Or worse. This opens up a whole new can of worms: a hostile/violent party that would actively prey on or attack a self-driving car, through attempting to run a self-driving car off the road, or shooting at a self-driving car. In an emergency situation such as this, what is the contingency plan here? Are the passengers at the mercy of the attacker? Or, in what seems like a ludicrous science-fiction scenario, does the self-driving car go into an evasive mode to evade the attacker and protect the passengers?
This seems very concerning — I’ve never heard of Waymo or Cruise addressing the very real issue of a human being in another car acting violently against the self-driving car and its passengers. We don’t live in a utopia. As much as the XKCD comic downplays the threat, it is that small percentage that is more than enough of a problem. How do self-driving cars handle a life-threatening situation like this against its passengers?
