While it feels like Waymo is taking a better approach than Tesla, I still do not see a viable solution to the trolley problem.
These tests are nice and all but what is going to happen when a situation invariably arises where someone is going to get hurt? What's going to happen then? Is the car going to opt to protect the passenger (because customer) or the pedestrian (much more likely to be hurt/killed).
I suspect these cases are simply way more rare than people expect, especially if the car is driving defensively.
If the car is, for instance, tracking likely pedestrians that will enter the road and slows down for safety when they’re near, someone would have to irresponsibly run into the road. If the choice is to hit them or turn over a cliff, I’d expect the car to hit the careless pedestrian.
These tests are nice and all but what is going to happen when a situation invariably arises where someone is going to get hurt? What's going to happen then? Is the car going to opt to protect the passenger (because customer) or the pedestrian (much more likely to be hurt/killed).