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by carapace 3055 days ago
Do you think self-driving car[0] manufacturers should be allowed to compete on safety, in the sense that if one comes up with some sort of software "seatbelt" of some kind should that company be allowed to prevent others from using it? I should go look up how actual seatbelts and airbags became standard in (almost) all cars...

[0] Can we please call them "auto-autos"?
1 comments
brainfish 3055 days ago
In the case of the 3-point seatbelt, a Volvo engineer invented it and Volvo received the patent, then made it available to other manufacturers at no cost.[0] While that is a great precedent I don't believe it's any kind of requirement.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seat_belt

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Johnny555 3055 days ago
Making it a requirement would be a double-edged sword -- on the one hand, companies would share safety features, but on the other hand, they'd have much less incentive to develop new safety features if they had to give them to competitors at no cost.

Perhaps some sort of compulsory licensing would be better.

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