31–40 of 91 posts
I had speculated about something like this with friends when it was announced that Google was getting into autonomous driving cars. The combination of G+, Maps, Zagats and a Google car that drives itself would give possible scenarios like the car doing things like asking you: "You haven't had lunch yet today. There's a highly-rated Italian place just two minutes from here, would you me to take you there?" then afterw…
Better yet, would you trade ads and impulse buys for free rides? So you never have to own a car, but every time you go anywhere your car is actively trying to get you to spend time and money doing things you normally wouldn't do -- play online games, visit donut shops, and so on. Would that be worth never having to own a car?
Why is this a hypothetical future scenario? AFAIK, Google is perfectly capable of doing that even now, with route finding/guidance on Google Maps.
We almost need a new "Bill of Rights" for the 21st century to deal with all the ambiguities brought about by technology.
I don't think anyone is going to be dumb enough to try the specific scenario this article outlines. The real world is noisy, and in practice, an objective like "reroute path to include Krispy Kreme, but only if it isn't too far out of the way" is going to have too many edge cases to do 100% reliably. And it only takes one "my car made me 40 minutes late to work by trying to take me by a Krispy Kreme in the next town"…
Just one of a bazillion questions that comes up when your car is autonomous. What happens when the sekrit tech elite want to kill you and so they make your car drive off a cliff? Interesting questions to be sure and already being examined on such shows as "CSI" in the US. Basically one of the reasons new technology rolls out slowly is that there are lots of people asking these sorts of questions and trying to have an…
Nearly exactly this happens in Stross's Halting State
Better yet, would you trade ads and impulse buys for free rides? So you never have to own a car, but every time you go anywhere your car is actively trying to get you to spend time and money doing things you normally wouldn't do -- play online games, visit donut shops, and so on. Would that be worth never having to own a car?
Just one of a bazillion questions that comes up when your car is autonomous. What happens when the sekrit tech elite want to kill you and so they make your car drive off a cliff? Interesting questions to be sure and already being examined on such shows as "CSI" in the US. Basically one of the reasons new technology rolls out slowly is that there are lots of people asking these sorts of questions and trying to have an…
Imagine a situation where a crash appears to the AI of car C1 to be be inevitable. But also, if C1 executes maneuver M1, its own occupants will be saved from harm, but another car C2 will have a worse crash or will crash when it otherwise would not - but if C1 does maneuver M2 instead, its own occupants will be killed or suffer worse harm, but the occupants of C2 will be better off. What if, in such a scenario, C1 would decide to "sacrifice" its own occupants to minimize the total harm (e.g., C2 has more occupants)?
Self-driving cars might well be designed this way. It might be mandated by law. Authorities would try to reassure objectors by saying the "avoidably killed by your car" outcome is very unlikely and that you're better off in the big picture of all risks.
Edit: On a closer reading I note that the linked page http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/10/the-et... covers, not exactly the above, but similar scenarios.
Basically, as long as the thing doing the navigating is also showing your the route it plans to take, then it can't pull any funny business like this without you noticing.
Just one of a bazillion questions that comes up when your car is autonomous. What happens when the sekrit tech elite want to kill you and so they make your car drive off a cliff? Interesting questions to be sure and already being examined on such shows as "CSI" in the US. Basically one of the reasons new technology rolls out slowly is that there are lots of people asking these sorts of questions and trying to have an…
Another case worse than partially-hijacked trips was mentioned in a slashdot post, and if I recall correctly, there was a vague reference to the autonomous-car-makers considering it, and it has bothered me ever since. Imagine a situation where a crash appears to the AI of car C1 to be be inevitable. But also, if C1 executes maneuver M1, its own occupants will be saved from harm, but another car C2 will have a worse c…