The people rebelling against self-driving cars

*“They didn’t ask us if we wanted to be part of their beta test,” said Elizabeth O’Polka, who (said) she had forced driverless cars to pull over so she could yell at them. “They said they need real-world examples, but I don’t want to be their real-world mistake,” *said her husband.

What was most interesting about this article for me was the idea of ‘community consent’ for AI and other types of automation and disruption. (From the corporate point of view, this is called ‘social licence to operate’). Yes, new technology comes with risks. But who is taking the risk? It’s rarely the designers or ‘disruptors’, it’s the communities they purport to serve.

This is not about the narrow question of whether self-driving cars are ready to be on the roads, but about who should have the right to make that type of decision.