Allwissen Auto? (Score 2)

I think we're all forgetting something here. Even if an autonomous car is advanced enough that it can tell the difference between a bus and a semi truck (based on what I've seen, most current prototypes see other cars as shapes with velocities), it's not going to be able to figure out whether that bus is full of children, nuns, convicts, migrant workers, or nothing. Autonomous cars aren't likely to meaningfully tell the difference between a Ford Pinto and a Rolls Royce for a very long time, if they ever really do. The decision the car makes in such a situation will be based on whatever factors it can actually determine, without trying to poll a remote database about who's driving what and why over unreliable cellular data links. Likely, if it's completely boxed in and there's something coming towards it, it will just try to stop dead, which I'm pretty sure is what I would do too. Honestly, I don't want to live in a world where my car knows enough to even be in the position to make an ethical decision about whether I live or die. The place you all seem to be postulating in sounds like even more of a ludicrous surveillance state than we already live in.