Comment by oaktowner | Hacker News Reader

Comment by oaktowner | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

The other thing to bear in mind: I would guess that the vast majority of accidents are caused by people not paying attention -- distracted by a phone, person, great view, or even just because they're looking the wrong direction. Cars don't do any of those things. They will always be paying attention, looking in all directions at once.

So if they eliminate all of the accidents that are caused that way, but increase the number of garden-gnome related accidents...wouldn't that be worthwhile?

Another, less flippant way to say it: yes, we can imagine scenarios in which the number of accidents will increase. But what is the relative frequency of those types of accidents compared to run-of-the-mill rear-end, red-light run, lane change due to inattentiveness?

If given a choice between changing from what you are used to which has drawbacks, to something new that has drawbacks, even if those drawbacks are markedly milder, almost everyone will choose to stick with where they already are. Consciously choosing a position which has drawbacks that you know about makes you feel personally responsible for those when they occur. That is infinitely worse than suffering the drawbacks of the "default" you stay with which you can give yourself a moral pass on because it wasn't a situation you chose to begin with.

There's also the issue of what a self-driving car could do... and what they WILL do. Much technology COULD be amazing... if companies did not function in the ways that they actually do. Because of that, technology often fails to meet any of the promises made. Development is supposed to be cheap and fast, and safety and security get left at the door. No company is held liable for such things, and it would be expensive and bothersome to fix, so they're not about to bother.

And even if the number of accidents increases: Does that increase cause greater monetary loss than the considerable cost savings of not paying drivers.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com