Afraid of self-driving car testing on public roads? Compared to what?
A front-page article in last Sunday’s Washington Post beat an old drum: “Some Silicon Valley Residents Anxious Over Self-Driving Cars.” The usual concerns were expressed regarding how these vehicles can’t be trusted to be safe, plus objections to corporations like Lyft, Waymo, and Cruise developing robo-taxis which could put drivers out of work. And, one cannot deny that a fatality occurred in Uber’s case, when a safety driver wasn’t doing their job. However, the new wrinkle in this article was a focus on Silicon Valley residents with some understanding of computer science who nevertheless don’t feel safe around Self-Driving Cars (SDC’s).