[throwaw1yyy]

from people who work in those companies:

those cars could be in every city and they’d run great (except snow. snow is tough, rain not so much)

but why aren’t driverless cars there?

It’s been decided you want a perfect track record, as close to flawless - to appease regulation bodies.

regulation is what kills and regulation is the biggest fear. The cars and tech are always getting better, the ‘slowness’ is deliberate, the bet is on the future.

[dghlsakjg]

According to the DOT over 70% of US roads are in areas that receive snowfall. (https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/weather/weather_events/snow_ice.htm)

The inability to operate in conditions where people are most likely to not be able to use active transportation seems like a pretty major flaw.

[avidiax]

> It’s been decided you want a perfect track record, as close to flawless - to appease regulation bodies.

This is why I feel China will be the first to have unlimited self-driving. They would be able to treat self-driving cars the way that we treat trains: liability on the person hit by the train, so long as the train was functioning properly.

[nradov]

Maybe the Chinese self-driving cars will be programmed to kill any pedestrians they accidentally hit. Apparently it's cheaper that way.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2015/09/why-drivers-in-c...

[foobiekr]

People who work there will of course claim that. Maybe they should demonstrate it.