LIVE
Hi, I'm Dr. Lance, and welcome to my podcast series about self-driving cars.
In this episode, I'll be discussing the topic of bully drivers and self-driving cars.
If you've become interested in learning more about self-driving cars, please see my website
www.ai-self-driving-cars.guru for further information.
Okay, let's get started.
The official Department of Motor Vehicles Driver Handbook for California provides prescribed
driving practices that everyone is supposed to comply with while driving on our state
roadways.
The rules here in California are very similar to the rules that you'd find in all the
other states in the U.S.
In the case of California, there's 130 pages of crucial material in the driver's handbook
for which licensed California drivers get tested on and presumably need to understand and are
certainly expected to obey.
Here's a question for you to ponder.
Should the state handbooks on licensed driving include prescribed practices for human drivers
to abide by when they're driving nearby to self-driving cars?
Some say yes, namely that we need to update all of our state driving handbooks and correspondingly
each of the state's sets of vehicle codes, so as to include specifics about the expectations
for human drivers when encountering self-driving cars.
Logic being that there's already explicitly stated expectations about driving nearby
to motorcyclists, nearby to bicyclists, even nearby to horse-drawn carriages.
Thus, shouldn't there be one for self-driving cars?
Those that say no to this, meaning that they don't see a need to include driving practices
depicting self-driving cars as any special roadway consideration, argue that a self-driving car
should be treated as any other car being driven on our streets and highways.
In essence, they insist that the existing driving regulations are sufficient and that
human drivers are to drive in the same manner as they would drive when around other human
drivers as to when they drive near to self-driving cars.
You might be somewhat perplexed in the subject because there are some pundits that keep saying
we're going to have only self-driving cars on our roadways and that human driving will
essentially become extinct.
Imagine a world in which all cars are purely self-driving cars.
No need to worry about the wild antics of human drivers.
No need to license human drivers.
No need to be worried about drivers that get drunk while driving or are distracted
while driving.
Yes, that would be quite a world.
But keep in mind that for the foreseeable future we're going to have a mixture of human-driven
cars and AI-driven cars.
There won't be some overnight transformation for which we suddenly have all and only
self-driving cars on our roadways.
In the United States alone, realize that there are over 250 million conventional cars,
they are going to disappear simply due to the gradual emergence of self-driving cars.
Presumably self-driving cars will gradually be introduced and gradually increase in
numbers, which will likely lead to a gradual decrease of human-driven cars, all this taking
place over many decades to come.
Let's then let agree that there will be an extensive time period during which both human
drivers and AI self-driving cars will be mixed together on the roads together.
The question is, will they play nicely with each other?
There are two facets about the nature of human drivers that need to be considered.
Number one, human drivers driving in their everyday questionable ways and then per chance
doing so well nearby a self-driving car.
And number two, human drivers that realize that a self-driving car is nearby and purposely
aim to maneuver in a manner intended to either play with, confound, overrule, or exploit
the fact that it's a self-driving car.
Many of the automakers and tech firms that are developing starting to field public
runway tryouts of their self-driving cars are generally trying to deal with this first
facet already.
Earlier versions of self-driving cars might have encoded in a fashion that the AI assume
there weren't human drivers around particularly, but the latest versions tend to be aiming
to deal with human drivers that are nearby and driving in a relatively normal way,
including greedy drivers, uncaring drivers, reckless drivers, and so on.
The second facet is a bit of a twist on this topic and that one that has not
been given as much attention.
For the second facet, human drivers are at times changing their driving behavior specifically
and explicitly when they encounter a self-driving car.
You might liken this to what some human drivers do when they see a novice teenage driver driving
a car that's marked as a driver instruction vehicle.
Believe it or not, some human drivers do rather dastardly or dreadful things when
they're near such a vehicle.
For example, some such drivers try to cut off the novice teenage driver wanting to see
how the neophyte will handle it.
Other times, a weather driver might zip around the novice teenage driver doing so because
the novice is not going fast enough for them, even if they're already doing the speed
limit.
In case you weren't already aware, human drivers are now starting to do that same
kind of triggered driving whenever they see a self-driving car is nearby.
Apparently, familiarity brings forth a bit of disdain.
Some like to cut off self-driving cars just to see what happens, akin to the same trickery
that they might have pulled on a novice teenage driver.
Others are annoyed that the self-driving car is abiding strictly by the speed limit
and thus try to zip around them to leave that self-driving car in the dust.
There are outright pranks being played on self-driving cars.
How, as a society, shall we contend with those human drivers that want to essentially bully
the AI systems of self-driving cars?
Merely asking people to stop such efforts is not likely to do much.
Here are some of the options that have been voiced.
First, make it the law.
So some say put it into the official driving regulations in each state that any such driving
acts by human drivers against or toward a self-driving car is absolutely against the law.
Number two, catch them.
Since human drivers know they can get away with this kind of driving antics and not
likely get caught unless there happens to be a police car nearby, consider using the
sensory data collected by the self-driving car as a means to legally pursue those
untoward human drivers.
Number three, divide up our roads.
Some suggest it's best not to have human drivers mixing with self-driving cars and thus we should
divide up our roadways, having some streets or hideways or particular lanes, some declared
for human-driven cars only, others for self-driving cars only.
The notion, though, of dividing the roads is fraught with all kinds of problematic issues.
For example, the odds are the costs to do this will be enormous.
Lastly, toughen up the AI.
This viewpoint suggests that self-driving cars ought to be able to drive in the same way that
other human drives, fighting fire with fire, so to speak.
If a human driver is going to drive aggressively towards a self-driving car, perhaps the self-driving
car shouldn't back down, bowing to that human bully and instead needs to showcase it too
as willing to play the doggie-dog game of driving.
This will presumably teach human drivers not to mess around with self-driving cars.
Some worry, though, that if we do toughen up the AI in that manner we could have self-driving
cars that will start driving in the same untoward manner that human drivers do.
We'll wake up one morning and find ourselves confronted by essentially angry AI driving
systems that seem to dare human drivers in the same way that human drivers do to
other human drivers.
If so, we would presumably end up potentially with a lot more car accidents and road rages
by human drivers against those in-your-face AI systems.
Thus, we would fail to gain the hope for reductions in car crash-related deaths and injuries
due to the advent of self-driving cars.
In a sense, we're in the midst of placing a new set of drivers onto our roadways.
We need to figure out how existing drivers will deal with these strangers, perhaps
welcome them with open arms, or deciding to exploit or bully them like their newbies
that deserve a hazing.
Some believe that we need to deal with these bullies proactively before they get out of
hand and make a mess of those polite and civil AI driving systems that are newbie drivers.
Well, thanks for listening.
Again, I'm Dr. Lancelot.
I hope that you found today's episode informative.
If you're interested in learning more about self-driving cars, please see my website
www.ai-self-driving-cars.goo-roo for further information.
0:00
9:25