Who pays for the manufacturing of these cars?
A loan from the autonomous self owning bank?
Could driverless cars own themselves?
21–30 of 65 posts
Re: Could driverless cars own themselves?
#22If AI starts to sort of work, we may get to see some kind of corporation run by computers, owned by other similar corporations. Probably out of some financial haven such as the Seychelles or Cyprus. This is more likely in the financial space than in the self-driving car space.
I could see someone setting this up and retaining some minority ownership so that they get dividends, while the thing runs itself.
Re: Could driverless cars own themselves?
#23This is a cool concept for lots of things, maybe even big things like companies and utilities. A for-profit entity that operates just like a normal one, but is programmed to not to simply maximize profits but to maximize social good. It would work well on things that don't require too much human thinking to run (just balancing equations and running equipment), but are normally hindered by self-interest.
For what time interval does your algorithm maximize profits/social good/etc? We've seen what maximizing profits for the next earnings report does. Ten years? For our lifetimes? Our children's?
Too short, and you miss some big opportunities. Too long, and the algorithm might hedge against all the unknowns and miss some big opportunities.
Re: Could driverless cars own themselves?
#24How about an ownerless house that keeps its own rent money? An ownerless McDonald's franchise? Ownership is not just about money. Driverless cars don't really change anything about the concept of ownership. If you think driverless taxis are such a great idea and you want them to be operated in a non-greedy way, start a non-profit, or start a corporation and make it public so that anyone who wants can invest and share…
Why would this necessarily be true? Several authors have written about algorithmically generated & operated companies or entities (Charlie Stross, the Ghost in the Shell) either as litigation shields or entities which outlived their owners but continued to operate. The idea is certainly odd, to essentially create autonomous and roughly speaking self-sufficient/directed artificial creatures, but it's consistent at lea…
Is that really sad given that these 'creations' would not be in any way self aware? The idea is far-fetched, but the programming required is possible today. This wouldn't be advanced AI.
Re: Could driverless cars own themselves?
#25Competitive markets always end up with zero economic profit, all the 'profit' is compensation for the efforts and risks in allocating capital.
If there is no need for a human doing the allocation of capital anymore, and the market demand is so liquid that the capital risks are zero, then yeah we'll get autonomous profitless (in economic and accounting sense) cab networks.
This is not a 'new' type of corporation. It's just a corporation with one more task automated.
Re: Could driverless cars own themselves?
#26Re: Could driverless cars own themselves?
#27Re: Could driverless cars own themselves?
#28Well, there is a tree in Athens, Georgia (USA) which legally owns itself. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_That_Owns_Itself
Potentially significant bits from the above wikipedia page:
The original transfer of the deed would not be valid because 'Such a deed, even if it did exist, would have no legal standing. Under common law, the person receiving the property in question must have the legal capacity to receive it, and the property must be delivered to—and accepted by—the recipient.'
and ' Athens-Clarke County confirms that the tree is in the right-of-way, and is thus “accepted for care” by municipal authorities;'
however,
'Regarding Jackson’s deed, one writer noted at the beginning of the 20th century, “However defective this title may be in law, the public recognized it.”[13] In that spirit, it is the stated position of the Athens-Clarke County unified government that the tree, in spite of the law, does indeed own itself.[14]'
So, while if you wished to do this with some land you owned, and a tree, it probably would not be considered legally valid in the US (at the moment), but there might be a chance you could get it to be effectively the case?
Re: Could driverless cars own themselves?
#29Yeah, this breaks down as soon as one of them gets into an accident and a million angry mothers introduce responsibility legislation.
Re: Could driverless cars own themselves?
#30How about an ownerless house that keeps its own rent money? An ownerless McDonald's franchise? Ownership is not just about money. Driverless cars don't really change anything about the concept of ownership. If you think driverless taxis are such a great idea and you want them to be operated in a non-greedy way, start a non-profit, or start a corporation and make it public so that anyone who wants can invest and share…
The difference is that self driving cars are pretty close to coming to fruition. It's a pretty natural step to assume a car that can realize it's broken and hire a mechanic to repair it.
Houses aren't nearly that far along yet.
And ownerless taxis don't need to be non-greedy. The algorithms that make the most money and are able to produce the most offspring (either by buying other cars or paying off a factory to build more) will probably help the economy the most. If the car is effective at making money, 1 car can eventually turn into 1000 with little human management. A non-greedy car might not be able to achieve that.