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Comment by saraid216 | Hacker News Reader

Is the implication here that pedestrians will simply walk into the street at random and the AIs will handle that? I find myself a little uncomfortable at the thought, and I'm fairly enthusiastic about driverless cars for most of the reasons you stated.

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Yes, that's precisely what happens. You'll be given a safe berth, with cars stopping or avoiding you by at least the distance you could conceivably fall over.

Personally that's already how I cross the street, and my confidence in human drivers isn't anywhere near so great.

Hm. There is a thing currently where it's socially unacceptable not to cross at a crosswalk, and also to stop in the middle of the road. Some people are still jerks, but they're rare.

I could easily see a bunch of kids deciding they'll go challenge the AI by dancing in the middle of a crowded street. Admittedly a millionth chance occurrence though. "Computer, take a picture, get me facial recognition, and report them to their parents."

civil disobedience will be met with ruthless violence. other than that, i have no concerns.

With human drivers you're given a notion of whether or not they've seen you (they're looking in your direction, the vehicle is slowing, they're motioning at you to cross or get out of the way, or honking at you). The situation is somewhat deterministic.

Not perfect by a long shot, but unless automatic vehicles offer some similar pedestrian signaling capability, there will be issues.

There's also the question of what happens, say, when a vehicle is surrounded by a crowd of people with ill intent. This happens:

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Motorcycle-Gang-Attack-...

>unless automatic vehicles offer some similar pedestrian signaling capability, there will be issues.

Working on it. http://www.technologyreview.com/view/427743/how-do-you-know-...

Or what happens if the vehicle is operating with malicious intent.

It is frightening to watch, but the math seems to be somewhat straighforward. http://vimeo.com/37751380

That's an interesting video. I'd quite like to know if it's being coordinated "from above", or whether the cars are making their own decisions - the latter would be rather more impressive, since I think a fully managed road system is much further off, if not an impossibility.

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