“Self-driven/Autonomous car hits bus “

This is a headline that is not unexpected; accident happens, and whatever the hype, the autonomous vehicles are still at testing stage.  

“Google said the crash took place in Mountain View on Feb. 14 when a self-driving Lexus RX450h sought to get around some sandbags in a wide lane… The vehicle and the test driver believed the bus would slow or allow the Google (autonomous vehicle) to continue…But three seconds later, as the Google car in autonomous mode re-entered the center of the lane, it struck the side of the bus”

However, “our test driver believed the bus was going to slow or stop to allow us to merge into the traffic”; hence google agreed that they “clearly bear some responsibility”.

But what is, to me, scary is what google has learnt from the accident: “From now on, our cars will more deeply understand that buses (and other large vehicles) are less likely to yield to us than other types of vehicles”. It sounds like the algorithm will understand the type of vehicle approaching and allocate a different probability of the in-coming vehicle slowing down depending on the vehicle type/size. 

To me that’s not a brilliant idea.

I do not think it’s called safe driving, nor courteous driving, to cause an incoming vehicle to slow down to avoid an accident with you. Instead, you should at most assume the incoming vehicle will not accelerate and entering its lane will be safe for both vehicles (and their occupants). 

Assuming the incoming vehicle will slow down is a recipe for accidents. Refining that assumption based on the size of the incoming vehicle will only encourage people to buy larger vehicles.

This brings me to another question: who bears responsibility for vehicular accidents involving autonomous vehicles, especially one autonomous vehicle and one ‘traditional” human driven vehicle? Will the AI provider pick the tab? In this case it’s certainly based on a decision by the AI. 

So if this happens when autonomous vehicles are in production not just testing, who will pick the tab? If it is say google, would an individual (or an insurance company) try to sue google or would it just settle? In that case, would we end up with a two speed justice system?

I think there is a lot of potential in autonomous vehicles, but more thought has to be put in the legislation and implications (especially in the insurance domain because accidents will happen) around it, and we have to be very careful about what is being tweaked in the models of the autonomous drivers, about the behaviours we are creating.

At the risk of sounding like the NRA: “It’s not the technology, it’s the people using the technology.”

Source article:

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-google-selfdrivingcar-idUSKCN0W22DG