While this is not totally related, xkcd had a funny cartoon on self driving
cars yesterday. http://xkcd.com/1559/ . The situation in the cartoon might
qualify as a a malevolent situation. Others might just say that the self
driving car got rekt.

Cody Smith

On Wed, Aug 5, 2015 at 11:25 AM, Parks, Raymond <[email protected]> wrote:

>   My wife hates "New and Improved" and news-stories about vehicular
> homicide that state "the car hit the group of children at the school bus
> stop".  The first has been a staple of language comedy - how can something
> be new and improved at the same time?  Her gripe with the second is that a
> car (or truck or ...) has no volition - it must be controlled by someone.
> The driver hit the group of children with the car under their control.
> This will still be true for autonomous vehicles - even if the passengers in
> the car have no control (unlikely), the software developers who program the
> algorithms of the autonomous vehicle will be liable when the car hits the
> school children - the programmers hit the school children.
>
>   Speaking of autonomous vehicles, as I was commuting to work this
> morning, my Prius did it's "oh noes, I'm skidding" thing when I accelerated
> quickly out of my side street - there's always a patch of gravel and the
> anti-skid thinks the drive wheels have lost traction, drops power to the
> wheels, and suddenly I'm not accelerating into the hole in traffic that
> seemed plenty big enough.  After that, the anti-skid did the opposite
> (accelerated) when the car bumped over the potholes at Alameda and Rio
> Grande.
>
>   That made me think that the real problem with autonomous vehicles is how
> do they handle the abnormal environment.  In nuclear safety, we consider
> that any system has to operate in a normal (i.e. expected) environment, in
> abnormal (i.e. rare, not expected) environments, and malevolent (i.e. bad
> guys attacking) environments.  The edge cases of the abnormal environment
> will be the second biggest problem for autonomous vehicles (the malevolent
> environment is the biggest problem).  I expect, however, that those edge
> cases will happen more often than outright attacks and will have equally
> spectacular failure modes.
>
>   How will autonomous vehicles handle construction zones (that should be
> part of the normal environment, but I don't know if the programmers have
> thought about the infinite variations that can be encountered)?
>
>   How will autonomous vehicles handle GPS mapping errors? Humans seem to
> have trouble when their GPS tells them to turn into a one-way street or
> over a non-existent bridge - will autonomous vehicles do better?
>
>   How will autonomous vehicles handle low-water crossings?  That, too,
> should be part of the normal environment, but sometimes an exceptionally
> heavy rain moves them into the abnormal environment.
>
>   Presumably, autonomous vehicles will detect the tree branch that fell
> into the roadway - but will they notice the tree branch starting to fall?
> I'm not sure most humans would notice the latter, but some would.
>
>   I've driven in the mountains after some heavy rains and noticed on a
> curve ahead that the dirt under the blacktop had been washed out.  I knew
> from my long-distance observation not to drive over that section of road.
> Would an autonomous vehicle notice that?
>
>   Sorry to hijack the thread, but feel free to answer with a new subject.
> At least the first paragraph is on topic.
>
> Ray Parks
> Consilient Heuristician/IDART Old-Timer
> V: 505-844-4024  M: 505-238-9359  P: 505-951-6084
>
>
> On Aug 5, 2015, at 10:14 AM, Owen Densmore wrote:
>
> I have to admit to a fascination on evolution of language.  Remember The
> MacNeil/Lehrer Report? Robert MacNeil had a great series on the evolution
> of English, even to influence of the sea islands (Gullah),
>
> There are some downsides.  I'm bitchy about a few usages: If I *was*
> should be If I were, subjunctive. Loan is a noun so I can not "loan you
> something" .. "lend (verb) you something". Less -> Fewer.  It goes on.
>
> I bet we all have our own favorites.
>
>    -- Owen
>
> On Tue, Aug 4, 2015 at 4:27 PM, Gary Schiltz <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>> Enough is enough. If bro and bruuh are added to the dictionary, I will
>> start speaking Spanish exclusively. And what the fuck is "on fleek"? Wait,
>> I really don't want to know.
>>
>> Seriously *not* unbothered :-(
>>
>> On Tuesday, August 4, 2015, glen ep ropella <[email protected]>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> http://qz.com/465820/how-brand-new-words-are-spreading-across-america/
>>>
>>> --
>>> glen e. p. ropella, 971-255-2847, http://tempusdictum.com
>>>
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