CS158-2 Activity #4

Instructions:
Answer the following questions in less than 200 words each.

Read the news (links below) happened about an AI car that killed a woman on March 18, 2018.

https://www.npr.org/2019/11/07/777438412/feds-say-self-driving-uber-suv-did-not-recognize-
jaywalking-pedestrian-in-fatal-

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/technology/uber-driverless-fatality.html

1. Who was to blame in this accident? and why?

Pinning the blame for the accident on a single party – either the jaywalker, or UBER, is
dastardly and foolish. Determining who is at fault at the incident takes more than what meets the
eye. In the case of an AI car by UBER fatally hitting Elaine Herzberg, both parties are at fault. While
it is entirely true that the victim disobeyed a traffic rule by jaywalking, another important
perspective is determining if whether “due care” is exercised or not and by which party did which.
This is where the case of the backup driver’s alibi comes into play.
In the article by NPR last November 7, 2019 based from The Arizona Republic, Rafaela
Vasquez, who acts as the backup driver for UBER’s autonomous vehicle, said that she was watching
an episode of The Voice while operating the test vehicle. This entails that a certain degree of due
care was not complied by the supposedly AI test vehicle supervisor.
Basing our verdict on conventional road traffic rules and regulations, both parties are at fault
– the victim for knowingly jaywalking despite being near a crosswalk, and UBER’s test vehicle
supervisor for failing to exercise “due care” during the test drive.

2. Autonomous vehicle is one of the reasons why several governments are working to have an AI Law.
Which else -- technologies -- do you think should also be under this law aside from autonomous vehicles?

Other technologies that should be under the AI Law would be the following: The first is the
“Internet of Things” ( IoT ), design as a program that combines information from connected devices
in order to accomplish a multitude of tasks like analytics, surveillance, gathering intel for public
behavior insight among others, that may tread the line between invading privacy and breaching
societal ethics and moral codes.
Another technology is the venture of robotics, particularly in military operations. The
development of autonomous and sentient fighting machines is more reality than fiction now, and
given the drastic developments and technological breakthroughs that we have presently, it is only a
matter of time before some country manages to develop one. This sparks a concern not only in
military strength and the threat that it poses, but also the possibility of it sparking a needless war to
either monopolize, or justify the existence of the said development.
Lastly, an emerging technology that should be governed by the would-be established AI law
is the “Blockchain” program, referring to a software that manages data and supply chain messages
to have a more secure internet transaction, which poses risk for data breach, theft, or selling.

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 3. Do you agree to stop investing on autonomous vehicles? How about looking at the vision that
autonomous vehicles have less accidents than humans doing the actual driving?

The potential and promise that autonomous vehicles carry is too good of an opportunity and
breakthrough to shrug off - the technological prospect of what AI vehicles offer aside from its other
overarching and enticing possible benefits – safety, less pollution and a better grasp of traffic
congestion.
However, it is not without its drawbacks. AI technology is still in its “infant” development.
Although there are partially autonomous vehicles being sold to market today like Tesla cars, fully-AI
vehicles are still far ahead, along with it is the prospect of minimizing traffic accidents and traffic-
related casualties due to human error. The promise of safer than human driving scenario has no
established guidelines or protocols to verify the aforementioned benefit. Along with this is the
reality that it is so early in development, that data is scarce to support the claim.
Another is the challenge of environmentalism. We have to realize that this self-driving
software can be applied to existing hardware – electric or gasoline; and even if it is electric
powered, its environmental impact would still depend on its source of electricity.
The venture of autonomous vehicles needs time, and ample investment to fully realize what
we envision it to be.

Other References:

Browne, J. (2019). Five myths about autonomous vehicles. The Washington Post. Retrieved from:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/five-myths/five-myths-about-autonomous-
vehicles/2019/08/15/245c39bc-bec6-11e9-b873-63ace636af08_story.html

Maddox, T. (2020). Top 10 emerging technologies of 2020: Winners and losers. TechRepublic. Retrieved
from:
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/top-10-emerging-technologies-of-2020-winners-and-losers/

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