I can’t work with this resignation to the code not being public. That would be an awful awful outcome. The cars wouldn’t be able to coordinate, they’d just end up having to drive mostly like humans.
Sure they could coordinate. They’d use the ISO 27B-6 Car Coordination Protocol, which would be negotiated in a mind bogglingly boring and bureaucratic process by the representatives of the various car companies. Those companies would have big bakeoffs where they tested against each other’s implementations. They would probably even hire auditors to check one another’s implementations.
You could buy a copy of 27B-6 for 250 dollars or so.
The IP network we’re talking over uses public protocols. Some specs are free, but you have to pay for others; you couldn’t build a smart phone (legally, and including building the chips that go into it) without spending thousands of dollars for copies of standards. And a ton of the products involved have private code.
It’s not that hard to get an ISO protocol into public availability if people care about it. There’s sci-hub. For the more traditional way, you likely will have lawsuits about accidents that still happen and those might put a lot of the relevant documents into the court proceedings and thus into public domain.
Here’s the thing though. There’s less of an immediate need for an cars that can cross the boundaries between cities, for long trips it becomes reasonable to ask the user to change cars. The systems can be localized. If this is treated as a municipal issue- which it is- similar to public transport, it will be exposed to a lot more effective political light. A lot of municipal governments are corrupt, but most of them are more representational than national government. If the public can be convinced to say “actually we would like it to stay cheap, free and safe”, a lot of people will listen.
Sure they could coordinate. They’d use the ISO 27B-6 Car Coordination Protocol, which would be negotiated in a mind bogglingly boring and bureaucratic process by the representatives of the various car companies. Those companies would have big bakeoffs where they tested against each other’s implementations. They would probably even hire auditors to check one another’s implementations.
You could buy a copy of 27B-6 for 250 dollars or so.
The IP network we’re talking over uses public protocols. Some specs are free, but you have to pay for others; you couldn’t build a smart phone (legally, and including building the chips that go into it) without spending thousands of dollars for copies of standards. And a ton of the products involved have private code.
It’s not that hard to get an ISO protocol into public availability if people care about it. There’s sci-hub. For the more traditional way, you likely will have lawsuits about accidents that still happen and those might put a lot of the relevant documents into the court proceedings and thus into public domain.
Geez, interesting, that’s pretty dire.
Here’s the thing though. There’s less of an immediate need for an cars that can cross the boundaries between cities, for long trips it becomes reasonable to ask the user to change cars. The systems can be localized. If this is treated as a municipal issue- which it is- similar to public transport, it will be exposed to a lot more effective political light. A lot of municipal governments are corrupt, but most of them are more representational than national government. If the public can be convinced to say “actually we would like it to stay cheap, free and safe”, a lot of people will listen.