[LINK] Creating safer self-driving e-vehicle road lanes?

David dlochrin at aussiebb.com.au
Fri Oct 7 11:38:35 AEDT 2022


On 5/10/22 17:01, Kim Holburn wrote:
>> If a driver "intentionally" disables the system when they start the 
>> car, then that particular driver accepts legal responsibility 
>> for so doing because the system resets when the car is switched off.
> Since many cars don't have this technology, it's effectively switched 
> off, so I don't see the legal argument holds water
In the event of an serious accident where the vehicle initiating the 
incident doesn't have the technology, the whole technology issue is 
clearly irrelevant.

But if the vehicle does have the technology, whether or not it was 
disabled may well become an issue.  For example, where two people drive 
a car and one likes collision-avoidance on but the other prefers it off, 
it's easy to imagine a situation where the "off" driver gets into an 
emergency situation without realising collision-avoidance is "on" and an 
accident occurs while they're fighting the computer.  This risk can be 
minimised by always starting the car in a known state ("on") so the 
"off" driver gets into the habit of disabling it when they start the car.

And of course the manufacturer's reputation is at stake too.

Some years ago a Linker described the experience of a friend whose SUV 
had a habit of suddenly stopping in (110kph ?) traffic, apparently due 
to some design flaw in the collision avoidance / braking technology.  If 
a serious accident resulted, who or what was in charge of the vehicle 
would be the primary issue.

Cheers,
David Lochrin


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