[micromacrofoot]

no way, most people have some incentive to avoid murdering another, because it will likely ruin or severely interrupt their lives - a robotaxi killing someone will result in an insurance payout, the company won’t even be shut down

[rob74]

Drivers who kill pedestrians or cyclists don't consciously decide to murder them (at least not in 99.99% of cases), they do it out of negligence - opening a door without looking into the mirror, turning right at an intersection without looking for pedestrians or cyclists, not stopping at pedestrian crossings etc. etc.

[micromacrofoot]

I'll rephrase, humans have some incentive to avoid negligence despite being imperfect and occasionally being negligent anyway. Robotaxis are imperfect and have no such incentives.

[onlyrealcuzzo]

At least in Chicago - if you kill some cycling and it's an accident - it's just an insurance payout. You don't even lose points on your license.

Unless you literally run someone over intentionally - you won't even lose your license. And if you do that, I bet you wouldn't even go to jail most of the time.

Can't tell you the amount of cyclists I know that have been hit by cars (and myself) and I don't know a single driver that had any real consequences (beside their insurance paying out a tiny sum that doesn't even cover half of your damages).

Not to mention, it's quite common for cyclists to get hit by cars and they hit and run (just happened to me a couple of months ago). Can't do anything if you don't have a full match on the plates. And even if you do have the plates - despite the fact that a hit & run is a pretty big deal if you hit a car - if you hit a cyclist - at least according to the police officer I filed a report with - the driver is unlikely to lose points - and almost certainly wouldn't lose their license. I could be entirely wrong - hopefully someone will correct me if so.

With Robo Taxis - no chance of that. The company will know which car was there when you got hit.

[micromacrofoot]

And knowing which robot hit you will somehow make you more alive? Computers are all of the mistakes borne from humanity free from any sort of ethical reasoning.

I'd trust a drunk person more than a malfunctioning computer, personally.

[onlyrealcuzzo]

Despite what you might think, cyclists get hit a shocking amount and rarely die.

I'd rather there be Waymo on the road than drunks.

And it's honestly shocking the ignorance on here these days that so many people refuse to look at stats with overwhelming evidence Waymo is safer than average drivers significantly, and would blow drunks out of the water by a massive margin.

[micromacrofoot]

You think it's shocking that people who work on computers all day don't trust computers?

Waymo isn't magic, it's just making driving a series of decisions made by programmers.

[cameronh90]

We know from decades of safety research that threatening to ruin people's lives doesn't prevent accidents. All it does is make people lie about why the accident happened.

[micromacrofoot]

If there were no consequences for running someone over... a lot more people would get run over. I don't think we need much research for this.

If a robotaxi runs someone over, there's no one at the wheel to be held accountable... and the company has many incentives and resources to lie.

[adolph]

It's an ouroboros of perverse incentives: too much and people will lie, cheat and fail to stop and give aide; too little and people don't care.