[LINK] Robot cars and the fear gap

[Brendan]

On 07/14/2016 02:38 PM, Jim Birch wrote:
> 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.

I'm just saying a lower overall rate of injury/fatality isn't the only
issue to be considered.

If the improvement was marginal, then I would guess it would be preferable for
high risk groups to use driverless cars, but other groups not to.

If the improvement was overwhelming, that's a different story.