SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the could-get-interesting-on-Halloween dept.
A police officer is directing traffic in the intersection when he sees a self-driving car barreling toward him and the occupant looking down at his smartphone. The officer gestures for the car to stop, and the self-driving vehicle rolls to a halt behind the crosswalk. "This seems like a pretty plausible interaction. Human drivers are required to pull over when a police officer gestures for them to do so. It’s reasonable to expect that self-driving cars would do the same." But Will Oremus writes that while it's clear that police officers should have some power over the movements of self-driving cars, "what’s less clear is where to draw the line." Should an officer be able to "do the same if he suspects the passenger of a crime? And what if the passenger doesn’t want the car to stop—can she override the command, or does the police officer have ultimate control?"
According to a RAND Corp. report on the future of technology and law enforcement “the dark side to all of the emerging access and interconnectivity is the risk to the public’s civil rights, privacy rights, and security.” It added, “One can readily imagine abuses that might occur if, for example, capabilities to control automated vehicles and the disclosure of detailed personal information about their occupants were not tightly controlled and secured.”
Original Submission
(Score: 3, Touché) by ikanreed on Wednesday August 26 2015, @05:18PM
The same way we limit the power of crooked cops to pull you over and ticket you: barely at all through a complex and opaque legal system.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by frojack on Wednesday August 26 2015, @07:27PM
Crooked or not, in each case, the decision to pull over or make a run for it is up to the driver.
This is why there has to be someone in the vehicle capable of hitting a button telling the car to make a safe stop. This idea that you can throw your toddlers in the car and tell it to take them to grandmother's house is nonsense. That's never going to happen.
There are many jurisdictions where from time to time, the police departments will recommend that you call 911 to verify that the officer attempting to pull you over is a valid officer, and not some rapist with a costume and a RadioShack red lights.
Police need no control of driver-less cars. They can signal the occupants to stop just like they do now.
The difference is, simply standing in front of a driver-less car would be sufficient to force its programming to stop.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Wednesday August 26 2015, @07:49PM
There are many jurisdictions where from time to time, the police departments will recommend that you call 911 to verify that the officer attempting to pull you over is a valid officer, and not some rapist with a costume and a RadioShack red lights.
That's probably not a bad idea anyway. At the very least it helps in establishing another link in the chain of evidence, unless the police force is so corrupt they are erasing 911 calls as well, in which case you're already screwed.
(Score: 1) by Francis on Wednesday August 26 2015, @08:05PM
That's bad advice. You're legally required to pull to the side of the road when you see those lights. It doesn't matter whether they're trying to stop you or somebody else. And in cases like that I see no reason why the police shouldn't be able to make the car do it. The only concerns I have here are that the stops are properly logged and that they've set things up so that it's resistant to random hackery.
As far as costumes go, is that even a common problem? I know that it does happen, but I have a hard time believing that it's so common as to warrant refusing to stop and calling 911 to verify. Perhaps if you're on a back country road, but on a major city street this is probably no more of a risk than an attack by a real police officer. And good luck convincing a judge that you weren't resisting arrest, when you're refusing to stop on that basis.
(Score: 3, Informative) by dltaylor on Wednesday August 26 2015, @08:45PM
Back when there was a serial killer on I-15 near San Diego (turned out to be a then-active CHP officer), the recommended guidelines FROM THE CHP was to only pull over somewhere well-lit and populated. This works for the officers, too, since they are less likely to be shot at under the same circumstances.
(Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Wednesday August 26 2015, @10:18PM
I have a hard time believing that it's so common as to warrant refusing to stop and calling 911 to verify.
First, I never said anything about refusing to stop.
Second: I suggest you google
fake police traffic stop
This is much more common than you think.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 27 2015, @05:57AM
The difference is, simply standing in front of a driver-less car would be sufficient to force its programming to stop.
That could never go wrong.
Someone could stand in the road, causing the driverless car to stop, and then men from the sides come up to the car and shower it with bullets.