Quote:
Originally Posted by MalibuBimmer
Quote:
Originally Posted by glennQNYC
Actually the report I linked to above addressed this exact question. Their findings are different than your opinion. They found that consumer expectations are that autonomous vehicles are far safer than a human driver. You can even see that flawed viewpoint expressed right in this thread! The report warns that manufacturers need to set realistic expectations for autonomous driving systems to help curb lawsuits.
From the report: [car makers promise accident-free vehicles]
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I don't think the report addresses the philosophical question I raised which is the level of proficiency leading to acceptance.
What's interesting in the quotes you've provided from manufacturers (for some reason I can't add them to my post) is that manufacturers see the trap as well. Autonomy will never be able to prevent all accidents, but in the future when we have true autonomy when there are accidents or collisions automobile manufacturers rather than drivers will be on the chopping block. So manufacturers will want to push the myth that their cars are 100% accident free. If an accident occurs, it's an Act of God. |
I think the debate in this thread is about whether the technology malfunctioned in a way that a human might not. Some think there was no avoiding a collision regardless of who or what was driving. Others aren't so sure and suggest perhaps an attentive human driver could have avoided the crash. That point is debatable. Unless I missed it, I don't think anyone suggested that there is clearly no way a human could have avoided the crash, but the autonomous car clearly should have avoided it nonetheless.
With that said, I think we would all agree that if the safety standard is equal to that of a human driver, it needs to be set to an attentive human driver following traffic laws, not the average driver. Even then, to your point, that isn't much of a "selling point" to the public. Most logically expect an improvement in safety based on hundreds of billions in R&D and infrastructure needs to support safe autonomous driving, as well as societal changes that will result from autonomous vehicles. There needs to be a reason to support change and human nature is to avoid loss of control unless it is pretty clearly safer.