Fire trucks are very expensive to be playing bumper cars with

Modern fire trucks, and police cars usually, are built to be able to push vehicles out of the way. It's a very common need.

(Not an argument against Waymo doing better in this situation though!)

> Modern fire trucks, and police cars usually, are built to be able to push vehicles out of the way.

Not so much police cars, anymore.

Back in the time of the B-Body Caprice and the Crown Vic, sure. These days with the exception of the Tahoe the most common police vehicles are all unibody platforms. Charger, Durango, Explorer, Taurus, and the rare Australian Caprice

You can still bolt a push bumper to them and most departments do, but they have to be used with a lot more caution and a lot less aggression to avoid damaging the vehicle than in the days of body-on-frame sedans.

Fire trucks on the other hand, yeah they're basically the opposite in that there might be a couple of Explorers or Durangos in the fleet but most everything else is a medium duty truck or a custom chassis specifically for fire service.

True, but in a 'Big One' event i dont think we would care.

You care because it takes valuable time to move things out of the way and in an emergency time is often the one resource you don’t have.

In an emergency, if the only options are taking time moving things out of the way or not being able to move, you move things out of the way.

GP’s point is that’s a false dichotomy.

Yes that’s the correct decision when those are the only options, like if a car has stalled or the driver just got out and ran away.

In this case there’s a third option: the computer that’s still perfectly functional should have been able to get out of the way on its own. And legally all drivers are required to.

I assume that applies to robots as well, if it doesn’t it absolutely should.

if google's property is blocking the road, google can pay for the damage

As long as you're happy that if your property ever blocks the road, you will pay for the damage too.

> As long as you're happy that if your property ever blocks the road, you will pay for the damage too.

Pretty sure that's always the expectation? It's typical to tow illegally parked cars, smash windows to run hoses through cars blocking hydrants, etc.

The only unusual thing here would be holding a corporation to account the way we hold individuals to account.

A broken down car isn't illegally parked.

A broken down car is also towed when needed.

Yes, to get it fixed.

The cops will have it towed at usurious expense to the owner if the owner doesn't get it towed faster.

But none the less, it is the owner who pays to have it towed.

absolutely

don't be a dick, don't block the road

Duh?

No I won't be happy about it, but yes if I block emergency services and they need to damage my property then I am absolutely the one who should have to pay.

This is the current norm. If you are parked in front of a fire hydrant or in a fire lane when the needful happens, the fire department will remove you with prejudice. My few volunteer fire department family members take a certain gleeful joy in expediting your exit from the area when the rare opportunity presents itself.

Chances are the damage will be solely on your vehicle, as fire trucks and police vehicles are equipped to push stuff off the road without damage to their equipment.

what a way to defend google's theft of the commons

Just paying for the physical damage isn't enough. It should also come with massive fines for obstructing emergency vehicles.

That doesn't bring people back to life or restore quality of life for life-changing injuries.

They have massive steel bumpers, pushing them away slowly seems mostly harmless (not at maximum velocity lol)

Although it would be amusing for them to do it at high velocity if the cars (and surrounding cars if any) were "dead heading" or had no humans in them for other reasons (perhaps because the humans had fled the vehicles upon seeing the fire truck headed their way!).

If we reach the point of needing to forcicbly move mass numbers of cars off the road for fire trucks, that's a dire situation where routine cost/benefit analysis has already gone out the window.

You're not gonna do anything more than cosmetic to the chrome bumper on a truck by pushing cars at low speed.