GM seeks US approval to deploy self-driving car without a steering wheela | Hacker News Reader

GM seeks US approval to deploy self-driving car without a steering wheela

arstechnica.com

8 pointsdzdt4 comments

This scares me. Self-driving vehicles should be able to (and can be to date) be controlled by a human driver. This presents a couple of issues:

1. The car is now under the complete control of a computer - not a human driver. There are only a limited number of things the passengers can do to stop the vehicle or improve their situation in case of an incident.

2. It _requires_ a computer to make complex moral decisions about the safety of the passengers, dictated by the preferences/views/biases of the manufacturer/regulators.

It seems that we have crossed the line between "should technology solve this issue" and "could technology solve this issue".

I'm curious and the article does not mention -- because there is no driver, does that mean GM is at fault for accidents and traffic violations? This avoids the Tesla loophole where a driver needs to be there to take control at any moment.

Interesting point. It would present a couple of legal issues, pending the first speeding ticket made out to GM.

I think Tesla has it right with their implementation of self-driving capabilities - a human is present and logically fully responsible for the vehicle at all times.

Although your points have merit, I don’t think they’re relevant to this specific situation. This is a limited-run vehicle specifically for the purpose of providing a driverless taxi service. If we look at Waymo’s competing service in Arizona, we see that passengers sit in the back, where they don’t have access to the car’s controls either. Both your points apply equally to that situation, even though the cars have a normal steering wheel and driver’s seat. So what you’re really arguing against is driverless taxi services in general, not this vehicle.

As a point against this specific vehicle: Waymo’s vehicles occasionally get “stuck” and have to be recovered manually. (Waymo dispatches a driver who comes and takes over the car.) How does Cruise plan to deal with situations requiring manual intervention, where remote labeling and pathfinding isn’t enough?

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