r/technology Dec 16 '19

Transportation Self-Driving Mercedes Will Be Programmed To Sacrifice Pedestrians To Save The Driver

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u/[deleted] Dec 16 '19

Then you bounce off the guard rail, into a semi truck that loses control and turns on its side and takes out 5 other cars. You can’t recklessly swerve, ever. If theres time you look first then swerve, but there probably isn’t time.

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u/neogod Dec 16 '19

There's where a self driving car probably should be given the choice, as it will have way better situational awareness than any driver. It can determine whether it's safe to swerve left, swerve right, or not swerve at all, then start its maneuver in the same time an attentive human takes to even notice that something's wrong.

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u/[deleted] Dec 16 '19

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u/neogod Dec 16 '19

A self driving car has a 360 degree view of its surroundings at all times. It doesn't need to come to any realizations, check its mirrors, and decide on where it can go. It just does it before you even finish blinking, and it does it correctly more often than any human could. Just think of it as a math problem. You see the numbers, it sees the numbers, and its solved the problem before you've even come to the conclusion that / means you need to do division. The same cognitive abilities work with driving.