Big Smile, No Teeth: Circling self-driving cars

According to a recent study, the autonomous vehicle is significantly safer towards other road users than human drivers are. Which is reassuring, but this came after years of testing. If de-regulation hits the US, we could lose valuable testing time and be rushing self-driving cars onto roads too quickly. — Filepic/AFP

Recently, a passenger in a Waymo-operated self-driving vehicle recorded himself circling endlessly in an airport parking lot in the United States. In the video, he’s on with tech support who seems quite powerless to stop the vehicle, though they say they are trying to pull the car over.

The user says he’s getting dizzy and is worried about missing his flight but seems only mildly upset in the video – then again, in a self-driving car gone rogue scenario, circling a parking lot seems like a pretty benign case. The nightmare scenario is the autonomous car using its agency to drive off a cliff or into oncoming traffic.