[echelon]

> It is sad that automated cars are being asked to detect emergency vehicles at all.

No it's not. Emergency vehicles have priority. Every other driver is licensed to use the road system if they defer to the right of way of emergency vehicles. That is a privilege that can be revoked.

> A system that signals the location of any actively flashing vehicles to all nearby automated cars is technically achievable.

And costly. Instead of putting the cost burden on public institutions and emergency services, perhaps this should be incumbent upon the driverless car corporations. Additionally, these systems will fail and the driverless cars will need to detect these vehicles though additional means.

> It should have been one of the first steps in the development of any of this technology.

This is a hard problem. There are so many things that require solving.

> Unfortunately it requires careful coordination between many different entities so it hasn't happened.

And money. Lots of money.