The morals of autonomous vehicles

I've often gotten into debates with people, regarding autonomous driving vehicles. In fact, Elon Musk had recently as April of this year, had proclaimed that they would be producing a vehicle without a steering wheel within the next two years.

We know that NOTHING is out of the realm of possibility, given time, but here is where I felt this argument of vehicles without steering controls, falls short. My point has always been that no matter how insanely terrific your driving algorithms are, that AI relies entirely on GPS and visual queues. There are so many variables that come into play with this - road line markers; traffic lights; toll booths; other vehicles; pedestrians and let us not forget overall visibility like fog, rain and snow.

As an I.T. professional, it has always been my belief that until the roads get "smarter", there will always be that one element that remains the weakest link in the chain. Once vehicles are "treated" like an IP address on a network, where all other vehicles and people (thru their smart phones), are identified like traffic on a VLAN, I think that only then can we reduce the possibility of "IP collisions" for lack of a better term. We have a long way to go on this subject but we are inching closer every day.

There will also remain a major point of contention which will need to be addressed, even before we reach this milestone, that of who or what is responsible in the event of a mishap. The actuarials will have a field day, once the law society can determine responsibility for autonomous driving vehicles. The moral question still needs to be answered - in the event that a vehicle strikes a pedestrian or another vehicle and causes a fatality, WHO is responsible? Is it the manufacture (probably not); is it the taxi company (assuming it was a taxi); it is the owner of said vehicle, who happened to be in the back seat reading the paper? This poses a veritable conundrum which still needs to be solved, in my opinion.

I am certain that we have all read stories about someone playing games on his smartphone while his vehicle (vehicle brand withheld on purpose), and the vehicle crashed into something. Did the vehicle send warnings? Who remembers? Was the owner/non-driver responsible? I am sure he was as I am also certain that the manufacturers of autonomous driving vehicles, have all sorts of caveats and legalese on the vehicle's screen, which the owner/driver will need to agree on, before said mode is engaged. I can only imagine what a nightmare of legal battles with insurance companies would occur under such conditions, as we have still not seen either legislature from government, or definitive statements from the automobile insurance industries, but this cannot be far, given the progress in this development.

I think that in the end, the same types of arguments used in science fiction, regarding the "robot's prime directive to preserve human life" will be applied in some form or another. And in the end, the manufacturer may have to end up sharing some of the burden of responsibility "when robots fail".