How would driverless cars respond to an accident?

Presumably, it would be programmed to stop. It’s a crime to hit and run, after all, and that law is unlikely to be changed just because the car doesn’t have a driver.

Did your hard desk ever crash? How did THAT work out for you? ... ;-)

#%!?*# spellchecker…should have been hard disk.

Boing Boing – Should your self-driving car be programmed to kill you if it means saving more strangers?

Probably whatever its corporate programming calculates will have the best impact on the company’s bottom line. ;-P

“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” But likely, it will be programmed to save its owner above that.

If it’s computer and sensors knew it was involved it could probably call for help and give the cops it’s statement, If it’s sensors didn’t pick up anything wrong my guess it would just keep driving.

All vehicles* would be controlled by a single traffic control computer system, so there would be no accidents. There would be no stop signs, no traffic lights. (*All vehicles means all vehicles, no exceptions. This computer system would only work on cars it could control and not older, standard person driven vehicles. The newer controlled cars may have to be on a separate, electrically driven cable/suspension/tube system so the two types of vehicles wouldn’t be in conflict with each other.)

@kritiper that sounds scary,is that really freedom?
WE have become to stupid to even drive?
I really hope I am long fucking dead before that becomes the norm.
From another stand point how many times have you had a computer problem from major to minor,now you really want to rely on them to drive from A to B?

@kritiper: There would have to be traffic lights and stop signs still because those exist not only for traffic control, but for pedestrians, too. Pedestrians need there to be stop signs and traffic lights so they could cross the street safely.

@jca I allowed for that in the separate system.
@SQUEEKY2 Of course, we are talking a bout a perfect world here where there are no computer problems (LOL) and the necessity would arise from the practicality of rapid, worry free, unimpeded traffic flow. (More LOL?)

Seems like there are two scenarios here:

First, if its onboard computer & sensors are operating normally, then it would respond the way it was programmed to respond.

Second, if the accident occurred because of a computer or sensor failure, then there is no way to predict how it would respond.

Either way, it seems like there is a thorny legal question raised that has yet to be addressed: if a driverless car hits a pedestrian and keeps going, who commits the hit and run/ leaving the scene of an injury accident misdemeanor or felony? Can an inanimate, autonomous machine be arrested?

@sahID “Can an inanimate, autonomous machine be arrested?”

What do you bet that autonomous machines will be treated like corporations: They’ll get the rights and priveledges of personhood without the responsibilities?

@bossob ALEC is already drafting the new law. They’ll be a new type of protected legal entity called carperations.

LOL good one @Zaku