With there be more carjackings when self-driving cars are more common?
Almost all, (all?) self driving cars and cars with crash avoidance also have pedestrian avoidance, PA, technology that automatically applies the brakes when a pedestrian is in the path of the car. Will carjackers eventually figure out that they can immobilize a car in traffic by just standing in front and behind it?
I don’t have that feature in my car. If someone, or a group, tries to stop me by standing in my path they will be “unsuccessful” to say the least.
Can the PA function be overridden quickly? My car has this to some degree. It’s obnoxiously conservative to avoid any possibility of injuring someone when you’re trying to use the “summon mode.” There is no real override.With the enhanced autopilot, you’re always in full control, so you could just stomp the accelerator, override the system and ram into the guy.
When you don’t have a steering wheel or accelerator though in a fully autonomous car, how would you control or override it? I don’t think there’s a way to do so. That said, how would the carjacker control it once he’s forced you out of the vehicle with video footage of the entire incident and GPS coordinates of the car he’s steeling? It is difficult to predict with certainty how the prevalence of carjackings may change as self-driving cars become more commonplace. However, it is worth considering that self-driving cars may make it more difficult for carjackers to operate, since they rely on human drivers to take control of the vehicle. Additionally, self-driving cars may be equipped with advanced security features that can make them less vulnerable to carjacking attempts. Ultimately, the impact of self-driving cars on carjackings will depend on a variety of factors and will likely be influenced by the measures taken to ensure the security of these vehicles. It stands to reason that car jacking an autonomous car must certainly be a more involved and sophisticated business than the current routine. In fact, even today’s conventional vehicles are capable of being both tracked and disabled remotely. The standard concept of some kid snatching a woman from a car paused at a traffic light, then speeding away—that already is pretty much a bygone concept for recent production high end automobiles. Individual and nowadays unannounced components on cars can feature tracking and disabling devices either you or anyone with the codes can activate with a phone. When it comes to autonomous cars, God only knows how many entities will have the capability to track or disable the things. It is also quite easy to make an entirely-uncomputerized car to have a panic button that completely disables the car, and sounds the horn.
But almost no one has such a system installed. There are always design issues with trade-offs and complications. Is anti-car-jacking the highest design priority? How about the concern that a disabling feature may trigger when unwanted? For example, when someone wants to kidnap or rob you? I mean, I see what you’re saying, I can see your point, but it’s not like it’s incredibly hard to commit a crime right now. We have prosecutors that don’t prosecute, and some inner city police departments have had a hands-off attitude since Ferguson (though most will deny that is why). So unless you’re really sh—at crime, if you own a gun, you can do crime pretty easily right now with a good expectation that you’re going to get away with it. So do changes in automated cars move the needle on that? Maybe a bit. But I suspect the effect is SWAMPED by other factors. Remember that automated cars also will have TONS of cameras. So I’m not sure an automated car is the target you want to be going after.
I don’t have that feature in my car. If someone, or a group, tries to stop me by standing in my path they will be “unsuccessful” to say the least.
Can the PA function be overridden quickly? My car has this to some degree. It’s obnoxiously conservative to avoid any possibility of injuring someone when you’re trying to use the “summon mode.” There is no real override.With the enhanced autopilot, you’re always in full control, so you could just stomp the accelerator, override the system and ram into the guy.
When you don’t have a steering wheel or accelerator though in a fully autonomous car, how would you control or override it? I don’t think there’s a way to do so. That said, how would the carjacker control it once he’s forced you out of the vehicle with video footage of the entire incident and GPS coordinates of the car he’s steeling? It is difficult to predict with certainty how the prevalence of carjackings may change as self-driving cars become more commonplace. However, it is worth considering that self-driving cars may make it more difficult for carjackers to operate, since they rely on human drivers to take control of the vehicle. Additionally, self-driving cars may be equipped with advanced security features that can make them less vulnerable to carjacking attempts. Ultimately, the impact of self-driving cars on carjackings will depend on a variety of factors and will likely be influenced by the measures taken to ensure the security of these vehicles. It stands to reason that car jacking an autonomous car must certainly be a more involved and sophisticated business than the current routine. In fact, even today’s conventional vehicles are capable of being both tracked and disabled remotely. The standard concept of some kid snatching a woman from a car paused at a traffic light, then speeding away—that already is pretty much a bygone concept for recent production high end automobiles. Individual and nowadays unannounced components on cars can feature tracking and disabling devices either you or anyone with the codes can activate with a phone. When it comes to autonomous cars, God only knows how many entities will have the capability to track or disable the things. It is also quite easy to make an entirely-uncomputerized car to have a panic button that completely disables the car, and sounds the horn.
But almost no one has such a system installed. There are always design issues with trade-offs and complications. Is anti-car-jacking the highest design priority? How about the concern that a disabling feature may trigger when unwanted? For example, when someone wants to kidnap or rob you? I mean, I see what you’re saying, I can see your point, but it’s not like it’s incredibly hard to commit a crime right now. We have prosecutors that don’t prosecute, and some inner city police departments have had a hands-off attitude since Ferguson (though most will deny that is why). So unless you’re really sh—at crime, if you own a gun, you can do crime pretty easily right now with a good expectation that you’re going to get away with it. So do changes in automated cars move the needle on that? Maybe a bit. But I suspect the effect is SWAMPED by other factors. Remember that automated cars also will have TONS of cameras. So I’m not sure an automated car is the target you want to be going after.
