[lxgr]

Isn't everybody in NYC already? (The dangers of bad driving are much higher for pedestrians than for people in cars; there are more of the former than of the latter in NYC; I'd expect there to be a non-zero number of fully self driving cars already in the city.)

[rockskon]

That doesn't answer my question.

[9dev]

It does, in a way; AI is already there, all around you, whether you like it or not. Technological progress is Pandora’s box; you can’t take it back or slow it down. Businesses will use AI for critical workflows, and all good that they bring, and all bad too, will happen.

[rockskon]

How about you answer my question since he did not.

Would you trust your life to a self-driving car in New York City traffic?

[lxgr]

GP got it exactly right: I already am. There's no way for me to opt out of having self-driving cars on the streets I regularly cross as a pedestrian.

[rockskon]

Do you live in a dense city like New York City or San Francisco? Or places with less urban sprawl that are much easier for self-driving cars to navigate?

Also you still haven't answered my question.

Would you get in a self-driving car in a dense urban environment such as New York City? I'm not asking if such vehicles exist on the road.

And related questions: Would you get in one such car if you had alternatives? Would you opt to be in such a car instead of one driven by a person or by yourself?

[lxgr]

> Would you get in a self-driving car in a dense urban environment such as New York City? [...] Would you get in one such car if you had alternatives?

I fortunately do have alternatives and accordingly mostly don't take cars at all.

But given the necessity/opportunity: Definitely. Being in a car, even (or especially) with a dubious driver, is much safer (at NYC traffic speeds) than being a pedestrian sharing the road with it.

And that's my entire point: Self-driving cars, like cars in general, are potentially a much larger danger to others (cyclists, pedestrians) than they are to their passengers.

That said, I don't especially distrust the self-driving kind – I've tried Waymo before and felt like it handled tricky situations at least as well as some Uber or Lyft drivers I've had before. They seem to have a lot more precision equipment than camera-only based Teslas, though.

[dalyons]

Yes? I’ve taken many many waymos in SF. Perfectly happy trusting my life to them. I have alternatives (uber) and I pick self driving . Are you up to date on how many rides they’ve done in sf now? I am not unusual

[ishtanbul]

I would

[chefandy]

If there are any fully-autonomous cars on the streets of nyc, there aren’t many of them and I don’t think there’s any way for them to operate legally. There has been discussion about having a trial.