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The High-Stakes Race to Rid the World of Human Drivers

theatlantic.com

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Re: The High-Stakes Race to Rid the World of Human Drivers

#51

Post by bglazer »

grogenaut wrote: post #47

Sorry for typos, eating fried chicken... I cant wait to see what happens once the modders and criminals get a hold of self driving cars. My awesome car would pretend to be an emergency vehicle. Pretend to be a truck and that it can't stop easily, pretend emergencies so people move, claim that it's chaging lanes to mess with people. Without a centralized authority it's just negotiation. With a CA then humans and remot…

All of these things are already possible. Hell I see an example of most of these behaviors pretty frequently. It's not like normal people are going to suddenly become psychopaths when they get self driving cars.

Re: The High-Stakes Race to Rid the World of Human Drivers

#52

Post by toomuchtodo »

cpitman wrote: post #46
Fuzzwah wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Insurance companies like to slice their customers up into buckets of similar risk and charge more or less accordingly. Insuring an automated car will be cheaper. Insuring a manually operated car will be more expensive.

Sure, it will be more expensive than the automated car. But why would it be more expensive than today? Why would automated cars on the road make manually operated cars more risky than they are today?

At the moment, there is no other option other than human driving cars. Once automated cars are a realistic option, insurance companies can properly price insurance for human drivers much higher (comparatively speaking). A self-driving car should have almost 0 risk, meaning the vast majority of cars (if self driving) would carry no risk to the insurer.

Re: The High-Stakes Race to Rid the World of Human Drivers

#53

Post by cpitman »

irln wrote: post #50
cpitman wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see why the cost would be any higher than it is today. If anything, driver-less cars would have lower insurance premiums. So if you can afford/justify your insurance today, you could still afford it in the future. I could even see all insurance getting cheaper, since the risk of accidents for all cars should decrease as the mix of cars gets more and more automated.

I don't think that those that choose to drive would provide more risk than they do today, however, they would provide (my gut and no more) substantially more risk than driverless cars. What incentive would an insurance provider have to insure a human driver? Much higher premiums I suggest.

The same incentive they have today: profit based on taking in more in then they have to pay out based on risk. If insurance companies arbitrarily bump up insurance for manually driven cars, then that opens up a market for someone to jump in and accurately charge based on risk.

Re: The High-Stakes Race to Rid the World of Human Drivers

#54

Post by unclebucknasty »

nostromo wrote: post #8

One thing I haven't heard much about is how humans and AI drivers will interact. If we all assume that AI cars are going to be very conservative and very competent drivers, will people take advantage of that? Will human drivers become even bigger assholes that cut off AI drivers at every possibility, knowing that an AI will not hit them? Why wait in a big line for an exit, when you know an AI car will always let you…

For me the bigger question is WRT the ongoing quest to marginalize human beings.

Once we automate everything, then what?

Re: The High-Stakes Race to Rid the World of Human Drivers

#55

Post by lifeformed »

nostromo wrote: post #8

One thing I haven't heard much about is how humans and AI drivers will interact. If we all assume that AI cars are going to be very conservative and very competent drivers, will people take advantage of that? Will human drivers become even bigger assholes that cut off AI drivers at every possibility, knowing that an AI will not hit them? Why wait in a big line for an exit, when you know an AI car will always let you…

Maybe the AI cars will have automated systems that report to authorities reckless human drivers.

Re: The High-Stakes Race to Rid the World of Human Drivers

#56

Post by js2 »

nostromo wrote: post #8

One thing I haven't heard much about is how humans and AI drivers will interact. If we all assume that AI cars are going to be very conservative and very competent drivers, will people take advantage of that? Will human drivers become even bigger assholes that cut off AI drivers at every possibility, knowing that an AI will not hit them? Why wait in a big line for an exit, when you know an AI car will always let you…

This was the plot of a recent episode of The Good Wife.

Re: The High-Stakes Race to Rid the World of Human Drivers

#57

Post by jmspring »

I don't have a commute. I just recently downsized from a VW gross polluter TDI (jetta sportwagen) to a Toyota off-road tacoma. 1/2 the gas milage. This will probably be the last vehicle I personally buy for years. It will be mostly road trips and off road camping.

The wife plans on a Tesla Model 3 as her car.

For my uses, even my 2016 Tacoma TRD OR screams over technical for a lot of back country camping / jeep trail stuff.

Re: The High-Stakes Race to Rid the World of Human Drivers

#58

Post by avn2109 »

woofyman wrote: post #15
jjoonathan wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, people will take advantage of AI drivers, but everything will be recorded and I'm sure the autonomous car companies can figure out how to put those recordings to use. Name&shame, sell the info to insurance companies, push to make it an automatic ticket, etc. After a shakedown period a more or less reasonable compromise will surely emerge.

I don't want to live in a society where every car becomes a tool of law enforcement.

Too late. Way too late. Bottlenecking transportation is the oldest law enforcement trick in the book. Why do you think they make you tell them all your info during registration, put identifying plates on your vehicle, compile databases of VIN numbers, get access to OnStar tracking computers, etc.

Re: The High-Stakes Race to Rid the World of Human Drivers

#59

Post by afarrell »

grogenaut wrote: post #39
gbhn wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or just do what a driverless car would do: call the authorities or turn around and proceed by another route.

Edit: ellaboration. Stopping in traffic and calling the cops because of this is going to be a non-starter. If you're the cause of the blockage how are they going to get there? The GP is right, there are many situations where it's not going to well, and I can see lots of pranks by highschoolers that will completely mess with self driving cars. Heck an accidental release of confetti would be an interesting experiment.

> How are they going to get there?

By motorcycle

Re: The High-Stakes Race to Rid the World of Human Drivers

#60

Post by afarrell »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #52
cpitman wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, it will be more expensive than the automated car. But why would it be more expensive than today? Why would automated cars on the road make manually operated cars more risky than they are today?

At the moment, there is no other option other than human driving cars. Once automated cars are a realistic option, insurance companies can properly price insurance for human drivers much higher (comparatively speaking). A self-driving car should have almost 0 risk, meaning the vast majority of cars (if self driving) would carry no risk to the insurer.

yes, but that doesn't explain why the underlying risk of insuring human drivers would rise. Nor does it explain why, since the underlying risk is the same, Progressive wouldn't offer lower rates than Geico's.
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