Rules for autonomous cars

While policy develops and researchers put ethical decision making in software, continuing my last week's post on how life might change with autonomous cars, here is one rule to start with:

• An adult must accompany a minor in an autonomous car.

The reason for this is to handle eventualities in case of an accident or a malfunction, such as the car running out of fuel/charge. As a consequence, some government policy is needed to provide the necessary safeguards preventing an adult from putting an accompanied minor in an autonomous car:

1. Biometric / driver's license based unlock of the car's navigation system.
2. Visual monitoring for the presence of the adult in the vehicle

I will need to collect my thoughts on the safety framework needed in place for adults with diminished capacity for driving. What are your thoughts on the topic?

School drop offs with autonomous cars

After I read the announcement by Tesla earlier this week about new auto pilot features being made available via a software upgrade to the Model S, I thought how our daily routines might change when fully autonomous cars become the norm.

On the way to drop my kids off to school, I asked my middle-school son: "If this car were fully autonomous, would you still need me to drop you to school?" He thought for a moment and then he said that no - then he'd be fine with taking the car by himself.

Clearly, when things go fine there's no need to have an adult chaperone along. But if the car were to get into an accident then I wouldn't want my child to be all by himself. Since he does take the bus on the way back home, it made me realize that the comfort factor of letting him take the school bus home actually arises from there being a trusted human driver of the bus. Now as he gets older, I may feel OK with him taking an autonomous car by himself, probably before he comes of driving age. But for my younger one, who still has a few years to go before she gets to middle school, I'm sure I'd be her chaperone.


In conclusion, even with fully autonomous cars, I'd still be dropping my kids off to school. No change expected to that daily routine.

Regards,
Kuntal.