How much of this will become irrelevant when robocars replace human drivers? I suspect the most important impact of safety rules will be how they affect the timing of that transition. Additional rules might slow that down a bit.
I must admit I have not really thought about this before, but intuitively it still seems important to have appropriate road safety legislation like speed limits in place even if it is robocars following them rather than human drivers. In fact, I could see it as important to have appropriate speed limits in place before the introduction of robocars in case robocars are programmed to drive faster than is safe as a reflection of a too high speed limit.
I think the use of seat belts is still a good norm to have, even if robocars will drive safer than human drivers.
I’m not sure whether this would affect the timing of the transition, but if the robocar was going to be programmed with a speed limit anyway then lowering the speed limit doesn’t seem like it would slow down the transition (not sure on this though).
I expect speed limits to hinder the adoption of robocars, without improving any robocar-related safety.
There’s a simple way to make robocars err in the direction of excessive caution: hold the software company responsible for any crash it’s involved in, unless it can prove someone else was unusually reckless. I expect some rule resembling that will be used.
Having speed limits on top of that will cause problems, due to robocars having to drive slower than humans drive in practice (annoying both the passengers and other drivers), when it’s safe for them to sometimes drive faster than humans. I’m unsure how important this effect will be.
Ideally, robocars will be programmed to have more complex rules about maximum speed than current laws are designed to handle.
How much of this will become irrelevant when robocars replace human drivers? I suspect the most important impact of safety rules will be how they affect the timing of that transition. Additional rules might slow that down a bit.
Hi Peter, thanks for your comment!
I must admit I have not really thought about this before, but intuitively it still seems important to have appropriate road safety legislation like speed limits in place even if it is robocars following them rather than human drivers. In fact, I could see it as important to have appropriate speed limits in place before the introduction of robocars in case robocars are programmed to drive faster than is safe as a reflection of a too high speed limit.
I think the use of seat belts is still a good norm to have, even if robocars will drive safer than human drivers.
I’m not sure whether this would affect the timing of the transition, but if the robocar was going to be programmed with a speed limit anyway then lowering the speed limit doesn’t seem like it would slow down the transition (not sure on this though).
I expect speed limits to hinder the adoption of robocars, without improving any robocar-related safety.
There’s a simple way to make robocars err in the direction of excessive caution: hold the software company responsible for any crash it’s involved in, unless it can prove someone else was unusually reckless. I expect some rule resembling that will be used.
Having speed limits on top of that will cause problems, due to robocars having to drive slower than humans drive in practice (annoying both the passengers and other drivers), when it’s safe for them to sometimes drive faster than humans. I’m unsure how important this effect will be.
Ideally, robocars will be programmed to have more complex rules about maximum speed than current laws are designed to handle.