Re:Self-driving vehicles against human drivers: Equal safety...
by the8472 on Wednesday December 30, 2020 @01:43PM
(#25584599)
Ok, I see what you're going for. But then the question is how much safety is that agency buying you? And how many people even have an option to exercise such agency? You do not have it when it comes to other drivers that may cause accidents or run you over (or your children if you wish) as pedestrian. You have far less of it for taxi, rideshare or public transport services. And how many parents will drive their children even when they're stressed or haven't slept because the children simply have to go somewhere and they can't afford other options?
In aggregate we can probably buy more safety by having policies that encourage replacement of bad drivers with merely average autonomous vehicles rather than attempting to rely on individual behavior to improve safety.
If you want to still exercise personal options you could choose an autonomous car plus safety driver.
In the third person version, I suppose there’s an implicit unstated option that while your particular chauffeur has evidence they are better than average, you have an option to hire someone more responsible. That aspect of agency is central here.
> if the statistics he cites are correct and also apply to chauffeurs
I meant compared to the general population. As in self driving versus general population stats.