General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Self-driving trucks begin mail delivery test for U.S. Postal Service [View all]mr_lebowski
(33,643 posts)A barreling semi truck has a malfunction, doesn't recognize that a road or offramp or the like is closed for construction, decides to use that roadway and it's filled with dozens of construction workers and heavy equipment, and the thing ends up killing 20 people and causing a few $10M+ in damages ... pics of the carnage, crying relatives, etc, end up on the national evening news ...
And then bam ... all of the automated vehicles are ordered off the roads.
Personally I think they're going to turn out to be too complicated of machines to be reliable ENOUGH ... to ever allow them to be totally driverless, except maybe for some specific, simple routes.
Gotta remember these things are brand-new right now, and all under direct control of the companies that make the tech. Once this tech starts getting SOLD, to regular companies that don't necessarily have the same technological 'know-how' ... they're likely to start getting a lot less safe as they won't be maintained the same way as they are right now.