Monday, March 06, 2017

Will It Be Legal For Kids To Ride Alone In A Self-Driving Car?

I'm a little bit kidding, but not entirely. Given the ratcheting up of the age at which "we" allow kids to do things without direct adult supervision - people are regularly confronted by authorities for leaving their kids (I don't mean toddlers in hot cars) in cars in parking lots - what would make leaving them in self-driving cars ok? But even more seriously, I do not think these self-driving car makers have seen a school car drop off line lately.
Volkwagen on the future: "This new automobile is intelligent, it’s always available and the car even carries out functions independently. Sedric will drive the children to school and then take their parents to the office, look independently for a parking space, collects shopping that has been ordered, picks up a visitor from the station and a son from sports training – all at the touch of a button, with voice control or with a smartphone app – fully automatically, reliably and safely."

Navigating a school drop off line is exactly the kind of "last 500 feet" problem I just do not see these cars being able to handle. Ever (yes, ever is a long time, the singularity is coming eventually, blahblah).