Re: The main issue
@David Nash
"As I understood it, the self-driving robot car did not have something in its path. It was in the path of the other car, which hit it side-on."
Agreed - the driver proceeding straight through an intersection has the right-of-way over a left turning driver (in North America). In this case the left turning driver would be considered at fault as there was a greater onus on them to make sure they could turn across the other lane safely.
While a real person in the Uber car may have recognized a potentially dangerous situation and used more caution at the intersection, the Uber car failed to respond to the potentially dangerous situation and proceeded strictly bases on the fact that there were no cars in its path. While what it did was not strictly illegal, programming the extra analysis of abstract details that a person does would be a huge task.
Maybe when all cars are automated (and I am not looking forward to that) they can communicate enough to work out coordination of movement, but outside a closed system the AI just isn't there yet.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
