LogFAQs > #967151417

Yellow posted...

Guess no one knows the answer to that other than the engineers. My guess is that it doesn't have any "value of life" metric for hitting and old man or a young man with a longer life to live, and does the action that's less likely to hit anything, but obviously prioritize hitting an inanimate object over a pedestrian.

The problem most people worry about is how it's probably inevitable that it will be programmed to prioritize between your single-occupant car and the two kids and their dog. Or the bus full of old people. Or whatever else it decides is more important than you are when it drives you off a cliff to avoid hurting someone else.

And that's just when it's working as intended. And not getting confused and assuming the side of a tractor trailer is open sky and plowing you right into it resulting in your decapitation (ie, what most self-driving accidents up to this point have been).

Or somehow getting hacked, screwed with by some sort of virus, or just falling victim to some stupid Y2K-esque glitch due to poor quality control.

Whether any of those fears are legitimate or not, they're the kinds of things people think of when they think about self-driving cars. Which is why most polls tend to suggest people at the moment are more into the idea of a self-driving car than they are willing to ever actually ride in one.