When Should Cops Be Allowed To Take Control of Self-Driving Cars?

HughPickens.com writes: A police officer is directing traffic in the intersection when he sees a self-driving car barreling toward him and the occupant looking down at his smartphone. The officer gestures for the car to stop, and the self-driving vehicle rolls to a halt behind the crosswalk. This seems like a pretty plausible interaction. Human drivers are required to pull over when a police officer gestures for them to do so. It's reasonable to expect that self-driving cars would do the same. But Will Oremus writes that while it's clear that police officers should have some power over the movements of self-driving cars, what's less clear is where to draw the line. Should an officer be able to do the same if he suspects the passenger of a crime? And what if the passenger doesn't want the car to stop—can she override the command, or does the police officer have ultimate control?

According to a RAND Corp. report on the future of technology and law enforcement "the dark side to all of the emerging access and interconnectivity (PDF) is the risk to the public's civil rights, privacy rights, and security." It added, "One can readily imagine abuses that might occur if, for example, capabilities to control automated vehicles and the disclosure of detailed personal information about their occupants were not tightly controlled and secured."

Comments

There needs to be a standard device

[Applehu Akbar]

An automated car could be programmed to be pre-empted by emergency vehicles using lights in the standard manner, but how, exactly, would police stops be handled, especially when the stop is a gesture from the side of the road? There is going to have to be a device which police carry that broadcasts a standardized signal to pull over and stop. It will have to be secure against being imitated by criminals, perhaps with frequently-changed security keys.

Just deploying these to all the agencies that will need them is a non-insignificant problem. And cities are going to require that the devices, deployment and maintenance be paid for by the manufacturers.

Re:Obey traffic laws; offer emergency override

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, Google programs their cars to break the speed limit. They say it's safer, but it does involve breaking the law. http://gizmodo.com/googles-autonomous-car-is-programmed-to-speed-because-i-1624025227

Re:The cars can detect gestures.

[silas_moeckel]

At most it should go "I see a cop trying to pull us over should i call 911 for you?" aka the same thing I tell my child to do.

In any event the person in the vehicle needs to be able to quickly override the computer's or 2 people can corner any car to carjack it.