The present of autonomous vehicles is replicating the past of the automobile: Toys of the rich, released onto the street,without regulation and limitation, killing people. And leaving the survivors without legal recourse.
Funny, if I accidentally kill someone with a hammer, it's manslaughter. But if I accidentally kill someone with a car, it's not. That's not by accident--laws were changed to hold drivers harmless. And today, laws are being changed to hold autonomous vehicles harmless.
This is contrary to every human idea of justice. You can go back 5000 years, to Babylon and Ur, and read the CLAY TABLETS of laws, saying if your horse ran down someones child, you are responsible for it. Ownership implies control, control implies responsibility.
Some will argue that car crashes are accidents--unforseeable, unpreventable mishaps. You know what causes most crashes? SPEED. I've looked at the accident statistics, and the number of times that the officer cites speed as one of the causal factors runs about 75% of the time. (Most of the rest of the time being 'weather', which is another way of saying someone was driving too fast for the roadway conditions). So it's not an accident--it's reckless behavior on the part of drivers. Yet everyone speeds, so speeding seems reasonable. Everybody does it. But it contributes to people dying as much or more than drunk driving does.
Personally, I blame the built environment. I find myself speeding all the time. Because the roads are built for it. Long, straight roads, with wide lines, clear sight lines. All an accident, a misapplication of design guidelines for rural highways to urban streets, when cities coveted the enormous subsidy the Federal government was providing for highways (90% of the cost--you spend $1, and the Feds give you $9).
Funny, if I accidentally kill someone with a hammer, it's manslaughter. But if I accidentally kill someone with a car, it's not. That's not by accident--laws were changed to hold drivers harmless. And today, laws are being changed to hold autonomous vehicles harmless.
This is contrary to every human idea of justice. You can go back 5000 years, to Babylon and Ur, and read the CLAY TABLETS of laws, saying if your horse ran down someones child, you are responsible for it. Ownership implies control, control implies responsibility.
Some will argue that car crashes are accidents--unforseeable, unpreventable mishaps. You know what causes most crashes? SPEED. I've looked at the accident statistics, and the number of times that the officer cites speed as one of the causal factors runs about 75% of the time. (Most of the rest of the time being 'weather', which is another way of saying someone was driving too fast for the roadway conditions). So it's not an accident--it's reckless behavior on the part of drivers. Yet everyone speeds, so speeding seems reasonable. Everybody does it. But it contributes to people dying as much or more than drunk driving does.
Personally, I blame the built environment. I find myself speeding all the time. Because the roads are built for it. Long, straight roads, with wide lines, clear sight lines. All an accident, a misapplication of design guidelines for rural highways to urban streets, when cities coveted the enormous subsidy the Federal government was providing for highways (90% of the cost--you spend $1, and the Feds give you $9).
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