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cardboardunderwear t1_j1xl54j wrote

>The new PA law does not make our roads safer - it does exactly the opposite.

Thats only true if the technology in question is more dangerous than people driving without it. Its not clear to me in the article that thats the case.

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pitchforksNbonfires t1_j1xus8s wrote

That there are currently several NHTSA safety investigations into different Tesla models indicates the seriousness of concern about self-driving vehicles.

In the instances below, it appears that the technology in question was indeed more dangerous with it than without it:

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/tesla-driver-watched-horror-another-125137176.html

This one burst into flames after hitting a barrier.

”He got out and spoke to the driver of the crashed Tesla, who was not injured in the incident. The driver told Kaplan he had his 2018 Model X in Autopilot but "it suddenly veered hard to the left and stopped against the wall."

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https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/tesla-in-full-self-driving-mode-caused-8-car-pile-up-report/ar-AA15zmQJ

”The report states that the Tesla Model S was traveling at about 55 mph and shifted into the far left-hand lane, but then braked abruptly, slowing the car to about 20 mph. That led to a chain reaction that ultimately involved eight vehicles to crash, all of which had been traveling at typical highway speeds.”

”Tesla’s driver-assist technologies, Autopilot and “full self-driving” are already being investigated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration following reports of unexpected braking that occurs “without warning, at random, and often repeatedly in a single drive.”

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Weary_Ad7119 t1_j1yj9bo wrote

And you think human drivers don't do this? Pointing out individual events is worthless.

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pitchforksNbonfires t1_j1zobq4 wrote

Of course drivers are fallible. There’s never been a question about humans making mistakes, being distracted, etc.

The argument is whether technology - sensors and computers - can take the place of human senses and judgement.

Is there a difference when a distracted driver hits a wall, vs a technology-assisted vehicle doing exactly the same thing because the computer took a crap, or the vehicle was hacked?

There’s no difference.

Maybe there is a difference. A driver-driven vehicle can, at the last minute - and if the driver regains alertness - possibly avoid a collision. A computer-driven vehicle may not have the same ability. We’d have to have confidence that the computer could recover as quickly as the human could. And we don’t know that it can. There are instances - described in the article links that I posted, saying that the computer doesn’t recover, and the accident happens.

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