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That's just a dark scenario of parent's problem.

well - yeah it's pretty dark scenario... but it's an extreme example of why it's a harder problem IMO to solve than a rocket landing back on earth. You have multiple cases simple or complex where a decision must be made to either drive over a pot hole or drive into the oncoming traffic lane or off the road altogether. I'm certain a computer controlled car can make these decisions faster than a human driver, but much like a computer can typically not always judge the difference between my sarcastic comment and it's literal meaning it I would imagine have a difficult time solving these problems... maybe NP problems are solvable now?

Don't get me wrong as a parent - I am super excited that perhaps - just perhaps, my kids when they are ready to hit the road won't have to worry about learning how to drive :D and I can rest easy the other drivers won't be crazy too.

Everyone who wants to take the other side of the self driving car argument brings up stuff like this. Also they say what about icy roads and bad weather etc.

Guess what, humans also suck at this. What would YOU do? Do you hit the oncoming traffic, drive off the cliff, hit the kid? Likely the right choice is to slam on the breaks and hope for the best. That's likely the same choice the computer would make, only it will have a faster reaction time making it more likely for the kid to make it.

We kill 30,000 people a year driving. Humans suck at driving as a general rule. Will a self driving car be able to handle icy foggy roads? Probably not. And it will note that ahead of time and say dude you really shouldn't be going out in this, I can't handle it. If you want to try it, you'll have to drive yourself today.

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