On Tue, 10 Oct 2017 08:28:36 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

Some guy was driving a Tesla in self driving mode and was typing on his
laptop when a large truck cross an intersection in front of him. The self
driving thought it was an overhead and continued under the truck cutting
the top of the Tesla off and beheading the non-driving owner.

"Man killed in Tesla 'Autopilot' crash got numerous warnings"
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/20/man-killed-in-tesla-autopilot-crash-got-numerous-warnings-report.html

While this was the sort of thing that any programmer should have
foreseen the Tesla programmer didn't.

Nothing is totally 100% safe. The only question is what percentage of
safe is considered acceptable? When I get on an airplane, there's a
finite and calculatable risk involved in flying. Fortunately, it's
sufficiently small to accept the risk and continue flying, but
airplane still continue to fall out of the sky occasionally. How much
risk is acceptable for a driverless car? Dunno. The current
assumption is that the risk of a driverless car is LESS than dealing
with drunk, clueless, or stupid drivers. Too soon to tell if that's
true.

There is absolutely no way a self driving car can work in all cases.

Agreed. Please name me one device or activity that is absolutely
safe. There are none. My Sharpie marker pen is now on the unsafe
list because I stepped on it last night and landed on my butt.

It's fairly easy to prove that something is unsafe. All you need is
one example of an accident or even a hazardous condition. Even of the
odds of something happening are minute, it's deemed unsafe. Similarly,
it's impossible to prove that something is safe. We can design,
tweak, and test the device until it's totally obsolete, and there will
always be some fool that misuses the device and hurts themselves.
Many years ago, I used to collect magazine clipping of stupid product
liability lawsuits. I stopped when the box of clippings became too
large and I couldn't find anything.

So, how safe do you want to be before you'll buy a self-driving
vehicle?

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558