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Tesla’s Autopilot a ‘distant second’ to GM’s Super Cruise system in Consumer Reports testing
I think this is very interesting because of Consumer Report's reason for their evaluation.
It is a theme we've heard before. When society's interest conflict with the individual owner's interest, which takes priority? We'll hear this question it again and again in many ways in the future. There is no answer that we can all agree on all of the time. Not ever.
Another way this question comes forward again involves Tesla. Tesla is selling their own brand of auto insurance. But Tesla has information that other insurance companies don't. It knows how fast you accelerated, how close you come to other cars, how close to pedestrians, how fast you round each curve in the road. They know how often the car reminded you to stay alert. That enables Tesla to compute the price for the insurance premiums for each driver. They can give deep discounts to safe drivers and sky high prices for dangerous ones. For young people especially, car insurance is much higher than the price of the car plus the cost of operation. If they display the cost in the car in real time, they might even persuade dangerous drivers to become safer. Of course, creepiness and invasion of privacy is the other side of the coin.
Perhaps we can have a SELFISH/ALTRUISTIC toggle switch on all our automated devices. If you choose SELFISH, it will cost you an additional $100/hour, but you are allowed to choose. For rich people, the fee might be progressive and expressed in percent of your net worth. That might be the way to manage the question of automation ethics if we can't ever agree.
I think this is very interesting because of Consumer Report's reason for their evaluation.
- The GM autopilot aggressively monitors the driver to make sure he/she is alert and paying attention.
- The GM autopilot can be used only on preplanned roads and not on residential suites.
It is a theme we've heard before. When society's interest conflict with the individual owner's interest, which takes priority? We'll hear this question it again and again in many ways in the future. There is no answer that we can all agree on all of the time. Not ever.
Another way this question comes forward again involves Tesla. Tesla is selling their own brand of auto insurance. But Tesla has information that other insurance companies don't. It knows how fast you accelerated, how close you come to other cars, how close to pedestrians, how fast you round each curve in the road. They know how often the car reminded you to stay alert. That enables Tesla to compute the price for the insurance premiums for each driver. They can give deep discounts to safe drivers and sky high prices for dangerous ones. For young people especially, car insurance is much higher than the price of the car plus the cost of operation. If they display the cost in the car in real time, they might even persuade dangerous drivers to become safer. Of course, creepiness and invasion of privacy is the other side of the coin.
Perhaps we can have a SELFISH/ALTRUISTIC toggle switch on all our automated devices. If you choose SELFISH, it will cost you an additional $100/hour, but you are allowed to choose. For rich people, the fee might be progressive and expressed in percent of your net worth. That might be the way to manage the question of automation ethics if we can't ever agree.