If you missed this survey, the question is as follows: "Multiple fatal Tesla accidents are making headlines, and Waymo is also accumulating thousands of parking tickets. As the number of autonomous taxis continues to increase, these figures are only set to rise further. But when a taxi driven by AI malfunctions, who should be held responsible?"
This vote coincides with Tesla's Cybercab making a reappearance in Austin, Texas earlier this month, as well as the news that the long-delayed Tesla Semi has begun mass production in Nevada. Therefore, it's not surprising to receive a large number of responses. What surprised me was how many people are willing to absolve the person behind the steering wheel of any responsibility when things go wrong.
Looking at the numbers...
Only 102 votes, which is about 3.5%, were cast for the option "the person sitting in the driver's seat" as the responsible party. This option states: "Whether it's the taxi you called or not, common sense tells us that human intervention is sometimes necessary, and you are that 'person.'" By the way, I cast at least two of those votes myself (come at me if you want!).
For me, this was once obvious, but the purpose of communicating with others is to listen, learn, and grow. However, what I heard, learned, and eventually came to believe is that vehicle owners should be the ones to take responsibility – a view that has also been promoted by commentators like Ian.
"It's quite obvious. Whether the driver is AI or a human being, it is the car owner who bears the responsibility. If I lend you my car and you drive it into a coffee shop, then I would have to compensate for the damages. The car is insured, but the insurance covers the car, not the driver. I don't understand why people are still asking this question. It's already very clear under current law. IAN"
...and driven by the views of pushedbyvolts, I think he put it best...
"Whoever owns this car should bear the responsibility. Every car has the potential to violate the law, and once that happens, the driver bears the responsibility. If there is no driver, then the registered owner is responsible for putting a vehicle that could violate the law on the streets. If this will ruin the business model of some autonomous taxis, then so be it. PUSHEDBYVOLTS"
…because he pointed out that, indeed, every car in history has had the potential to break the law – whether by speeding, illegal parking, or being deliberately used as a weapon against others. In such cases, it seems utterly absurd to blame the manufacturers or technology suppliers for these incidents.
That being said, nearly 90% of the votes clearly pointed the blame at the AI developers who drove the car. In my opinion, the comments from Stephen Fields provide the most convincing arguments for this stance:
This view also makes sense, but I would argue that calling for a vehicle that has no means of self-rescue when other options are clearly available is in itself an assumption of responsibility. However, what if there are no other options? That's another matter entirely. There are many subtle differences here, and the responsibility needs to be allocated to varying degrees between the manufacturer and the AI developers.
However, regardless of who ultimately bears the responsibility, the resident commentator BCGeiger delivered what I consider to be the fatal blow:
"I believe the responsibility should be shared equally between automobile manufacturers and AI manufacturers. It's not an either/or situation. They are working together to bring this hellish scenario to reality." BCGEIGER
The phrase “hellish scene” convinced me. However, I then asked another AI to help me create a header image (see above) and to beautify the charts on it as well. So what do I know now? If you agree with the responses of nearly nine out of ten Electrek readers to the original survey, or if you think we are all wrong, feel free to leave a comment below.
The original text is from Electrek.
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