[ExI] Tesla autopilot

[spike at rainier66.com]

> On Behalf Of Dan TheBookMan via extropy-chat
Subject: Re: [ExI] Tesla autopilot

On Jan 18, 2022, at 6:02 PM, spike jones via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>...> BillK, it's a critical question: does the car have a steering wheel or 
> does it not?  In the USA, it is aaaaalll about liability.  If the car 
> has a steering wheel and the autopilot screws up, the driver is 
> liable.  If no steering wheel, the company is at fault.
> 
> I have half a mind to wait until the no-steering-wheel car is 
> available, drive my own damn self until then.

>...I thought — and I confess I might not be as apprised of this issue as others here — that the legal liability issues haven’t been settled. I thought the feds were still gathering data, lawsuits are still in progress, and various states (in the US) have started to write some laws on this but it’s not anywhere given to a simple rule as you put it above. 

Regards,

Dan
_______________________________________________

Dan as I understand it, if a car has standard controls, it doesn't matter if it is capable of self-driving, the person behind the wheel is responsible for what the car does.  If it doesn't have a steering wheel, the occupants are the equivalent of passengers.  Any company selling something they claim is mechanically competent to take on the responsibility of moving people is taking the legal liability associated with that awesome responsibility.

Until some Telsa-scale corporation is willing to stand behind one of these rigs, I will not buy.

spike