[ExI] Robot cars can do drifting now

[spike]

From: extropy-chat [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of William Flynn Wallace
Sent: Wednesday, May 18, 2016 10:51 AM
To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Subject: Re: [ExI] Robot cars can do drifting now

 

This should make robot racing cars produce much more human-like driving.
(Though not as many crashes as humans!).  :)
BillK

 

Are you aware that many of the crashes in auto racing are intentional?  Some are paybacks for the last lap or the last race or whatever.  They often try to crash another car without crashing theirs and sometimes fail and crash a whole bunch of them, including their own.  Sure, it's cutting off their noses to spite their faces.  I didn't say that they were smart, or trying to appeal to smart people.

 

Will robot cars hold grudges?  bill w

 

 

 

I heard a reliable rumor this morning.  The Google cars are often seen whirring around the area.  Now they have sufficient data to show these things do work, we have the technology to build a self-driver.  The market for these is obvious: kids, elderly and drunks.  Those groups, will pay bigtime, but in the current configuration, the person behind the wheel in a self-driver must be licensed.  They don’t go into detail about the driver needing to be awake, sober, any of that, just licensed, for if it crashes, whoever is behind the wheel is responsible.

 

Clearly that is a market limiter.

 

As I understand it, the California legislators are willing to allow removal of the steering wheel, and release of liability of the occupants of the vehicle (assuming there are any) under the condition that some deep pockets somewhere is ready to take responsibility.

 

The rumor is that Google is ready to remove that steering wheel and sign up for the liability.  This changes everything, for now the driver need not be licensed, need not even be human (send your dog to the vet or the groomer alone, (or deliver packages (or copulate in the back while the car drives, that sorta thing.)))  Oh what a market opens up.

 

Nowthen… what if… people try to crash into it intentionally?  Right now they have a pretty good algorithm for staying out of trouble (rumor holds that it is better than humans at crash avoidance.)  But what if two unemployed Uberers work together?  They find one either unoccupied, or perhaps with the passengers fucking in the back seat, get on either side and slightly behind the GoogleBot, then simultaneously on cue sandwich the thing, then claim it swerved, hit the one, the careened into the other, but they will let it go for a mere six digits, etc.

 

spike

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