> This was an extremely childish move that had the propensity to hurt our industry more than help it. It is incumbent upon us take safety seriously in conducting these experiments. We can't count on level heads from outside the tech industry if we aren't willing to show that we care about people's lives and their safety when we're conducting these experiments.

Agreed. I would have no problems with them doing this on a test track, closed highway, or even a quiet road at low speeds. Even if we take the best possible negative scenario—say, the car is disabled going at 25 miles an hour, the driver can't handle manual steering, and then runs into someone's fence—the insurance companies are going to throw the book at the driver when they learn that they purposefully disabled their car and engaged in dangerous behavior on a public street.

I'm all for pushing the boundaries of security research (there are people in the labs all around me right now doing crazy stuff), but at least we in the academic world get our crazy stuff signed off on by a panel of competent experts.