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Stanford's robotic VW Touareg -- Winner of 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge
"We have no intent to kill anybody."


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RE: LIABILITY REFORM??
By niknik on 2/17/2006 10:47:32 AM , Rating: 2
Well, it's not unlike the thousands (millions?) of lives each day relying on computers/electronics. Fly-by-wire controlled planes, pacemakers, etc.
Heck, we went to the moon with "calculators"... :)

Of course, you won't be relying on Windows XP to drive your car. For each task, you need the proper tools. For this kind of stuff they probably have it covered, with triple redundant systems, or whatever... anyway we're just takling prototypes.

Of course, in the USA, lawyers are already over everything anyway! :)


RE: LIABILITY REFORM??
By cpeter38 on 2/17/2006 2:17:27 PM , Rating: 2
The problem lies with the programming and outside factors(although I would most definitely not want to be legally liable for the hardware). The number of variables and the sheer randomness of human interaction with the programming would be extremely difficult to handle in the best of circumstances.

Adding the U.S. legal environment to the mix is too much unless there is a legal limit to liability (remember, the U.S. legal system awarded Michelle Knepper $1.575 Million from the PHONE COMPANY because she got bad liposuction from a dermatologist. You might ask why the phone company was at fault - answer - they did not check to make sure he was Board Certified when he placed his advertisement in the phone book [and neither did she]).


"So, I think the same thing of the music industry. They can't say that they're losing money, you know what I'm saying. They just probably don't have the same surplus that they had." -- Wu-Tang Clan founder RZA









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