[LINK] Google's Driverless Car Is Worth Trillions

[Kim Holburn]

On 2013/Jan/28, at 5:09 PM, Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote:

> On 28/01/2013 4:13 PM, Richard Chirgwin wrote:
>> Or the social / behavioural.
>> 
>> "I can't be bothered parking, I'll send the driverless 7-liter 4WD
>> around the block until I'm finished."
> 
> I wonder who is responsible for the behaviour of a passenger-less car?

Who is responsible for a driverless car being driven while the passengers are in the back watching a movie - or - a bunch of children are in the back watching a movie?

> Damn, that's started me wondering again.
> 
> Would a driverless car be required to recognise and respond 
> automatically to police and other empowered authorities?

I think you can walk in front of them and they stop.

> Will the police etc be given systems to override the driverless car's 
> internal systems? If they do and an accident happens who is responsible?
> 
> Who pays for such override systems?

Google's car is hooked into the internet at all times.  Good?  Bad?  

> Will they need to be standardised across all manufacturers?

Only Microsoft cars on Microsoft roads, sort of thing?

> Would it be better to always have a responsible driver ready to take over?

It's like that old law that you must have someone someone walking in front of every horseless carriage with a red flag.
 
> How would you stop them losing attention or falling asleep? Give them 
> something to do? How about they drive? Throw out all that automatic 
> stuff and the car would be lighter and cheaper.

If you read the article, they said (and I'm not saying I agree with this) that if there were no accidents, cars wouldn't need to be packed with safety equipment and could be much lighter, made of plastic perhaps. 


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Kim Holburn
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