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U.S. House approves proposal to speed the deployment of self-driving cars

reuters.com

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Re: U.S. House approves proposal to speed the deployment of self-driving cars

#11

Post by fuhrysteve »

0xcde4c3db wrote: post #4

> Advocates hope self-driving cars can help reduce U.S. road deaths, which rose 7.7 percent in 2015, the highest annual jump since 1966. This was a news story in itself [1]. It was attributed to increased driving, encouraged by economic factors such as higher employment and lower gas prices. [1] http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/02/18/467230965/...

> attributed to increased driving, encouraged by economic factors such as higher employment and lower gas prices

Interesting - I always assumed that the increase in road deaths was at least largely due to increased cellphone usage, resulting in distracted drivers.

Re: U.S. House approves proposal to speed the deployment of self-driving cars

#12

Post by Tangurena2 »

Hmm. The section on exemptions to safety standards was pretty interesting. I wonder what brought that on.

The federal pre-emptions to state regulations was expected. States cannot have any higher standards than the federal ones, except for the vehicles that the states purchase for their own needs.

Re: U.S. House approves proposal to speed the deployment of self-driving cars

#13

Post by alxmdev »

SilasX wrote: post #7
0xcde4c3db wrote: post #4

> Advocates hope self-driving cars can help reduce U.S. road deaths, which rose 7.7 percent in 2015, the highest annual jump since 1966. This was a news story in itself [1]. It was attributed to increased driving, encouraged by economic factors such as higher employment and lower gas prices. [1] http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/02/18/467230965/...

Yeah, it looks like deaths per mile has been on a steady decline: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transportation_safety_in_the_U...

Not exactly a steady decline, quote from the NPR article linked above:

In its own early estimates that were released late in 2015, NHTSA reported seeing a 3.5 percent rise in vehicle miles traveled in the U.S. But it also said the fatality rate — the number of deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled — was rising at a slightly higher pace of 4.4 percent.

Re: U.S. House approves proposal to speed the deployment of self-driving cars

#14

Post by TuringNYC »

tehlike wrote: post #8
TuringNYC wrote: post #6

Would be great to see a similar national viewpoint on liability issues with SDCs. For example, who is liable (the car owner? manufacturer? algo writer?)

algo writer should not be liable, unless it's gross negligence or conscious cover up (like VW cases). However, i can imagine a set of guideliness adopted into industry which involves slow rollouts of updates (potentially in a multivariate testing manner controlling for speed variance/distribution, response time, collision proximity (?) or collisions avoided, distance traveled, user comfort score, and so on. In other…

Your response makes sense, but that is usually not how the legal system works...i'm curious if all sorts of tangentially or abstractly related parties will be pulled into many lawsuits and then promptly dropped. No ultimate impact w/r/t/ judgements, but a lot of wasted time and legal defense costs.

Re: U.S. House approves proposal to speed the deployment of self-driving cars

#15

Post by ehnto »

fuhrysteve wrote: post #11
0xcde4c3db wrote: post #4

> Advocates hope self-driving cars can help reduce U.S. road deaths, which rose 7.7 percent in 2015, the highest annual jump since 1966. This was a news story in itself [1]. It was attributed to increased driving, encouraged by economic factors such as higher employment and lower gas prices. [1] http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/02/18/467230965/...

> attributed to increased driving, encouraged by economic factors such as higher employment and lower gas prices Interesting - I always assumed that the increase in road deaths was at least largely due to increased cellphone usage, resulting in distracted drivers.

It's not to say that's not still the cause of many of them, just that with more people on the road more accidents can occur.

Re: U.S. House approves proposal to speed the deployment of self-driving cars

#16

Post by wbc »

Tangurena2 wrote: post #12

Hmm. The section on exemptions to safety standards was pretty interesting. I wonder what brought that on. The federal pre-emptions to state regulations was expected. States cannot have any higher standards than the federal ones, except for the vehicles that the states purchase for their own needs.

how come pre-emptions are expected? i would expect states cannot have any LOWER standards than federal (think min wage, emissions, etc) and can mandate higher if they choose

Re: U.S. House approves proposal to speed the deployment of self-driving cars

#17

Post by TuringNYC »

stale2002 wrote: post #9
TuringNYC wrote: post #6

Would be great to see a similar national viewpoint on liability issues with SDCs. For example, who is liable (the car owner? manufacturer? algo writer?)

The people who pay for self driving car accidents will be the same people as those that pay for them today. The insurance companies. Only now, these insurance companies will be paying 1/4th the amount of money they were before, because of the reduced number of accidents.

That is not quite how it works in most US states. Insurance companies cover up to a maximum amount, which is usually enough to cover all damages. However, when the maximum amount is breached, the cost is then bourne by some party which "caused" the accident. Suppose the "driver" of the SDC isnt even driving -- who is that other party? The manufacturer? The algo writer?

Re: U.S. House approves proposal to speed the deployment of self-driving cars

#18

Post by drewmol »

stale2002 wrote: post #9
TuringNYC wrote: post #6

Would be great to see a similar national viewpoint on liability issues with SDCs. For example, who is liable (the car owner? manufacturer? algo writer?)

The people who pay for self driving car accidents will be the same people as those that pay for them today. The insurance companies. Only now, these insurance companies will be paying 1/4th the amount of money they were before, because of the reduced number of accidents.

I wonder if potential changes to minimum required liability amounts will lead to higher insurance premiums vs lower? When it's a person's actions responsible for the accident it seems easier to cap these at a lower standard amount vs. a corporation's IP's actions/fault with x-billion in assets...

Re: U.S. House approves proposal to speed the deployment of self-driving cars

#19

Post by azernik »

dayaz36 wrote: post #10

I'm confused...how is capping the number of FSD cars allowed to 25k accelerate anything? Am I missing something?

Yes. You're missing that the current cap is 0.

To elaborate: "Current federal rules bar self-driving cars without human controls on U.S. roads. States have issued a variety of different rules in the absence of clear federal guidance, and automakers have complained that California’s rules are too restrictive."

Re: U.S. House approves proposal to speed the deployment of self-driving cars

#20

Post by BurningFrog »

stale2002 wrote: post #9
TuringNYC wrote: post #6

Would be great to see a similar national viewpoint on liability issues with SDCs. For example, who is liable (the car owner? manufacturer? algo writer?)

The people who pay for self driving car accidents will be the same people as those that pay for them today. The insurance companies. Only now, these insurance companies will be paying 1/4th the amount of money they were before, because of the reduced number of accidents.

I doubt it.

If my self driving Subaru causes an accident, I think Subaru will pay for the damages. And Subaru doesn't need to involve an insurance company in that transaction.

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