Tesla electric car

[Mav]

Bystanders. They’re one of the problems of programming the AI for auto-drive. Let’s say you’re driving a normal car and you’re driving at 70 kms approaching an intersection with a green light. A truck skids into the intersection and you’re too close to stop and you have a rather large risk of serious injury if you crash into the truck. But you can pretty much be certain of avoiding injury if you veer left. The only problem with that is there’s a bunch of primary school children there and killing or maiming many of them is a certainty. What are the car’s priorities? If you program it to avoid or minimise injury to passengers, the kids are dead meat. Should the car prioritise the safety of pedestrians? What about bike and motorbike riders? Should the number of 3rd parties affected be considered? What about a maniac who deliberately runs in front of a car in the hope it will swerve off the road over a cliff?

Not hard to see how the AI could go haywire.