[Shitty-kitty]

Each human is different so we treat them as separate entities. Machines, by design are cookie-cutter copies. If one Waymo did something horribly stupid, then all Waymos would have done that exact same thing in that situation.

[no-name-here]

Isn't that a point in favor of the automated cars, that we can then fix/prevent that behavior for every single car from that point forward, whereas with humans, we can't and don't patch every human driver whenever a human does something horribly stupid - and a massive number of human drivers do horribly stupid things every single day, right?

[Shitty-kitty]

The point is because they are all identical they should not be compared to the "average," a pool of good and bad drivers but rather good drivers alone. Unless you mandate "no more humans on the road" is is not the speed-daemons and lane-cutters that will choose automated cars.

[clemailacct1]

Humans learn from mistakes and feel the repercussions. We understand this starting from when we’re infants.

[no-name-here]

The 1 individual human might learn from their horrible mistake, but not the other x billion humans (nor the many people every minute who drive for the first time).

And even the 1 human who made the mistake might forget it after some years, or make the same mistake again as they become elderly, etc.

[audunf]

Exactly. And that’s why automation tech should be better than humans before widespread adoption.

My experience from scaling products in very different areas (consumer tech, large public infrastructure, internet): That occasional hiccup during small-scale trials looks very different with hundreds or millions of units.

[xnx]

> automation tech should be better than humans before widespread adoption

How much better?

From the article: "Waymo’s vehicles have been involved in 94% fewer crashes that cause serious injury or worse than human drivers on the same roads."

The longer safe autonomous vehicles are obstructed through legislation, the more people die.

[audunf]

I think those are Waymo’s numbers. They might be a bit biased? :)

https://www.thestreet.com/technology/waymo-exec-admits-harsh...

Maybe autonomous vehicles need to work so well that practically everyone agrees they’re a good idea?

Anecdotal, but I’ve owned a couple of cars with assistive/“self-driving” - including Tesla’s. I can’t count the number of times I’ve had to take over.