Manufacturers of “driverless” vehicles apparently are soon to be held liable for crashes in the UK, not the owners.
British motorists will “not be liable” if their self-driving vehicle crashes while they are behind the wheel, according to experts.
Yousif Al-Ani, principal ADAS engineer at ‘automotive risk intelligence company Thatcham Research stressed a recent ruling has ended speculation over driverless shunts.
The new guidelines were published under the 2024 Automated Vehicles Act, which outlined various policies around self-driving models.
It’s believed by 2026 this may prevent Tesla from operating in the county, as the brand crashes almost constantly and always blames the owner to avoid fixing its defects. Their latest “full self driving” 12.5 AI software ignores red lights now more than ever. Not kidding, it always was bad but it’s getting far worse, repeatedly speeding through intersections without stopping despite the red signal that clearly tells it to stop.
Also, perhaps not ironically, the UK Parliament gleefully promoted the absolute worst idea of “driverless” cars as an always on surveillance robot (e.g. dalek) that removes everyone else from the roads because it reports anyone who appears for criminal activity.
…it may be that, as in the USA and Switzerland for instance, UK pedestrians should be able to walk across urban roads—I stress urban—only at certain points and when permitted. We do not want early accidents undermining the success of self-drive vehicles…
…on the assumption that all AVs will have permanently functioning all-round cameras and even black boxes, people will soon learn. Everything around a self-drive car will be recorded. You might even think twice about smacking your child near a self-drive car.
As everyone must know by now, given American jaywalk laws were racist by design to criminalize the mobility of non-whites, this is the language of an Orwellian tyranny.
In effect, if “driverless” are meant to become private surveillance robots trying to completely criminalize British life, I suspect public opposition will be provoked. Expect people to try to force the robots to crash, now that the owners aren’t liable. The new law opens the door to massive resistance going direct against the manufacturers, as the owners have been given some protection from this brewing conflict.
It’s a bit like the UK saying don’t kill our tank drivers, they should be treated as POW or even released, but feel free to destroy the tanks.
And on that note, what happens when car makers in the UK roll out horrible defects with the mindset of DGAF? Who is going intervene and force them to stop social harms?
Every day, Waymo’s driverless autonomous vehicles gather in the parking lot on 2nd and Harrison streets to park between rides and recharge. Periodically, the high-tech vehicles start honking at each other. Residents who live in apartment buildings next door said the overnight (and early morning) honking is too loud to sleep through.
Don’t worry that will be fixed in the next release. Didn’t work? Don’t worry that will be fixed in the next release… ad infinitim. Tesla is on version 12.5 and running red lights.
Catch them if you can.
Imagine thousands of “driverless” cars programmed to be a nuisance or even harmful, because liability is cleverly ignored by the manufacturer and the owner doesn’t care because not liable.
Related 2018: Arizona Rush to Adopt Driverless Cars Devolves into Pedestrian War
Related 2023: San Francisco protestors are disabling autonomous vehicles using traffic cones. “It’s a great time”
I’ve recently heard that throwing a giant blanket or tarp over a robotaxi not only disables it but also utterly terrifies passengers who become trapped inside with nobody to call for help.