California Legislature Considers Bill to OK Robot Cars on Public Highways

Google's "driverless car"
(photo from Edmunds Inside Line)

Would you get into a robot-driven car? How would you feel if you shared the road with such a vehicle? If you are a pedestrian, would you feel "comfortable" knowing robot cars are sharing the intersection you're about to cross?

Well, the California legislature is currently considering a motion that would permit robot-driven vehicles to travel on the state's public highways. The measure has already passed the state assembly and is expected to reach a state senate vote soon, according to a story in today's San Jose Mercury News. Governor Jerry Brown is expected to sign the measure.

The notion of robot-driven cars is not far fetched. Google engineers and their Stanford University counterparts have each created and tested vehicles in which computers do the driving. There does seem a sense of inevitability about humans taking a figurative back seat. According to the Mercury News story, humans can intervene during the drive. I suppose that offers some comfort, but computers don't handle "watch out" warnings very nimbly.

The story also raised a number of intriguing issues, such as insurance liability and legal culpability in the event of an accident. The possibility of issuing a moving violation to a computer was great fun to contemplate. Finally, the article raised the question of a computer crash leading to a vehicle crash. And, despite the smug assurances of electrical engineers, computers do crash, sometimes with disastrous results.

If I were a hitchhiker, I would view computer-driven cars with distaste. The chance of a robot vehicle stopping to pick up someone with their thumb out are nearly zero. Driverless hitchhikers, along with other extraneous "human elements," just don't add up for a computer-driven vehicle.