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by vannevar 3183 days ago
Fully driverless cars are here today, for that matter. But if you want want tamperproof driverless cars that perform well under adverse conditions and are thoroughly tested, then you're going to have to wait a lot longer than "months".

I think this snippet is pretty telling: "Waymo chose the Phoenix area for its favorable weather, its wide, well-maintained streets, and the relative lack of pedestrians." (Emphasis mine.) Probably wise, but I'm sure they've already carefully calculated the risk/return vs pedestrian fatalities and are coming out ahead.

1 comments

How could a driverless car ever truly be tamperproof, though? At some point we'll just have to accept it as a potential risk.
Good question. Tamperproof to me means they can't physically be spooked into doing things, as well as being secure from hacking. In theory, they just have to be as safe as human drivers, who manage to kill thousands of people each year. But as a practical matter, people will probably demand that they be much safer than humans. And it will take awhile to prove that out.