[LethargicStud]

> Theoretically the reputation cost would discourage for-profit organizations from releasing unsafe self-driving vehicles for testing on public roads.

This assumes that the reputation costs are comparable in weight to the acts that they commit. Based on the past year and what I hear about Uber's growth[0], I'd argue that their reputation and their valuation are quite uncorrelated, but it's hard to know the truth.

0: https://www.forbes.com/sites/miguelhelft/2017/08/23/despite-...

[scotty79]

> This assumes that the reputation costs are comparable in weight to the acts that they commit.

Rather this assumes reputation costs times risk of having those costs while undertaking some action is comparable to gain from this action.

[hndamien]

The problem for Uber is that if they lose this race, then there is no Uber. The outcome of this is that they will be willing to risk a lot in order to succeed. This seems to be collateral damage for them. Completely unsurprising as it seems they lied about running the red light in autonomous mode and the ran their program without proper licensing (and reporting). Nobody should be surprised that Uber was the first company to rack up an autonomous driving death.