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by PaulDavisThe1st 1541 days ago
> There is a clear difference between open sourcing Twitter's algorithm that promotes certain tweets over others and Tesla's IP.

Given that the IP in question includes whatever solution Tesla adopts for the trolley problem, there certainly is a clear difference. Twitter's algorithm is for arguing about, Tesla's algorithm is going to be directly the cause of death for someone (arguably, it already has).
1 comments
astrange 1541 days ago
The "trolley problem" isn't real, cars have brakes.
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PaulDavisThe1st 1541 days ago
You cannot be serious.
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astrange 1541 days ago
I am serious and any self-driving car engineer would agree with me. (I got this opinion from an AI lawyer at such a company.)

The truth is the opposite - not only will cars never make a "trolley problem" decision (because the only thing they should be doing is braking), it would be immoral to give them the capability, because it might decide it's in a trolley-problem scenario at the wrong time and randomly decide to sacrifice you.

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JoeAltmaier 1541 days ago
I agree braking should be the default. But if any self-driving car out there steers to avoid collision, then it is already facing the 'trolley problem'.

In fact self-driving cars normally change lanes as part of their path finding. So a failure to change lanes in an emergency would be unusual.

Disagreement over the correct behavior will result in lawsuits of course. "It should have attempted to miss me!" vs "It should have stayed in it's lane!"

We'll need legislation to settle this, for insurance purposes at the very least.

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astrange 1541 days ago
It shouldn't do what's correct, but rather what's predictable. Anything else is less safe for other people around it.

If the brakes turn out not to work, that is quite the problem, but hopefully it'll notice in time to not accelerate in the first place. Maybe it can still engine brake.

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PaulDavisThe1st 1541 days ago
Apparently you don't understand the trolley problem. In the context of self-driving vehicles:

Action A: kill N people, including occupant

Action B: kill M people, not including occupant

Both pathways are predictable. Which one do you choose?

ps. solve for: N == M, N > M, N < M

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