How Self-Driving Cars Could Prevent Terror Attacks

Guest: Jeremy Straub, PhD, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, North Dakota State University In the last 18 months, terrorists pledging allegiance to ISIS have made trucks their preferred weapons. More than 100 people around the world have been killed in nearly a dozen such attacks, including eight fatalities in New York last week. When someone uses a gun to kill lots of people, we immediately start debating gun control. Debating “vehicle control” after a terror attack seems preposterous, but what if the focus weren’t on controlling who can drive one? What if we focus on technology that would let the vehicle take control away from the driver who tries to steer the truck into a crowd of people?  The technology to do that already exists. The question is, do we really want our vehicles to be able to override us?