[ExI] Will robot cars be TOO good?

[Kelly Anderson]

On Sun, Mar 25, 2012 at 2:01 AM, BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:
> Robot Car Intersections Are Terrifyingly Efficient
> <http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/artificial-intelligence/robot-car-intersections-are-terrifyingly-efficient>
>
> Quote:
> Last time we put our life in the hands of a robot car, it managed to
> park itself without crashing or abducting us. Robot cars also know how
> to drive like maniacs, and even how to powerslide. These are all very
> neat tricks -- tricks that might save your life one day. But what's
> going to happen when all cars are this talented? Efficiency. Scary,
> scary efficiency.
>
> It's not just the sensor-driven skills that will soon be common to
> individual cars that will shape the future of automotive
> transportation, but also the ability for cars to communicate with each
> other, sharing constant updates about exactly where they are and where
> they're going. And with enough detailed information being shared at a
> fast enough pace between all vehicles on the road, things like traffic
> lights become completely redundant:
> Watch video demo.

I've had this thought before... :-)  Been thinking about autonomous
cars since the late 1980s, when it was just impossible due to a lack
of sensor technology and processing power.

> Robot cars may have to have the windows blacked out to stop the
> passengers screaming for them to 'SLOW DOWN!'.

The interesting simulation will be what happens when there are about
10% real drivers in there... Then you'll have to re-enable traffic
lights for the humans, which the robotic drivers are free to ignore,
but the human drivers are not. Robot drivers will have to give human
drivers more space... At that point, the time savings for letting the
car drive itself will be a heavy incentive for people to stop driving.
People will begin to hate non-robotic drivers because they will slow
everything down.

As for being terrifying. If you put someone in today's cars from 1880,
they would be terrified. The terror will wear off quickly, and they
will dial up the terror level slowly so as not to give people heart
attacks. People can put in their comfort level in a setting that will
slow them down perhaps, but make them feel safer (say for elderly
people)...

Pedestrians will be safe from robotic cars, but not from human driven
cars. If humans are allowed to continue to drive, there will probably
be more pedestrian fatalities since the pedestrians will begin to feel
safe from the robots over time, and won't be able to tell the human
driven cars. Perhaps the day will arrive that you'll have to put an
indigo flashing light on the top of your car if you are driving
without a robot.

I think the public will eventually demand an end to human drivers
altogether, but it's going to be an interesting path to see how we get
there. Probably a lot of people will die, but likely not as many as
die today.

-Kelly