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0 pointsjeroenhd5y ago0 comments

> I think the upside of this is that if you get hit by a self-driving car, due to the way the media behaves around self-driving accidents, you can be almost sure that they will deal with it professionally and pay off all damages if it's even remotely their fault.

Tesla and Uber have shown that this is not the case. Tesla tries to throw the driver under the bus or, if that fails, the victim, and Uber has acted especially despicably after their fatal crash.

Perhaps "traditional" car manufacturers with less of a cult behind them will take the PR route, but the behaviour of current companies involved in self-driving vehicles isn't very encouraging.

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4 comments · 1 top-level

slg5y ago· 3 in thread

It isn't really fair to throw Tesla, Uber, and Cruise/GM in the same bucket in terms of liability. Tesla is level 2 automation, Uber is level 3, and Cruise is at least level 4. They all will have different capabilities and different expectations for any potential human driver so the breakdown of liability between the human and the car should vary.

https://www.nhtsa.gov/technology-innovation/automated-vehicl...

jeroenhdOP5y ago

I suppose, but the parent post claimed that media attention would drive companies to do the right thing for publicity reasons. The past behaviour of car companies around any accident involving their assistive technologies doesn't really show them caring about the potential negative damage. If the did, they'd had paid out already, regardless of blame.

My point is that the media attention involving crashes won't make companies take responsibility or pay to keep the bad news away, they act like all existing car companies and shift blame onto anyone but themselves instead.

fractionalhare5y ago

Do you have a citation for Cruise being at Level 4? I’m very skeptical of that. Friends of mine at Cruise have privately told me they’re still working towards Level 4.

I think the NHTSA documentation is also insufficiently precise.

slg5y ago

I don't have any citations beyond what is in that medium post which should be enough to indicate it is level 4. Level 3 requires a driver to be available to take immediate control of the vehicle. The simple act of sending a car out on a road without a driver shows the car is level 4 (or the company is wildly irresponsible to try it and the state is wildly irresponsible for granting the permit, but hopefully we can rule these out).

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