Bullish Driving In the Age Of Algorithms

By Ben Glass, Esquire

Benjamin W. Glass and Associates

. https://www.benglasslaw.com/

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Bullish Driving In the Age Of Algorithms

Cars will eventually be driverless, this is an agreed upon fact. There's a lot of speculation about when we will see people parsing emails or grabbing catnaps behind the wheel, but few disagree that it's happening.

Some find this terrifying and many look forward to removing themselves from the constant hustle and bustle of stop-and-go traffic jams. Since there will be an extended period of time where both driver and driverless cars will simultaneously be on the road, it's worth exploring some of the circumstances that may arise during the transition.

Driverless cars work through the use of computational algorithms that use sensor input to make decisions. These cars will be programmed to be risk averse. This will result in the ultimate form of a defensive driver.

Let's look at how an interaction between a driverless car and a car with a driver might happen. Say a vehicle unexpectedly begins to merge in front of a driverless car. The driverless car will instinctively brake to avoid a collision, allowing the vehicle to safely merge in front of it. That's a good outcome. The driverless car helped avoid an accident that a distracted or careless driver almost created. Contemplate for a moment here whether or not the driver was indeed careless or distracted.

Consider, by way of analogy, you're playing a computer in chess. Nowadays, even expert level grandmaster chess players cannot beat computers. But the computer you're playing has an algorithm programmed to not take any of your pieces and to not lose any of its own pieces. This would give you carte blanche to move your pieces about the board with total disregard for the opponent.

Now apply that logic to drivers who know that a driverless car will avoid them at all costs. People driving their own cars might cut in front of other vehicles with abandon, might tailgate constantly, and generally be more aggressive in all situations. They would do this under the assumption that the other vehicles will automatically avoid and accommodate them. Of course, some drivers will likely make the fatal flaw of assuming that all the other vehicles around them are driverless. One might imagine how many accidents will arise from that mentality. At some time, this will become less conjecture and more reality.