Software Now Counts as a Legal Driver
 

How does a cop get an autonomous car to pull over?

How does the autonomous car know where to pull over?

How does the cop ask the autonomous car any questions?

How does a cop write an autonomous car a ticket?

Does an autonomous car have to show up in court?

How will a cop determine if the car was in control or the person in the car?

Ok, maybe I'm being a bit over the top, but this is going to change everything...


NHTSA Says Google's Autonomous Car Software Counts as a Driver Now

The Feds are ready to consider the software, not the human, as the primary operator of a vehicle.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration handed Alphabet (aka Google) a key decision: it told the company that driverless cars could themselves be counted as drivers, paving the way for the emerging technology to hit the highway pavement, according to a Reuters report.

Read the entire story here:
Driverless Cars Get a License from the Federal Government

If it gets hacked and does ???? who is responsible?

There is still alot to figure out and will be interesting to watch. If it gets idiots who don't really want to drive off the road and I can still drive my own car that would be a good thing.

The NHTSA evaluation applies only to vehicles operated by software that have no steering wheel or brake pedal override for a driver to take control. Therfore, ther is no question of control: it must be the software. If the software obeys all laws, there's no reason to pull it over because it will not violate any law.

So that means no pushing it 5 or 9 mph above the posted speed limit. Even when passing. And no option to ever take control. And hence no chance of doing anything other than what the software is programmed to do.

As my 28-yo daughter said, "F-that! What's the point of even having a car? You might as well ride the bus."

I have no doubt we will be at the point of mandatory driverless cars in less than 20 years because a) they will be safer and more efficient than humans; b) hand-wringing utopians will demand the safety; c) Some politicians will ram through this control to "preserve lives"; and d) most (except the Jakes) of the Millennials will be too frightened or bored to drive themselves.

We are becoming the Eloi.

I won't overtly make this post a political plug for or against any party, but anybody with common sense and a will to think can see the implications of this future to be aligned with those who will promise anything to help anybody for free.

DBear

If you cut off or not let an autonomous car merge, will it give you the finger? That's probably how judgment day is going to start. Some human driver's going to honk at an autonomous car and some circuit's going to snap inside it. Next thing you know, cars are driving people off cliffs.
All jokes aside, if cops can't write tickets because no one's breaking the law. There'll be less law enforcement around. There's good and bad implications if that happens.

If there were no traffic laws to enforce, cops could go back to focusing on other things. A lot more man power could be dedicated to the dangerous drug trade and manufacture(Ala methamphetamine). I think there'd be as many cops around, you'd just see man power being shifted and strengthened in other divisions to help stop other problems. I still see that being a long way off.

Cops?? What would you need cops for??? Cops might be at the precinct flying drones. An infraction would simply be documented on GPS then reviewed for detail on the local traffic camera, which are already everywhere. Ticket sent immediately by email, computers are never wrong, right?

So if the software counts as a driver and you're riding along, can your car drive in the car pool lane?

HAL 9000 has feelings.