If your autonomous car decided that there was absolutely no choice but to enter a collision course with another car... its best option would be to use its best guess based on both recent, current and future road/traffic information to start on a collision course the the car which its self will have the best possibility of avoiding the collision.
This happens in the real world all the time, Car A swerves to avoid Car B, but ends up on a collision course with Car C, Car C swerves to avoid Car A... sometimes it all works out, sometimes there are collisions, some times there is "The Big One" as per NASCAR
What about this one.... driving into oncoming traffic is almost always going to be the worst option (most likely to end in death), the makes both the decision on which way to turn vs continuing straight on much easier. even if you are in the middle lane its probably better to swerve away from the oncomming traffic.
I drive a 39 year old Classic Mini daily.... and will be driving it for a long time to come, When autonomous cars come around... I think the biggest problem will be getting them to play nicely with classics taking up the majority of the road.
Another thing worth considering is insurance/liability. If the insurance companies had their way, the autonomous car would be programmed the crash into the cheapest option. Be that the uninsured car, the uninsured driver, the fleet car vs private, new vs expensive classic, etc, etc
I'm sure when autonomous cars come around, every single company with something to gain or lose will be throwing money at the programmers to get treated a little more fairly than the competition.
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If your autonomous car decided that there was absolutely no choice but to enter a collision course with another car... its best option would be to use its best guess based on both recent, current and future road/traffic information to start on a collision course the the car which its self will have the best possibility of avoiding the collision. This happens in the real world all the time, Car A swerves to avoid Car B, but ends up on a collision course with Car C, Car C swerves to avoid Car A... sometimes it all works out, sometimes there are collisions, some times there is "The Big One" as per NASCAR What about this one.... driving into oncoming traffic is almost always going to be the worst option (most likely to end in death), the makes both the decision on which way to turn vs continuing straight on much easier. even if you are in the middle lane its probably better to swerve away from the oncomming traffic. I drive a 39 year old Classic Mini daily.... and will be driving it for a long time to come, When autonomous cars come around... I think the biggest problem will be getting them to play nicely with classics taking up the majority of the road. Another thing worth considering is insurance/liability. If the insurance companies had their way, the autonomous car would be programmed the crash into the cheapest option. Be that the uninsured car, the uninsured driver, the fleet car vs private, new vs expensive classic, etc, etc I'm sure when autonomous cars come around, every single company with something to gain or lose will be throwing money at the programmers to get treated a little more fairly than the competition.