Just to be clear: there are humans choosing to have the car operate. That's not just semantics. Responsibility lies with the people making the choice to cause a system to operate.
Certainly not unless they are personally responsible for a serious offense, that's more like corporate malfeasance, not an individual traffic incident.
But the company itself should be given a citation for the majority of ordinary traffic violations, and should be the one fined.
If people act with gross negligence, then yes, we should arrest them. How that is defined may depend on a variety of factors, though, and is something that already has relevant case law in related fields.
Immediately stop all Waymo's in the jurisdiction, start legal proceeding against the company. Someone signed off on software/hardware that lacked sufficient protections, find out who.
If the violation is serious enough the autonomous predatory tow trucks will hear it on the radio then show up promptly to whisk the vehicle away, as usual. Plus in this case the driver is detained and the vehicle is impounded in the same stroke :)
After that it would only be fair that they would have to not only pay bail to the court, but also towing & storage fees before being released, like for any normal driver.
And if they skip bail, they're going back in the slammer :0
Just to be clear: there are humans choosing to have the car operate. That's not just semantics. Responsibility lies with the people making the choice to cause a system to operate.
So we should start arresting engineers and executives?
Executives, definitely yes. One person should be responsible for automated systems and services. The CEO is the most logical choice.
Certainly not unless they are personally responsible for a serious offense, that's more like corporate malfeasance, not an individual traffic incident.
But the company itself should be given a citation for the majority of ordinary traffic violations, and should be the one fined.
If people act with gross negligence, then yes, we should arrest them. How that is defined may depend on a variety of factors, though, and is something that already has relevant case law in related fields.
Immediately stop all Waymo's in the jurisdiction, start legal proceeding against the company. Someone signed off on software/hardware that lacked sufficient protections, find out who.
> Immediately stop all Waymo's in the jurisdiction
When we start taking idiot drivers' licenses away, sure. Otherwise this is a silly overreaction with a calculable cost in human lives.
>Someone signed off on software/hardware that lacked sufficient protections, find out who.
Crashed prod? Straight to jail.
Bridge collapsed? Straight to jail.
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Are you referring to the actual case mentioned here, where a car passed slowly through a market and... that was all what happened?
Aren’t waymos actually much safer and have less incidents per mile compared with human drivers? (Yes, they are and yes they do)
Sure, but it's not a cop's job to perform legal proceedings.
These may be little, but they are Jaguars.
And cops do sometimes want a higher performance police cruiser than average in case a runaway speeder needs to be apprehended.
Probably going to eventually need an autonomous one of these for some police departments:
https://gmauthority.com/blog/2026/09/california-highway-patr...
No driver needed but you still need to have a Robocop inside to get out and write the citation :)
In the old days this kind of thing was often referred to as a "police interceptor".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW8-1SYvDTI
If the violation is serious enough the autonomous predatory tow trucks will hear it on the radio then show up promptly to whisk the vehicle away, as usual. Plus in this case the driver is detained and the vehicle is impounded in the same stroke :)
After that it would only be fair that they would have to not only pay bail to the court, but also towing & storage fees before being released, like for any normal driver.
And if they skip bail, they're going back in the slammer :0
What do you believe is the correct course of action for law enforcement to take in this situation?
https://apnews.com/article/robot-germany-sexual-assault-colo...
Can you extend that to this situation?
A driver's license suspension would be sufficient, say for six months or so?
Depends on the circumstances, if it's a mechanical issue without an obvious cause neither the car or driver gets suspended.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009%E2%80%932011_Toyota_vehic...