Self Driving Car Company Says In 20 Years There Will Be No More Car Accidents - How Close Do You Think They Will Get To That Goal?

My question is this: Let's say I am riding in my autonomous car and the software fails and a collision happens. Who's responsible? I wasn't driving, but I'm the owner. Is the software developer responsible? But hey, surely the software will NEVER malfunction or be hit by a virus that CAUSES wrecks.

There is already a clause that protects manufacturers from lawsuits should an autonomous feature malfunction, similar to doctors and malpractice. The software developer is protected after the sale of their technology to the manufacturer which now remains the sole owner

Mercedes-Benz pioneered the clause in the 90's when they first introduced Distronic (adaptive cruise control) to production cars via the W140 S Class

So far there has not been one accident with a Mercedes-Benz where the driver has said the adaptive crusie control or autonomous features were the cause.

Mainly because Mercedes also built a shut down mechanism which automatically prevents usage of the autonomous features and prompts the driver to seek service ASAP should the computer detect any bugs/malfunction with the software.

As more and more manufactures adopt the technology and more vehicles become equipped, time will only tell if other manufacturer took the necessary precautions as well.

Until then, initially the driver/operator of the vehicle is responsible, until proven otherwise

Wait a minute. Auto manufacturers are arguing against chipping your vehicle saying that you only have a license to use the software and don't own it and cannot change it. They own the software. Hence if an autonomous car gets into an accident w/o owner intervention it is responsible and ergo the liability is with the software. They may try to have it both ways but likely would lose in court.

Until the fleet is 100% autonomous there will still be accidents with the human system and the autonomous system intermingled. Even after it is 100% there still be accidents due to incompatibility; think Microsoft interfacing with Apple.

I love this company, my MBLY shares keep rising, see you at $100 by years end!

Isn't this type of technology just going to effect officers getting laid off because cities will need less of them equals no more needing cops to hide out waiting for speeders. No more speeding, or running red lights or going 10 mph over the school zone? Wouldn't the cities just raise property taxes on citizens to make up for the loss of revenue? Just a thought.

Also, what if you get kidnapped by someone hijacking the car by software and they make the car go into the lake or into a wall? People do do stupid stuff like that.

I'm curious what its like being as paranoid as you...

Also, they say in 20 years no accidents? Does this mean, car manufacturers no longer have to aim for 5 start crash safety ratings? No more standard air bags? No more seat belts? Does this mean that the employees that test for crash safety ratings may have to worry about lay offs in 25 years from now? Just a thought. Cars would be cheaper no longer having safety features that's for sure.

Nope... Too many circumstances that a computer can't account for, Construction, new roads, dirt roads, snow covered roads. Etc... Will,still need current features.

A new thought: If the car is going to be a robot, does this mean that Firestone, Sears, NTB, Good Year have to worry about their jobs if consumers have to go to Microsoft, Samsung, Apple or Sony every 6 months for service?

You are looking this too broadly. This is just a more complex cruise control. When your cruise control breaks you may have to take it to the dealership to fix the computer, but no, Apple will not be changing your oil or rotating your tires.

If we just look to the general aviation (GA) industry, we can learn a lot of lessons:

- GA has some of the most stringent rules, regulations, training, and operating requirements in the world, and yet they're not accident free.

- The costs associated with GA are astronomical. Need to replace your magneto or alternator? You must use a GA-certified part. Be prepared to spend US$5000 for that part. Parts still fail. The automotive industry hopes to be better, while being more economical; after all, who'll pay $325,000 for new entry-level car, yet that's typical in GA. Good luck.

- GA has double and triple redundancy. Even so, problems still arise. Will the automotive sector adopt that level of redundancy, or hope to do even better with no redundancy?

- When GA system fail, like an autopilot, they warn the pilot as a way of saying "hey bud, you gotta manually fly the plane because the autopilot can't formulate a solution to do it for you." Even so, aviation incidents have happened because the entire highly-trained and extremely experienced flight crew were focused on other problems and didn't notice the autopilot had shut down. Do you think Joe Average Car Driver will do better when an autonomous system fails and expects the driver to take over?

The zero accident objective is a pipe dream that assumed a perfect world and a best-case scenario, which just isn't realistic.

Accent deaths will never get to zero, but there will be dramatically less of them. Every car is ultimately going to have government-mandated accident avoidance. Any new luxury car today is semi-autonomous already.