[lda]

The article outlines some (current) limitations in the car's judgement when evaluating the dangerosity of an object ahead. If/when this becomes mainstream, how long until pranksters and terrorists find ways to leverage limitations and cause accidents?

[majormajor]

Is causing accidents in self-driving cars going to be any more a target than causing accidents in human-driven cars? Seems you could already wreak a lot of havoc with rush-hour traffic if you really wanted to. Blinding/distracting drivers, obstacles, maybe little bombs?

[protomyth]

Well, since self-driving cars are new and don't have the protection of an earlier history of precedents, then yes, they will be much bigger legal targets. The whole overblown spontaneous acceleration incidents would be a good pointer.

[Estragon]

Driverless trucks with no passengers will totally be targets for vandalism and theft.

[olalonde]

That's an interesting thought. Driverless cars could also be used for targeted assassinations by provoking deadly accidents. Of course, it can be done with regular cars except that whoever causes the accident has to be willing to put his life on the line.

[martindale]

In theory, accidents provoked by these cars would be standouts in a history of safety.