It is relative. When any of us choose activities that have the potential to harm others we should take some responsibility for that decision. Whether that decision is to drive, or to occupy an autonomous vehicle, responsibility lies with the person choosing to undertake the activity that places others at risk.
I think autonomous cars possibly already are, but will certainly end up, much, much safer than human-piloted cars, but that doesn’t change the principle that we should be prepared to accept consequences.
Driving is, by far, the single activity we choose than most harms (and kills) our families, our friends, ourselves and others. Yet we often do it without any apparent regard for the potential consequences. I see this every single day.
There are mechanisms such as insurance that assist in sharing the risk across multiple parties if we, as a society, are prepared to accept the consolidated consequences as a cost of the system. The elderly and disabled should be prepared to pitch into the system by paying insurance to cover the consequences of their desire to ride around in robots, just as human drivers (inadequately) contribute now to cover the horrendous societal costs of their insistence in driving absolutely everywhere for any-and-all reasons.
I will agree that either owners of makers of self-driving cars should be obligated to insure them. If makers, they’ll pass the price on to owners. If owners, then if they’re using them as hire cares then they’ll pass the cost on to passengers. No need for an Uber passenger to take on the task of going out and buying their own policy. We’ve already settled that for human drivers - why should driverless cars differ on this?
Either mechanism works, and I agree that passengers explicitly taking out policies is perhaps not the best way forward (although travel insurance is definitely a thing). Driverless cars don’t really differ. With human-driven cars, the people undertaking the activity of driving around in them collectively bear some of the costs.
But by smoothing the costs, personal accountability that should be associated with a decision to drive is effectively removed, and this is one reason the costs are so high. If you’ve ever driven without insurance (I did for a brief period as a poverty-stricken student many years ago) you’ll know how careful that makes you, and how reluctant it makes you to drive at all.
There are mechanisms available and in place for easing the burden on disabled and elderly. We can argue the adequacy of those systems, sure.
Today, they do pitch in for insurance and to cover other costs when they either drive or take a cab, just like the rest of us. They might get some discount or rebate, and that wouldn’t change. The “elderly and disabled” argument when it comes to transport often is raised. But would they not be better served by policies that increased the better availability of transit, as well as ride sharing services? The autonomous aspect of the debate is a bit of red herring in this discussion.
I’m dubious about whether autonomous cars will ever achieve the level of safety that will be deemed necessary in the 21st Century USA.
Were they to be newly invented today, I doubt that bicycles would be deemed safe enough, much less driver-operated cars, trucks, and buses. We are of course the world’s first Nerf Civilization, where life itself is to be thickly and warmly padded for our safety.
But if self driving cars could be safely permitted on the roads, I think that would be on balance a very Good Thing. It seems clear to me that you would disagree, unless I am reading you very wrongly.
A long time ago, before I, or even my grandparents were born, the car was viewed as an intruder into the public street, and “jaywalking” was simply the normal state of affairs.
Before my grandparents were born, many people died within fifty miles of where they were born, never having traveled outside that area their entire lives.
Technically and statistically, they will easily be better than human drivers. They likely already are in a lot of circumstances. But emotionally, it is a far bigger stretch. It’s like how nuclear power, which is historically, by far the safest form of power generation ever devised, still scares the crap out of people, and the consequent ever increasing burden of redundant safety systems has now priced it out of most markets.
No, I really want to see self-driving cars succeed. Mainly as a stepping stone to far more effective shared-vehicle systems, and therefore to reduce the costs of our current stupid arrangement where cars spend 95% of their lifespan parked, often on public property.
