[dhosek]

I was thinking earlier today that self-driving automobiles would be a good use-case for a public-private venture for open source software development. My half-baked idea would be that car and computing companies could contribute their existing software to a open source consortium that would be government-sponsored, but privately run. Some fair valuation would be set for their contributions and the OSS license would require anyone using the software to contribute back their changes. Part of the funding mechanism would be that any self-driving vehicle would have a fairly high “tax” per vehicle (maybe $10K, 20K?) but that this could be prepaid by the manufacturer through software contributions. Yes, I know there are bottomless logistical issues to be worked out, but the idea being that perhaps, if everyone can see exactly what everyone else is doing we can maybe get out of the current pit of semi-working solutions that prevent true autonomous vehicles from being viable.

Or, it might end up that self-driving vehicles are an infrastructure problem and that they need dedicated roadways without incursion by non-self-driven cars. Perhaps we could set them up to run on dedicated schedules on electrified metal causeways with shared ridership.

[sva_]

Not sure if you're implying that the government is supposed to oversee/manage the development of such a project, but I think they're extraordinarily bad at such things. It isn't the role of the gov either.

> car and computing companies could contribute their existing software to a open source consortium that would be government-sponsored, but privately run.

So basically it would just be a normal company, but the government pays them? In what way should the gov decide which company to fund, and why? If it is a commercial/private company, their existence should be justified by their profits. I don't really get it.

[wmf]

In what way should the gov decide which company to fund, and why? If it is a commercial/private company, their existence should be justified by their profits.

It makes sense for the government to fund R&D that the private sector won't fund, possibly because it would be profitable for the overall economy but not for any one company. Obviously a dozen companies are already building self-driving so that doesn't apply.