The Top 40

Actually legal and moral issues are far more interesting to me when it comes to self-driving cars. You can usually fix stuff you don't like in the features of a car - even On*Star style access.

But who is to blame if a driverless car hits someone? What if the car has to make a choice between hitting a kid or driving into a building? Or another person? Or oncoming traffic? What if the safe thing to do requires you to break the law, like speed to miss an obstruction or drive into the opposite lane?

It's doubtful that driverless cars will ever occupy the roads at the same time as drivered cars, for the reasons you've mentioned and more.

But, if they are, I would guess the owner or primary occupant of the driverless car would be responsible for it's "behavior".

If your car is on cruise control and it gets pulled for speeding doesn't the driver pay the ticket?

Maybe in the future the drivers license will be renamed to primary occupant license.

I don't think drone package delivery will happen neither.

I am far less worried about the driverless cars operated by computers than the ones I see on the highway every day. They have human beings sitting behind their steering wheels, but the humans are: texting, eating, applying makeup, yelling at their kids, taliking on the phone, ... Indeed, everything but driving. Those are the driverless cars that concern me.

BTW: If they want to kill you, they will, and they don't have to mess around with your car to do it.

The first question I ask myself is what kind of person would want to travel in a driverless car.

It might be an attractive option for blind or very elderly, but I doubt even that.

The first thing I think of when I think "driverless car" is "lawsuit bait". No, I don't think the owner or occupants of such a vehicle will be on the receiving end of the lawsuits. I think it will be the manufacturers and vendors of said vehicles. A gold mine for lawyers.

I don't think driverless cars are going to take over any time soon. I know software development, and I wouldn't trust software systems on that scale. (OK, arguably I risk my life to software whenever I travel via airlines, but I suspect that the software for airplanes is still far less complicated than what would be required for a driverless vehicle.) And other aspects would probably be unpopular. A driverless vehicle would probably not allow you to set cruising speed to be above the speed limit, and who wants to be restricted to that?

"If your car is on cruise control and it gets pulled for speeding doesn't the driver pay the ticket?"

Sure, but you SET your cruise control to the speed its going. You're clearly and deliberately going faster. But if a car has to make an autonomous decision its a bit less obvious who is liable.

The reason I'd want a driverless car is so that I can get from home to work or some other blindly repetitive, common trip without needing to pay attention. After the first 300 times, having someone else do the driving would be pleasant.

I agree with james. I don't like it when even family members drive my car with me in it. Loss of control yanno.