Steve Nadis in Quanta:
Driverless cars and planes are no longer the stuff of the future. In the city of San Francisco alone, two taxi companies have collectively logged 8 million miles of autonomous driving through August 2023. And more than 850,000 autonomous aerial vehicles, or drones, are registered in the United States — not counting those owned by the military.
But there are legitimate concerns about safety. For example, in a 10-month period that ended in May 2022, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported nearly 400 crashes involving automobiles using some form of autonomous control. Six people died as a result of these accidents, and five were seriously injured.
The usual way of addressing this issue — sometimes called “testing by exhaustion” — involves testing these systems until you’re satisfied they’re safe. But you can never be sure that this process will uncover all potential flaws.
More here.