a first example of it. Obviously the utility of an autopilot system becomes questionable if you can't guarantee safety. It's very similar to medical advances in this way. 1% errors is not a good error rate if it leads to death or serious injury even though such error rates for autonomous systems are remarkable.

That said , if we look at the statistical likelihood of death in a car autonomous systems may very well be much better than humans, but whether we as a society are ethically okay with coming to terms with a piece of software that kills 1 / 100M is another question. A drunk driver that kills someone or themselves is obviously to blame. In this case who's fault is it? The drivers , tesla or the safety board for allowing autopilots to be sold?

"In this case who's fault is it? The drivers , tesla or the safety board for allowing autopilots to be sold?"

Obviously the insurance. In Europe you need to have insurance to pay whenever is your fault.

With autopilot the only difference will be that the event of having an accident will be less probable. This means that paying the normal driver fee the insurance company will be making money if you autodrive.

But most of the time the fault will be on the other side, because the autopilot is not going to drive like a drunk or slept person. It will be deer or dogs or children on the road when they should not be there.

I wouldn't be so quick to say insurance companies would pick up the tab. I don't know which country you're from but in the us getting insurance companies to pay for a claim is very hard and until a set of laws are established I would expect dramatic pushback from them. Furthermore in most accidents insurance companies try to seek out the party at fault if it's not crystal clear to avoid paying.

But an interesting situation would occur if the incentives from the insurance companies would be directed towards automated driving because of reduced risks and costs to the driver. That would be an interesting scenario

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