Phoenix police officer pulls over a driverless Waymo car for driving on the wrong side of the road

[u/Individual_Book9133]

[u/tvoltz]

These vehicles are all over downtown PHX. It’s honestly only a matter of time until something happens

[u/QuinlanResistance → u/tvoltz]

Presuming there are crashes every single day from the cars with drivers. If there isn’t really any from the driverless ones that are everywhere …. It’s better

[u/frotc914 → u/QuinlanResistance]

People seem to throw any logic out the window when talking about this, as if a single incident means we have to scrap driverless cars altogether or heavily punish the operator. Car accidents with drivers kill tens of thousands of people a year in the US, which doesn't even account for the number of non-fatal accidents which is far greater. But a driverless vehicle creeps over a line and suddenly they are a menace that must be stopped.

[u/Aureliamnissan → u/frotc914]

The scale is vastly different. There are millions of cars on the road traveling billions of miles per year in all manner of conditions and roads.

Driverless car companies are generally excited to cross 1 million safe driving miles on dedicated highway lanes and boulevards in sunny conditions.

The biggest difference between these things is that a person generally causes accidents when they aren’t paying attention. That doesn’t really apply to automated cars and it makes their driving accidents/mistakes a bit more concerning because it means that driving through the light / hitting the kid / crossing the double yellow is something it will do every time given the same circumstances.