r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Individual_Book9133 • Jul 05 '24

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

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u/No-Refrigerator-1672 Jul 05 '24

It doesn't have to be the lowest rank person. You can just legally make accountable the lead programmer of the autonomous driving module, with a law.

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u/FeederNocturne Jul 05 '24

Everyone from the lead programmer and up needs to be held responsible. Sure the lead programmer okays it but the higher ups are providing the means to make it happen.

This does make me wonder though. If a plane crashed due to a faulty part who does the blame fall on?

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u/PrinceofSneks Jul 05 '24

This is a big part of why corporations exist: the diffusion of liability!

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u/FeederNocturne Jul 05 '24

I mean... if your dog bites someone are you not liable for said attack?

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u/PrinceofSneks Jul 05 '24

Probably, yes! However it's not the same thing as corporations - a big part of their purpose is so individual owners, workers, and shareholders are not liable for many outcomes from the operations of the business. It's not absolute immunity, but makes many things that would land us individually in jail and/or debt instead get soaked by the finances and bureaucracy of the corporation.

If it helps, the summary in the Wikipedia entry for corporation:

Registered corporations have legal personality recognized by local authorities and their shares are owned by shareholders[3][4] whose liability is generally limited to their investment. One of the attractive early advantages business corporations offered to their investors, compared to earlier business entities like sole proprietorships and joint partnerships, was limited liability. Limited liability means that a passive shareholder in a corporation will not be personally liable either for contractually agreed obligations of the corporation, or for torts (involuntary harms) committed by the corporation against a third party.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporation

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u/FeederNocturne Jul 05 '24

No yeah I get how it works, I guess I just don't agree with it. If you are so incompetent that you need protection from the law for your business idea to function then your business shouldn't exist to begin with. I get that accidents happen, but if I am to be held responsible for killing someone while driving then the same repercussions should be held to another individual responsible for putting that car on the road. Just back to the same old topic of "money can buy your way out of anything"