@scoot 163279 wrote:
Yes, our current mix of drivers has set an incredibly low bar for self-driving cars to clear. But I’d implicate our milquetoast licensing and traffic violence justice system rather than the cars themselves.
How many of these deaths could be prevented if we held drivers fully responsible for their actions? Is a self-driving car safer than an attentive sober driver who is genuinely more concerned about safety than being two minutes late?
Honestly, none of that matters: we live in this reality, where 200+ million americans think they have a god-given right to drive as fast as they want without paying attention to what’s in front of them, not an alternate reality in which we have 200+ million attentive sober drivers concerned about others. Self driving cars are the only foreseeable path toward streets which are safe for cyclists & pedestrians, because you can’t fix 200 million peoples’ ingrained bad habits. (And no, those people aren’t going to sign up for being held responsible for they way they drive.)