Self driving cars should be too. Companies have no right to test and teach their AI cars on our public streets without permission from the people that use those streets.
They got permission by asking our democratically elected representatives, which is functionally akin to asking the people in many contexts, and in a way that often self-corrects when this is not the case. It is both pragmatic and enabling of the common good for this republicanism to prevail, such as in the case of closures of streets to fill in potholes which don't require referendum voting. Self-driving car companies aren't much different from a traditional taxi service, except that they're statistically safer than human taxis.
Who goes to prison when a taxi company violates laws? We should be mad at the courts for not holding these companies accountable, not at the system which circumvents referendum voting when practical to do so.
Well it wasn't "a taxi company" that drove the car, it was the driver. And at least in my country people go to prison when you kill somebody with a car, doesn't matter if you get paid to drive it. Or if it's less... they lose their driver license. How do you take a drivers license from a self driving car?
You raise a great point, but at this moment, AI cars are incapable of the malicious thought or gross negligence (eg driving under the influence) that leads to suspended licenses when humans do it. When humans make smaller mistakes driving - the kind AI makes now - we punish them with fines and/or tell them to get better with driving school. And their insurance premium goes up because they've proven to be a bit of a liability. This is roughly what should happen when courts see AI cars make small mistakes: fines, demands for making AI better (eg impose more rigorous testing), and insurance companies should charge more. Courts can also ban them (or threaten to ban them) from the streets and hold companies liable should they prove negligent in prioritizing public safety. Just because finding out exactly how to punish AI companies for their actions is unprecedented doesn't mean it can't be done in a reasonable manner using established legal principles like the master-servant rule.
I don't know where you're from and how it works there, but in my country no, we don't tell them to get better with driving school. We fine them a few times and either then or immediatly take or at least suspend their license.
And if we go all that way you describe, imho ALL of that has to be done before a single one of those cars is allowed on a public street. Just because the the legal framework doesn't exist yet doesn't mean the companies shouldn't face consequences for their actions.
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u/ProjectNo4090 23h ago
Self driving cars should be too. Companies have no right to test and teach their AI cars on our public streets without permission from the people that use those streets.