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posted by martyb on Wednesday August 26 2015, @04:56PM   Printer-friendly
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.”


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by mhajicek on Thursday August 27 2015, @02:37AM

    by mhajicek (51) on Thursday August 27 2015, @02:37AM (#228403)

    The difference being that your car is right there; the ambulance is not. I'm five minutes from a hospital without speeding or running a red. I could get there before they could get to me, counting talking and dispatch time.

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    The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
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  • (Score: 2) by Alfred on Thursday August 27 2015, @01:38PM

    by Alfred (4006) on Thursday August 27 2015, @01:38PM (#228569) Journal
    Yup, and I was thinking about the more extreme case where in the country you are 30+ minutes from the nearest hospital. Waiting 30 for the ambulance to show up when you could just go to the hospital in the same time. Of course in the country the traffic is not much of a problem.
  • (Score: 2) by kurenai.tsubasa on Thursday August 27 2015, @01:49PM

    by kurenai.tsubasa (5227) on Thursday August 27 2015, @01:49PM (#228572) Journal

    Well, I am not 5 minutes from a hospital. There is, however, an ambulance 5 minutes from me. Sometimes even 30 seconds from me when they park at a nearby big box store.

    I know we're all Internet Tough Guys and Amazons here, but the ambulance will be faster.

    • (Score: 2) by mhajicek on Thursday August 27 2015, @08:52PM

      by mhajicek (51) on Thursday August 27 2015, @08:52PM (#228720)

      If the ambulance is near you, you would have the advantage of trained and experienced EMTs with equipment to stabilize before transport.

      --
      The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by kurenai.tsubasa on Thursday August 27 2015, @09:58PM

        by kurenai.tsubasa (5227) on Thursday August 27 2015, @09:58PM (#228747) Journal

        Good point! For some reason I didn't even consider that.

        But! Here comes Obamacare and the “religious objection.” Here's a counterpoint (to the idea that the ambulance is the better option when you know one will arrive within 5 minutes): if the person who got shot is a trans woman who doesn't pass so well or if the nature of the injury might reveal her privates (or if it's a man known for being homosexual), the ambulance is right out.

        I could possibly reach the nearest hospital in 15–20 minutes if I really push the pace and run red lights. So, the calculation becomes one of what I think the chances are of waiting 5 minutes for the ambulance to arrive only to be told “ur a fag! religious objection!” and still need to transport the patient myself.

        (I'm unclear whether emergency services can be denied at the hospital, but I know from experience and the news that emergency transport services and routine medical services sure as hell can be denied. I suppose worst case scenario, I'd better import some Chinese herbs and get a refresher course on field surgery and wound dressing back at the tribe! [Meta: boo on anyone who replies as though I believe Amazon medicine is more effective than Western medicine. Religious objection is medical jargon for “fuck you, fag! DIAF!” Either that or a hint that my mission-critical role in enabling a small local company to bring cash from all over North America right here to a local economy in flyover country is simply not needed, and someone less capable who will capture less of the economy for the locals, but is straight, is wanted. And yes, currently planning to grant them their wish, but it's not as though I can pull myself up by my roots in an instant like I could when I was a teenager.])