Smart guns - survey... sort of

[ExciteBike66]

22. I do accept automated control over cars, sure.

There is almost zero chance that computers could drive worse than humans, and any life saved by an automated car would be worth it imo. I also want to point out that I am a committed manual-transmission BMW enthusiast, so I have plenty of skin in the game.


"OTOH a criminal wouldn't have to "force" a gun to malfunction. A criminal would only have to hack the gun. A criminal could just steal one of the 300+ million existing dumb guns. "

Well, yes and no. Not many gang-bangers out there with coding experience, much less actual hacking expertise. Sure, some criminal enterprise could hack the guns and then sell them, but I would imagine the costs would be very much higher for one of those hacked guns than for "normal" guns on the black market right now. The economics would change, at least.

As to "dumb" guns, it is true that they would still be "out there". But having "smart" guns at least would not enlarge the problem any more than it already is.


"Back to a minor point: A failing automated system doesn't always know that it's failing. Software uses binary numbers for calculations. An "8" would be 1000 in binary. A speed limit of 85 would be "10000101". Imagine the consequence of the left most "1" being a "0". Suddenly the speed limit changes from 85 to 5."

This is not too different in the world of human-controlled cars today. We all have computers in our cars, and they all run on those same ones and zeros. I guess a car could mess up and read the limits wrong (or be hacked), but that doesn't mean FULL control need be given to the human occupant. Perhaps the car could respond to the "Hazard Lights" button by pulling over and stopping at its earliest convenience. That way, if the speed was messed up the car would at least try to stop once the driver noticed. So long as the car can get safely to the edge of the roadway, no need to allow the driver to exceed the speed limit. I can understand allowing SOME control to the driver in an emergency, but I don't see the need to allow the car to exceed the speed limit.