Something I haven't considered much but, in a world where you hop into a self-driving taxi; how is the passenger protected from someone who wants to rob them?
I'm imaging a situation where an attacker can step in front of the vehicle, have it safely stop, before demanding you hand over your valuables, breaking a window to get in etc.
As a passenger you're trapped in an enclosed space and left without a way to escape, where as a human driver would be able to make the judgement call to do whatever is necessary to get out of danger.
I encountered this problem in a Cruise. I was picked up late at night with a friend, and this drunk person ran over and banged on the window, which caused the Cruise to panic and stop. It called customer support and I told them that there were some drunk people and to please get us out of there. The car started moving, thankfully, but it's an interesting problem to consider.
Yeah but why would a passenger in a locked car that's loaded with cameras and connected to a call center be considered an easy target? And it's hard to tell if there's even someone in the Waymo because of the tinted windows.
I'm imaging a situation where an attacker can step in front of the vehicle, have it safely stop, before demanding you hand over your valuables, breaking a window to get in etc.
As a passenger you're trapped in an enclosed space and left without a way to escape, where as a human driver would be able to make the judgement call to do whatever is necessary to get out of danger.