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Comment by jfoster | Hacker News Reader

> I wondered what would happen if I touched the wheel, so I grabbed it as the Waymo merged from one lane to another. The car ignored me and drove on.

Surprised they admit to this, considering earlier in the article they mention being instructed not to touch the wheel.

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It’s a good thing to test as a reporter. There are too many people for at least one person not to do something dumb, or fall onto while doing something dumb, so it’s good to know nothing would happen.

Disagreed. They were clearly told not to do that and didn't follow their directions. It sounds like a potential safety hazard to me.

They could just have reported what you said - they were told not to touch the wheel, and are concerned that in reality this could be a problem because there are too many people for at least one person not to do something dumb, or fall onto while doing something dumb etc.

If there are self driving cars on the road with a "press here to instantly cause an accident" widget fixed to the dash it's a problem regardless. Testing involves trying out exceptional inputs to find out how the system responds.

And if that were the case and someone did it, journalists would get plenty of opportunity to get in on that story. They don't have to be the first to trigger every failure mode.

If you dive over the seat in a Lyft to grab the wheel and yank it on the freeway, it's going to get pretty interesting, too.

It's an already-extent but not frequent threat. The main difference is a change in the amount of social pressure to not do this. That change probably makes it worth exploring a little.

If Waymo chooses, those steering actuators have enough oomph to always win.

I don't think the difference is social pressure, I think the difference is understanding of cause and effect. I know exactly what will happen if I grab the wheel while my friend is driving. If this journalist didn't try it, I would not know how the self driving car would respond here.

Would it stop self steering and let me take over? Will it overpower me by force? Will it resist me but let me overpower it if I try hard enough?

All of these outcomes seem to have legitimate arguments for them from a system design perspective.

Disagree on what? What angle is this from? Their bosses? The police? As a reader of journalism, I appreciate that they tested this edge case. I am not responsible for their safety, and as autonomous adults I trust they know what they're getting themselves into.

That did cross my mind, but how far should they really take it? Should they also deflate a tire to see how the vehicle responds to that?

Now that you mention it, I'm really curious if it could correct it's steering enough to stay in the lane with a deflated tire

Yeah, many failure modes would be interesting. If Waymo think they've handled them well, maybe they should let some journalists have at it on a car or two.

I'm pretty sure it would detect the flat tire, alert a technician, and refuse to move.

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