Prediction Machines

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Predicting Judgment

Companies like Google subsidiary Waymo have been successfully testing automated ways of transporting people between two points. But that is only part of creating autonomous vehicles. Driving also has an impact on the passengers in the car, which is much harder to observe. Human drivers, however, do take into account the other people in the car. One of the first things a new driver learns is to brake in a manner that is comfortable for others in the car. Waymo’s cars had to be taught to avoid sudden stops and instead smoothly halt.

There are thousands of related decisions that are involved in driving.¹ It is impractical for humans to code their judgment about how to handle every possible situation. Instead, we train autonomous ...