> I disagree; they appear to need general spacial and physics AI, but they don’t need general linguistic or emotional intelligence.
I don't think it will require general AI, but it will require a pretty good model of what is in the mind of each person in the road, specially pedestrians and cyclists. Simulating other minds in general requires general AI, but maybe we can get away with a facsimile.
I say that because self driving needs to adapt to unpredictable stuff happening in the road and this might require a higher understanding of the intentions of other people.
For example, when I'm riding bicycles, I have a rule that if a car stops for me to cross I need to establish visual contact with the driver first. It's too dangerous otherwise. Can AI establish visual contact with me or have some other signaling to pedestrians and cyclists? (now I see this specific example is simple; I want a light on top of self driving cars that will reliably signal some stuff like "I stopped for you to cross")
Another situation is when the road is partially used by business and people, partially used by cars. Some roads are pedestrian-first and it may be hard for even an human driver unfamiliar with its dynamics to traverse.
People keep saying that everything about driving can be done with "dumb" AI using essentially iterative current methods. I used to think that way, but it isn't working out today. Right now, AI is severely overpromising and overstretching itself. Maybe this will lead to an AI winter and we will only get self-driving cars with new methods. Or maybe, after some years, we will get good enough self-driving cars.
Needs to be quite highly developed, not only to predict what other street users are likely to do, but also what mistakes they could make.
It also needs, as you say, to be able to interact with those other road users in ways they find comfortable. Every time. The uncanny valley is probably going to be wide and deep.
How highly developed? It needs to be better than knowing what is physically possible or it would be unusably cautious, but it doesn’t need to understand the political views of someone who has bumper sticker of a cartoon of Dominic Cummings as Nosferatu.
I don't think it will require general AI, but it will require a pretty good model of what is in the mind of each person in the road, specially pedestrians and cyclists. Simulating other minds in general requires general AI, but maybe we can get away with a facsimile.
I say that because self driving needs to adapt to unpredictable stuff happening in the road and this might require a higher understanding of the intentions of other people.
For example, when I'm riding bicycles, I have a rule that if a car stops for me to cross I need to establish visual contact with the driver first. It's too dangerous otherwise. Can AI establish visual contact with me or have some other signaling to pedestrians and cyclists? (now I see this specific example is simple; I want a light on top of self driving cars that will reliably signal some stuff like "I stopped for you to cross")
Another situation is when the road is partially used by business and people, partially used by cars. Some roads are pedestrian-first and it may be hard for even an human driver unfamiliar with its dynamics to traverse.
People keep saying that everything about driving can be done with "dumb" AI using essentially iterative current methods. I used to think that way, but it isn't working out today. Right now, AI is severely overpromising and overstretching itself. Maybe this will lead to an AI winter and we will only get self-driving cars with new methods. Or maybe, after some years, we will get good enough self-driving cars.