
Should a self-driving car kill the baby or the grandma? Depends on where you’re - SgtJohnKeel
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612341/a-global-ethics-study-aims-to-help-ai-solve-the-self-driving-trolley-problem/
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jppope
there's no reason a self driving car has to kill anyone. The trolley problem
should not exist for self driving vehicles anymore than it needs to exist for
airplanes.

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JoeAltmaier
Nonsense. The instant there's somebody running into the street, too close for
the car to stop, it has to hit them or dodge. Dodging off the road could kill
passengers (hit a telephone pole) or somebody on the sidewalk. The very first
day, self-driving software has to make this decision.

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smt88
The vehicle would likely do what a human would do: slam on the breaks.

Also, it has no way of knowing whether anyone would die.

And, finally, a good-enough car should see people from much farther away than
a human, react faster, and drive slower (at the speed limit). That means
someone would almost literally have to jump in front of the car to trigger
this scenario.

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JoeAltmaier
All wishful thinking. A self-driving car has no better brakes than an ordinary
one. The problem statement says they run into the street _too close to stop_ ,
so seeing them from further away is irrelevant. Lastly the whole issue is,
should a self-driving car _ever_ leave the roadway to preserve a life,
precisely because it doesn't know if that could be worse.

This software choice, again, has already been made in existing self-driving
vehicles. It remains to be seen if the choice holds up in court, since the
first lawsuit will set a precedent for all others.

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qbrass
The brakes themselves are no better, you can save time by removing the input
lag between the driver and the controls. There's 20 feet of braking saved by
not having to move your foot from the floor to the pedal.

Also the car can signal it's intent to the steering, braking, and throttle
instead of the car having to guess at what the driver is doing from their
inputs. A car knowing it has to swerve around something can react sooner and
differently than if it has to guess that it's swerving around something.

