A drone violated the law - who should be fined? How self-driving cars are baffling the police (3 photos + 2 videos)
Category: Electric cars, PEGI 0+
Today, 17:00
Picture this: American cops with flashing lights are chasing a violator, he makes an illegal turn, stops... and then it turns out that there is no driver in the car. Instead, there is a very self-confident artificial intelligence. 
And the poor American cops don't even need to imagine this, the harsh cyber-future has already arrived several years ago, but what to do with it now, has not yet been decided.
An indignant witness to the incident, who jumped out of a nearby car "to sort things out", did not understand at all who to argue with - a silent robocar stood in front of him. The policemen froze in bewilderment with a fine in their hands: who should they issue it to if the violator is, in fact, a computer on wheels?
It turns out that robocars are real daredevils! In 2024 alone, Waymo driverless cars in San Francisco managed to collect 589 fines totaling $65,000 - an impressive "catch" for driverless cars.
Their favorite tricks: suddenly braking in front of pedestrians (even though they are three blocks away), “hanging” at intersections in existential thought, and daringly turning where the sign clearly says “no.”
According to current laws, it is impossible to fine an AI for speeding — it requires a human driver, who is simply not in the cabin. They promise to close this legal loophole only by 2026, so for now the police can only helplessly shake their heads, looking at yet another “licenseless” drone.
Manufacturers like Waymo honestly admit: "Yes, our algorithms are not yet perfect," but promise improvements. So far, it turns out that a self-driving car violated the law, and the culprit is... a cloud server somewhere in California or those who wrote the programs?
It looks like the police will have to urgently learn new skills - for example, write tickets in the name of "Artificial Intelligence living in a California cloud server." Ordinary drivers will have to come to terms with the fact that now there is a new type of impudent person on the roads - those who cannot be put in their place with a look or an expressive gesture.
One thing is for sure: the era when you could scold a violator in person is gone forever - now you will have to take a chat bot with you even to roadside showdowns.
