[LINK] Robot cars and the fear gap

[Jim Birch]

On 14 July 2016 at 13:50, Brendan <brendansweb at optusnet.com.au> wrote:

>
> Presumably, driverless cars are going to disproportionately remove drunks,
> suicides and young men from the accident statistics.


That's true, but those drivers often hit other random people too.  And
people who aren't in the highest risk categories also have accidents and
also kill and injure other people.  The trolley problem is only a problem
while accidents are occurring.  Most accidents wouldn't occur if drivers
drove appropriately and remained alert.  If you're trying to scrape out of
an accident situation with minimum carnage you have already failed.

It seems to me that a near-zero RTA rate is possible in the medium term.
Robotic driving systems can be continuously improved; we can't be improved
that much, have fickle attention and resent being told what to do.  I
imagine that in 50 years or so, people will look back on our road systems
with as we look on the open drains of early industrial cities, a crazy
destructive waste with an obvious solution.

Jim