The Problem With Self Driving Cars: Who Controls the Code? (theguardian.com)

schwit1 writes with Cory Doctorow's story at the Guardian diving into the questions of applied ethics that autonomous cars raise, especially in a world where avoiding accidents or mitigating their dangers may mean breaking traffic laws. From the article: The issue is with the 'Trolley Problem' as applied to autonomous vehicles, which asks, if your car has to choose between a maneuver that kills you and one that kills other people, which one should it be programmed to do? The problem with this formulation of the problem is that it misses the big question that underpins it: if your car was programmed to kill you under normal circumstances, how would the manufacturer stop you from changing its programming so that your car never killed you?

Comments

Re:As someone who doesn't drive anymore...

[drinkypoo]

...I find it very hard to understand how people drive in modern cars which have so much closed source programming.

How modern are you talking? I have cars which speak directly to this; all I'm lacking is a fully computerized car. I have a W126 300SD, which is all-mechanical down to a vacuum shutoff on the engine. I have a D2 A8 Quattro, which is fully electronically regulated and can't run without the PCM, but which still has a transmission (ZF5HP42) with an actual shift linkage and a limp mode, and hydraulic power steering (which is lovely, but ironically not quite as communicative as the W126, even though that has a recirculating ball box.) A truly modern car with e.g. a ZF9 doesn't have a shift linkage, and if the TCM goes up in smoke, so do your hopes of driving home. It also doesn't have hydraulic power steering, so if the power goes out while you're doing something tricky, it's going to get trickier. At which point do you pucker?

In the D2 you can still conceivably replace literally all of the computers with devices of your own design. In some european markets there is even a heater-only control unit that operates the flaps with bowden cables, as in cars of yore, which puts it ahead of the W126 body. The AT can be replaced with a six-spool which doesn't require any power, and people have megasquirted the ABZ before. You need either the ABS or an adjustable proportioning valve, though. The car doesn't have one because it has EBD, which you will be throwing away. It is possible to source a LSD for the rear, though; you can use your ring and pinion with the guts from the Audi V8's rear diff, which is a LSD (Torsen, IIRC, like the center.)